On this trip I had conciously decided for the first time not to make an effort at mongering, but to simply travel to a few out of the way destinations and see a bit more of the country. Although this was my intention, I was'nt going to turn down any opportunities if they came along. Talk about the best laid plans.......
I've had my house in POP for 2 years now and during that 2 years I have shuttled shit down to the house, refurnished it, and made additional improvements to the house. It always seemed something needed to be done and, though I had planned for some time to come down and, at some point, just party and sit on my ass, those plans just never seemed to materialize.
Well, someone I know in POP had been pushing me for some time to make a trip out to Monsaion (not sure of the spelling) and last trip I told him I would do it when I returned this December. Okay, I thought, I got a 2 day, side trip when I return. He suggested a weekend trip when things were more lively than they were during the weekday.
Back in November I bought a Yamaha TW200 with the help of a friend who also had one. He talked about doing a 2 day road trip with the bikes. I said sure, when I return in December, to which he agreed.
In November, I also offered my Dominican buddy that we go to his hometown and spend a couple of days during New Years with his family. He mentioned a place (Salcedo, down by Moca) which I thought would be cool since I had never been there.
I thought, "Damn, things are shaping up pretty good to finally get out of town and explore a bit more of the country."
Well, my plan was to arrive in to POP on December 27th, leave for Monsaion the following morning, return to POP on the 30th and spend the night, travel to Salcedo on Dec 31st for New Years and return to POP on Jan 2nd and spend the night, then on Jan 3rd take my final 2 day trip and return on the 5th to wrap things up before heading home Jan 6th. Again, what's said about the best laid plans.
I arrived in POP on Dec 27th and hunted down the guy who, for months, had been trying to drag me to Monsaion for "all the pretty girls", he said. When I tracked him down he said that we were going to have to cancel the trip as the house we were supposed to be staying at was now occupied by the owner and some of his guests from the states. Uh, okay.
Well, prior to arriving I had been sick for a few weeks and was, in fact, still on antibiotics so I thought "No problem, I can use this time to take it easy, catch up on some much needed rest, and have the inside of the house painted."
After a couple of days the painters finished, and I was feeling better, so I decided to go out that night for a few. Me and my Dominican buddy went over to Sosua and after a few I decided to get hammered. Trying to be a bit more responsible, I handed him the keys as he doesn't drink nearly as much as I do. When we got ready to leave he said he couldn't find the keys, and we had to cab it back to POP.
The next day I stayed at home recuperating from the previous night, while DB (Dominican buddy) went back over to Sosua to see if he could find the keys, to no avail. I went over to Sosua to retrieve the car with the spare keys. Feeling pissed and a bit under the weather, I stayed in that night.
The following day was spent trying to find someone who could re-key the locks and ignition on the car (which I finally did), and blew off the trip to Salcedo. That afternoon I went out, had a few beers and something to eat, and returned to the house for a much needed nap. After awakening about 8:15pm I knew I was in no mood to go out. Generally, if I'm not out of the house by 8:00pm, it's not likely I'm going out. I've been that way for years, and I'm not quite sure what I can attribute it to, if anything, but that's just the way it is. So, I spent New Years eve sitting at home watching fireworks on the malecon from my bedroom window. So much for the huge party night I had planned.
I decided, however, that I'd get up the next morning, go pay the electric bill, have breakfast, pay the phone bill, get a haircut, and shop for a couple of trash cans for the house. With the exception of the barber shop and a few restaurants, the town was pretty much shut down. So, I thought "The hell with it. Road trip." A one day trip to Salcedo wouldn't be near as interesting as a 2 day trip, but it sure as hell beat sitting around POP for another day.
So me and DB headed east towards Gaspar Hernandez where we took a right at some non descriptive turn, and headed into the mountains. This past summer I visited a cousin of mine who's married to a Dominicana and living in Constanza. I don't know if any of you have ever been on the mountain road going to Constanza, but it's a pretty rough road to travel. Well, this road is on par with that. After about an hour and a half of getting bounced around in the Jeep (the Jeep fared much better than we did) we arrived in Salcedo.
Hmmm, an interesting little place. Reminds me of a smaller version of Higuey, much like all of the smaller places do. We stopped in at DB's moms's small farm and made our introductions, namely me. DB's mom decided she was going to cook us dinner and while that was being prepared, me, DB, and his Tio headed over to the local car wash (Orlandos). This place was about 4 times the size of Ojilvi's in POP and, as time went by, was occupied by some pretty nice looking chicas, many of whom were taken, though there were still plenty more available. Being that it was DB's hometown, he knew the manager of the place, and DB asked the guy to set me up with a chica. Within 15 seconds a waitress was sitting at the table. Nice looking, with predominantly Spanish features, and a pretty nice body. Hmmm, not bad. In my limited spanish, I got the chica laughing after a while, and things seemed to be going well. DB asked me if I wanted to take a couple of chicas back to POP, and I said sure, as long as he made sure they got back to Salcedo in the morning because I was leaving for my bike trip.
DB asked the chica if she was willing to return to POP with us and she said sure. DB said he'd look for a chica for himself. It was at this point that I started to wonder about things. When the chica first sat down, I asked her if she'd like a drink and she ordered a juice. I asked her if that was all she wanted and she said yes. However, after agreeing to return to POP with us, she then ordered a beer, the first of three. I thought it a bit odd, but decided not to become overly suspicious, since maybe she decided to just loosen up a bit.
When we decided to leave DB told me that the chica he wanted to take with us couldn't go, and that my chica was now unwilling to go since she didn't want to leave without her friend. Oh well, dame la quenta.
We stopped in at DB's mom's house for dinner and as it began to get dark, we decided to hit the road. On the return trip we decided to return through Santiago instead of the mountain road we had arrived on. It seemed it would be quicker and, probably would have been, had we not gotten lost. At some point around Moca the road was washed out and we had to take a detour. Goddamned if we didn't end up spending the next hour and a half trying to find our way back to a main road in order to get to Santiago and, finally on to POP.
I arrived home tired, physically beat up from the roads, and pissed off. I took a shower and went to bed as I had to get up the next morning for my bike trip. Three hours later I'm awake, and decided to write this report to pass a bit of time. I'm going to try and catch a bit more sleep but, talk about the best laid plans.......
I hope like hell the bike trip goes well.
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