Santiago road trip

we took a trip to Santiago today to go to some shops. it takes about an hour and half to get there. a good portion of the trip is up, over, and back down the mountains. along the way you get a chance to see life in the country side.

i am not sure how these people make a living. many, i think, are small time farmers. as you pass through each village, you see people sitting in their wooden shack homes, kids playing along the road, and women handwashing their laundry and hanging it on the barbed wire fences marking off the different plots of farmland. every now and then you come upon the occassional tiny store (colmado) or makeshift stand. here you can buy things like fruit that they picked nearby, sugar cane sticks, gasoline in milk cartons or beer bottles, and meat that is hanging there for all the dirt of the road to be kicked up on to it. some people still ride around on horses and donkeys here. you see a lot of farmers walking along in boots and holding on to machetes.

one of my favorite sites is of the dominican women with curlers in their hair walking up the road. they're getting gussied up for the night (WHERE would they be going?) but can't let that stop them from getting out of the house. they obviously feel no embarrassment walking around in their curlers.

in most dominican villages, everyone lives along the one road that goes through it. there is barely a shoulder of any kind. so basically their home is almost right up on the road. this makes it very easy to see right into the home as you drive by. it also means that you have people spilling out on to the road, as it is essentially the only place they go outside their home. unless they were to go out the backside of the house, but that wouldn't be very social, since everyone seems to want to be by the road where they can see all the action. the road is THE ENTERTAINMENT for them.

one thing i always think about when i drive in the mountains here is when, if ever, will these people have access to the internet? they barely have electricity, and i'm not sure if they have landline phones (doubtful). they definitely do not have washer machines! maybe they won't ever need the internet..... still, it just makes you think how the disparity between the rich and the poor will only continue to grow larger with the poor being that much further behind already.

back to the road trip....once you get down the mountains, you come to Moca, which is the place to buy a new car here. there are loads of car dealers in Moca. Santiago & Moca are in the Cibao valley, which is the heart of the agricultural center of the country. the Cibao valley is incredibly fertile and produces coffee, tobacco, sugar, fruit, vegetables, etc., as well as poultry and beef. this is the main area of the country where fresh produce is grown. Santiago was actually a (relatively) wealthier city than Santo Domingo at one time because all of this. i think it still does have a higher class and wealthier set of people than Santo Domingo, as this is where people made money in this country (not so much in Santo Domingo). so, this is where people have money and thus can afford to buy cars. thus, you have lots of car dealers....

Santiago is a fairly sizable city (800,000 residents), but there is not a heck of a lot to see there as a tourist. one mainly goes there for shopping, as they have real stores like PriceSmart (like a Sam's Club). they also have movies theaters, but we've never been - besides i think the movies are all dubbed in spanish. if you need a McD's or BK fix, they have it in Santiago too.

a big draw shopping wise in Santiago is Ochoa. this is like a Home Depot. everyone who is building anything here (houses, condos, etc.) makes many trips to Ochoa to pick out their tiles, bathroom fixtures, etc. unlike at Home Depot though, what you see is what you get there. meaning whatever is available on the showroom floor is what is available. don't expect to go back and see the same tiles that you wanted the previous time. in general, that's how it works in every store here.

so, the ride back from Santiago is usually with many shopping bags. when we return to Cabarete from there, i always feel like, wow, i live in a tiny place here in this beach town. but then i also think, geez, this doesn't feel so much like an island after having driven for 1.5 hours and having been in an actual city. when you're in santiago, you'd never think you were in the tropics. that's why it's quite nice to return to Cabarete.

(i "borrowed" this photo, as i didn't get many get any good shots today.)