The Road of Smiles

This is the true story of a three-day journey from the coastal village of Luperon to the valley of Constanza, nestled in the central mountains of the Dominican Republic. It was originally published in the Caribbean Compass magazine.  The travelers were Jim and Karin Richardson, and Chris and Divya Reynolds, of the sailing vessels Nalani and Maggie M, respectively.  The trip started Tuesday, February 23, 2005. 

It erupts in an instant, that Dominican smile, overwhelming a practiced aloofness with an explosion of recognition, fondness, and genuine pleasure.  Dominicans are a reserved people, respectful of your right to pass unnoticed, but they are anxious to connect when acknowledged.  It only takes a simple “hola,” and it is something to behold: a flash of dazzling sunlight that warms your skin.  There is a road of these smiles that crosses the mountains of the central Dominican Republic, from lovely Jarabacoa and its waterfalls, to El Rio, on the road to Constanza.

Leaving Jarabacoa, the packed-dirt road quickly narrows, as it weaves up into the mountains.  To one side, a sheer drop tumbles away into a deep valley; to the other side, a drainage ditch that could break an axle hugs the road, and beyond the ditch, the cliff rises straight up.  There are no guard rails and no curbs, but there are plenty of pot-holes, ruts and bumps.  There is hardly room for two cars to pass, and sometimes not, and yet, delivery trucks and motorcycles whiz by fearlessly.  An occasional donkey or horse meanders along.  At villages, school children crowd the road.  The drive is truly a challenge, but safe enough in good weather – if you pay close attention.  It stimulates the adrenaline, and stirs up an acute sense of awareness.

For the passengers (and driver when stopped), there are incredibly beautiful vistas, and a constant stream of contagious smiles.  It is difficult to decide which is more rewarding: the scenery, or the people.  There are steep sloped hills of sheer rock, of trees and bushes, of grasses and flowers, of terraced farms; there are valleys of wild and cultivated fields, lush with dazzling greens and comforting browns; there are donkeys, cows, and Brahma bulls; and, there is always a looming mountain range that frames the sky.  Villagers chat along the roadside, and school children happily wander home.  There are farmers and vendors and field workers.  They all have a special Dominican smile for you.

Tuesday

We picked up a four-wheel Suzuki in Luperon at eight a.m.  After a stop to fill up on gas, we headed for Puerto Plata. The drive to Imbert, and on to Puerto Plata, was familiar.  We had been to both a few times already.  In Puerto Plata, we stopped at Scotia Bank for funds, and then headed out on the highway to Sosua.  About ten kilometers later, we turned right onto the mountain road to Santiago (route 25).  This road is a good introduction to mountain driving.  It is mostly paved, and relatively easy.  The road is populated with homes and villages, but has gorgeous views around most corners.  The first look back is across fields to the Atlantic ocean.  You climb up, up, down, up, up, down, winding though villages until there are more downs than ups — you have crossed the top.

We descended the other side slowly, watching the valley of Santiago come into view.  This too is quite a sight – a huge metropolis of buildings and roads that spreads like a lake over the flatlands.  Santiago is a big city with supermarkets, hardware stores, pharmacies, restaurants – anything you might need, or want.  The shopping is terrific and the prices are reasonable.  We saved the shopping for our return visit, but treated ourselves to a special lunch at Pez Dorado on Calle Del SolWe had rainbow trout in garlic sauce, and two of their pastas.  The service and ambiance were top notch; the food was delicious.

After lunch, we took the Autopista (Route 1) south, towards Santo Domingo.  This is a serious four-lane highway.  The turnoff to Jarabacoa is a few more than twenty kilometers.  There, a mostly paved road, leads up into the mountains.  Jarabacoa is not far beyond the intersection of wooden signs.  We were surprised by its size and busyness.  It would be worth exploring, and we understand there are some nice art galleries, but it was too late.  We drove through the town to the Hotel Pinar Dorado.

This hotel looks like a lame copy of a 1960’s Howard Johnson, but it is dramatically different inside, with rock and wood finishes and interesting art work.  They have a pool and an outdoor bar, a large restaurant, and the rooms are quite nice with air-conditioning and hot water.  It was empty when we arrived; a small herd of cattle roamed the parking lot.  Dinner was excellent.  We enjoyed beef fillets and pasta, and a nice bottle of red wine from their rather extensive selection.

Wednesday

We left after breakfast for “Salto Baiguate,” the least-visited of the area’s three waterfalls.  A few kilometers from the hotel, we turned off onto a barely passable dirt road that leads through a small village and farm fields to the parking area of the falls.  We met a farmer and his wife, who graciously gave us a half-dozen perfect chayotes, which they grew using trellises for the vines to climb.

At the falls parking area, we were approached by a young boy, about seven years old, probably the farmer’s son.  He assured us with a determined, serious expression that he would watch our “concho” (car).  He and his dog sat down, and he studied his wrist watch.

The path to the falls is along the top of a water conduit.  It is cement and quite sturdy.  At the end, you descend wide, steady, stairs to the pool at the bottom of the falls.  There, you can look up to see the falls.  Water cascades off a hundred foot cliff, roughly twenty feet across, to the pool at your feet.  Clouds of mist waft through the air.  The pool feeds a rocky stream which winds off into the distance.  Cliffs rise around you on three sides.  Local flowers dot the bushes and grasses.  We sat mesmerized for some time.

Chris climbed the rock wall to the top of the falls where there is a path back to the inbound walkway.  He reported the climb was easy, with good foot holds.  We three who watched wouldn’t recommend it, though.

When we returned to our SUV, our guard was on-duty, sitting still, checking his watch, and maintaining his very determined expression.  He took his job quite seriously.  Although he was too polite, or proud, to ask for money, we handed him a few pesos, and he smiled for the first and only time.

From the waterfalls, we continued up the mountain road to El Rio.  This was the truly invigorating drive that introduced this story.  We careened around curves at five miles per hour, and every so often pointed ahead, out of the window, and yelled “Constanza?” to an amused villager.  The answer was always “Si” with a nod, followed by sign language that clearly meant “it’s a long, long, way, and very snake-like.”  Boy, was it ever.  The driver focused on keeping our wheels on the road, and avoiding the holes, trucks and motorcycles.  The passengers worried about the driver not focusing enough.  In between gasps of fear, we enjoyed the scenery.  We stopped every few miles to take pictures.

As we passed through villages, we often came upon groups of school children, in uniforms, happily walking along the road, and adults gathered at stores, or standing alongside the road.  We noticed their facial features changed with the altitude, increasingly favoring their Indian ancestors.  They hailed us with “Hello” as often as “Hola,” and shouted “Adios”, as we passed.  Their smiles were truly contagious.  They were quite happy and friendly.  We passed, and were passed by, a group of teenagers on motor bikes.  They waved and played with us, yielding the right of way when we wanted it.

Many of the steep slopes were terrace farmed, with horizontal rows of produce lining the hill.  There were coffee bushes with green and red beans, squash, potatoes and other produce.  Irrigation was plentiful, the flora was lush, and the dirt dark brown.

It took three hours to cross over the mountains and reach El Rio, where we joined a paved road that led up more mountains to the valley of Constanza.  We passed roadside stands selling strawberry jam, and young men carrying trays of strawberries to the car.  Chris and Divya bought some strawberry jam and have since reported it to be the best they ever tasted.

We kept thinking we were coming into Constanza, but instead it would be another small village.  Finally, we crossed the last mountain and the valley of Constanza opened up before our eyes.  The valley is a huge bowl, reportedly created by a meteor, filled with farmland of every description.  They grow broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, chayote, fruit, flowers, eggplant, carrots – you name it.  The town is centered in the valley, surrounded by the fields.  It is a breath-taking sight.

We had lunch at Lorenzo’s downtown, which was inexpensive and delicious.  Very nice people, as well.  Then, we began the hunt for hotel space.  This is somewhat of a problem, or was when we were there.  Alto Cerro looked great, up on a hill, overlooking the valley and town.  They have their own restaurant too, but they told us they were full.  This was hard to believe as every other hotel we visited on the trip was empty.  They were probably renovating, and had little, or no space.  It was clearly off-season in the valley.

Ranchero Montana was closed for the season.  Hotel San Remo was in the middle of town, but had no air-conditioning, or even screens on the windows.  The rooms were as nice and clean, or cleaner, than anyplace we looked at, and it was cool enough to sleep in open air.  We didn’t want to be downtown, though, so we drove out to Mi Cabana, were we rented a two apartment villa, upstairs and downstairs.  The upstairs had a great view of the valley and mountains, and we flipped a coin for it.  The winners invited the losers upstairs for rum cocktails, as a consolation.

After cocktails, we drove into town and found the Aguas Blanca restaurant empty, but open.  The food was again delicious, and they also had a good wine selection.  We didn’t need, but thoroughly enjoyed, two nice bottles of red, along with our food.  We had beef fillets, again, one in a brown mushroom and onion sauce, they other topped with a tomato, onion and garlic based sauce, and their “Pollo Cordon Blue”.  All was excellent.  We tried their soups, which were truly outstanding, and had fresh strawberries for dessert.

We eased back to the hotel to discover two other guests had checked in.  We were no longer alone.  We slept well.

Thursday

We awoke to roosters, and stumbled up to the breakfast room to discover it would not open until 08:30.  Yielding our free breakfast, we returned to Lorenzos.  Although we were again alone, we had a nice breakfast of fried eggs, sautéed potatoes, fried green plantains, and well-brewed coffee.

Chris had left his false tooth at the hotel.  After breakfast, while the rest of us shopped, he returned for it.  Since Chris spoke no Spanish, Divya made him memorize the word for “tooth,” which he promptly forgot.  When he arrived at the hotel, he simply pointed at his missing tooth.  The desk clerk flashed another of those famous Dominican smiles, and handed him the tooth, delicately wrapped in a napkin.  Chris returned feeling confident there was no need of learning Spanish – that sign language was actually more efficient than the spoken word.  This was just as well, because Divya realized after he had left that she had mistakenly told him to ask for his lost finger.  We had a good laugh thinking of the expression on the confused hotel clerk, as he stared at Chris’s hands in horror.

We left Constanza and continued east on route 12 at El Rio, instead of returning north to Jarabacoa over the dirt mountain road.  Route 12 is paved, and actually has guard rails for most of its winding trek over the mountains.  We made better time, and had a much easier drive.  It also provided the opportunity to cross a different section of the mountains.

We passed through coffee growing country.  The hills were covered with green coffee bushes up to the road.  At one of the higher elevations, on a hard turn overlooking the entire valley, there was a small shrine with an Indian adobe-like architecture.   We stopped and lit a candle, and gasped at the view back to the west.  We saw several cars slow down, and the passengers cross themselves as they passed.

We wound up high to the top of the mountain and then down the opposite side, catching views of the wide valley east of the mountains, and its man-made lake.  In the valley, we re-joined the autopista, this time headed north to Santiago.  Now, we really enjoyed the wide, fast road.  Along the side, were vegetable and fruit carts, and near the lake, fisherman dangled their catch off a large pole, dumping buckets of water over them.

On a whim we drove into La Vega for lunch.  This is a frenetic city, seemingly designed to get you lost.  We drove around, looking for its famous church, which guidebooks report as being “generally recognized as hideous.”  It took us an hour of traversing the matrix of one-way roads times, before we found the church.  It was all it was said to be.  The hassle of La Vega became worth it, however, when a group of children insisted we take their pictures.  They hugged us, and beamed the best smiles of the whole trip.

As we approached Santiago, we felt a strange feeling of familiarity.  We knew the route, and the roads, and found the large “La Sirena” store with no trouble.  La Sirena has a good sized parking lot which is welcome indeed.  The store itself is on two levels; the top level has clothes and all the non-food stuff you would find at a K-Mart or Wal-Mart in the states.  There is a moving walkway that transports you and your cart between levels, locking the cart wheels on the way.

The first floor is all groceries, from fresh vegetables and meats, to canned and other shelf goods, to rum and wine.  It is as big, or bigger, than most stateside supermarkets, and carries a wide variety of products.  The prices are quite reasonable, especially if you pick Dominican, or South American products, instead of U.S. name brands.  Coffee beans were a particular bargain at $2.50 a pound (and excellent quality).

We shopped for three hours, filling huge shopping carts with vegetables, fruits, cheese, sausages, canned foods, pastas and flour, and much more.  We had prepared a shopping list before the trip, and were on a serious provisioning mission.  Chris and Divya had no list, but thought they might pick up a few odd items.  Their few items quickly became a full cart.  We spent the trip home with baggage and groceries on our laps, and under our legs.

After our shopping extravaganza, we returned to Luperon through Imbert, over consistently good roads.  Even so, it was after dark when we pulled up to the docks to begin unloading.  We collapsed in our bed sometime after 9 pm, having only stowed the cold products, leaving all the other bags on our settee for manana.

If you go, we recommend …

1.  Rent a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  Even if you never use all-wheel drive, you need the extra road clearance, and you need space for yourselves, luggage and supplies.

2.  Watch your gasoline. There will probably be none in the vehicle when you pick it up, and any leftover becomes the property of the renter.  There are many and frequent gas stations along the way, so you don’t have to worry.  We used about one full tank for the whole trip.

3.  Do not attempt this trip in less than three days/two nights. It takes longer than you think to drive, and you need time to visit.  If your schedule and wallet allow it, we would recommend a second day in Jarabacoa.  We had no time to see the town, or the art galleries, and we missed two of the three waterfalls.

4.  Have somebody watch your boat. You don’t want to be worrying about it during the trip.

5.  If you do not speak Spanish, at least learn some basic phrases and questions, and bring a dictionary. Very few people speak any English.  You’ll have to communicate what you want and understand the answer, at least a little.  But don’t worry, everybody is very patient and helpful, and, as we learned, sign language goes a long way.

6.  You should allocate time to check out restaurants and accommodations. The prices vary incredibly.  A good meal can cost $4, or $40.  A hotel room for two can be $8, or $90.  Sometimes the difference matters; sometimes it doesn’t.  We usually found the difference in quality was much less than the difference in cost.

7.  By all means, allow an afternoon on the way home to shop in Santiago.  If you have a big list that requires more than one store, you should allow a day.  Try to leave Santiago by 4 p.m. to get back to Luperon before dark.  However, you do have headlights, and the roads are not that bad, if you run late.

If you don’t go, we recommend …

You reconsider.  This is a trip-of-a-lifetime.  The memories and pictures and experiences will make you very happy you went.  Really.  Trust us.

James K. Richardson