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 a stop on the way to Santo
Domingo by tishomingoblues
The bus is comfortable with air conditioning (too cold !!! take a jacket with you) and the ubiquitous music (only merengue !!!)
Taxi are more expensive.
The bus makes a brief stop just to make the passengers stretch their legs or have a snack or go to the toilet (toilet ????....I can't describe the toilet...).
In this pic you can see the refresh point and .....the sausage hanging up !!!!! Leave a Comment Theme: Bus
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There are two methods, that I know of, of getting around from place to place in Santo Domingo:
There are the Publicos, which are public cars, drivers will drive and honk constantly, when they are looking for passengers. . . until they get one. They are cheap and will usually get you where you wanted to go.
And the Guaguas (sounds like wawas).. which is the Caribbean spanish word for "Bus"... wherein another spanish-speaking countries, "camion" or "autobus" is more common.
You can find any of these anywhere you are and functioning well as long as there's gas in the country for transportation. Leave a Comment Theme: Bus
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a city as chaotic and as mad as santo domingo is gonna cause grief for the tourist that doesnt speak spanish, and that was the case for me. (and a few germans i met!). the public transport system in SD is crazy. no set times, no order, no direction. traffic everywhere, chaotic mess. i would see locals pile into little minivans, 10 crammed into a car, knowing where they were going. i didnt want to risk that! buses crammed with people as well, old old buses that were about to fall apart.
by the end of it all, i became a taxi hopper. or a walker. the great thing is the colonial zone is easy to walk around. that isnt the problem. but to get out to see the sights like the faro colon, or the botanic gardens, you will be best to take a taxi. around US$10 for both of those options.
taxis can be found lining up at parque colon, or near plaza de la hispanidad. just look for the men standing around smoking and chatting all day. lol. at first i was a bit weary, being a young single girl, with these men driving, but they were all very professional and extremely kind. be warned though, they do not know english, so have where you want to go written down, or learn some basic spanish.
i ended up using the services of a very nice guy called eugenio. i organised my next day's pickup, and i decided to use him because he was kind, and was a bit of a negotiator (although once again my concience came into play and i would always pay him extra!) . he spoke a bit of english, italian and german.
he can be contacted on his cell, 809-395-0500, and he is a registered tourist guide of santo domingo, although he really just drives a taxi. haha Leave a Comment Theme: Car/Motor Home
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getting to santo domingo is the easy part. delta flies from atlanta to the aeropuerto internacional las americas, and it only takes about 2 hours. so enjoy that trip, because the next one is not so pleasant!
when you walk outside of the airport it is CHAOS! there are no shuttle buses or cheap vans to take you into town, so you have taxi drivers trying to get your business. it is hot, the humidity hits you like a blanket, and here you are with your luggage having a bunch of spanish speaking men trying to take you to their car. a bit disconcerting for a young fool like me! anyway followed a guy, and it costs US$40 to get into the colonial zone, a half hour ride away. im like, erm, let me negotiate, and i tell him $30. there was NO room for negotiation. as he said, the fuel prices, the fuel prices. he gave it to me for $35 at the end, because i said i would walk. lol. by the journeys end, i felt so sad for him, and his life, that i paid him $40. sometimes you just feel like a cow if you screw people down too much. he had 5 mouths to feed dammit!
anyway after talking to others, local and tourists, it is definitely at least $40 for a taxi (i feared i had been ripped off, but all taxi drivers have a price listing on file).
so yeh, moral of the story. taxi is an only option from the airport, which is pretty crap, but thats the way it goes. have a good amount of US dollars on you for this purpose. Leave a Comment Theme: Airplane
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 Beat up carro público by marielexoteria |
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 Metro route by marielexoteria
Edit Apr 2009: alright, so we took the metro. The wagons reminded me of the Madrid metro and it's not so weird considering that they financed the project :) The stations are very clean and safe and patrolled by law enforcement people and the process of buying the ticket is very efficient. The ticket is actually a card that everyone must buy and it costs 30 pesos (a little less than 1 US), then every single trip costs 20 pesos. You place the card on top of the turnstile and pass.
We did the trip for the whole line once and then got off at the station closest to where I can go home. Total price? 70 pesos.
The stations don't have names according to the streets close to it, but of people that are/were important to the Dominican history but under the name you'll see which street or "landmark" it's close to.
The one tourist attraction that this metro line passes by is Teatro Nacional (National Theater) and the station to get there is called Casandra Damirón.
Edit Oct 2009: they have started the construction of line 2, which will go from Los Alcarrizos to El Almirante (and close to my house). Theme: Subway/Metro
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 OMSA like union bus by marielexoteria
OMSA buses: the government buses with scheduled stops, they come in 3 kinds: the ones without air conditioning and the cheapest ones, the ones with air conditioning and the express ones that make less stops. If you want to get off you simply pull the cord.
Union buses: property of the various transport unions, the route they drive is usually indicated by a piece of cardboard with the number of the route on the main windshield, visible so that we can stop the bus by stretching and arm and moving the index finger up and down (weird I know). On these buses there's a man hanging on the door called "cobrador" who will collect the fare and shout the route while on the road. Those buses are usually called "voladoras" because they drive like maniacs and at high speeds, and have no scheduled stops so if you want to get out you either shout "déjame" (let me off) or you tell the cobrador who then will signal the driver to stop by knocking on the carrocery of the bus. Theme: Bus
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 Notice the 3 people in the
motoconcho by marielexoteria, 1 more photos
Dominicans also use motoconchos for transporting stuff. Theme: Motorcycle
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 Waiting for the busses by UmfufuLeave a Comment Theme: Airplane
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 Sunset at Las Américas airport
(from my seat) by marielexoteria
From Europe:
- Iberia
- Air Europa
- Air France
- Condor
From North America:
- American Airlines
- United Airways
- Air Canada
- Jet Blue
- Delta
From Central and South America and the Caribbean:
- Aeropostal
- Aserca Airlines
- Copa
- Cubana de Aviación
- Air Caraibes
- Caribair
There's another airport called La Isabela, which will be a domestic airport and will replace the old Herrera airport. Theme: Airplane
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