Our 2 trips to Higuey... the first day was with heavy backpacks, 14 hours after arriving in Punta Cana. We had NO IDEA where we were going or what the trip would bring. By half-way through the day we decided back-packing around was not going to work, since no one here spoke any English...and our Spanish comprised of "no comprende" (we don't understand) and "no gracias" (no thank-you). Everyone tried to sell us something! Our first Dominican Republic meal consisted of Gatorade, Orange juice, and 2 packages of Ritz Bits... something familiar. We had no idea what we could (or should) eat... there were raw slabs of meat hanging in the hot sun on every corner, and the smell was horrible. The flies loved it.

The second trip to Higuey was on day 4 of our vacation, and was much more enjoyable. We left our heavy backpacks at our hotel, caught a "moto-taxi" (motorbike) to the bus station ($1 US each), and then hopped on a bus destined for Higuey (another $1 US each, or 40 Dominican Pesos). An hour later we were able to wander through the streets with the help of a local who became our tour guide (we paid him $10 US, and it was well worth it). At the church we ran into some tourists from Nanaimo BC (small world!) who had paid a taxi driver $60 US each to take them around Higuey.

"Jimmy" spoke really good English for the area, and we were able to understand what we were looking at, and learn about the Dominican Republic way of life. Jeff and I both agreed that our tour with Jimmy was better than paying for a resort tour...it was "the real thing"!

Jimmy had dark skin and green eyes, a common look for the people who live in the DR since their people are a unique combination of African, Spanish, and Taino ("Tie-EE-noh") natives.