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Dominican Republic

278 bytes added, 18:52, 2 October 2012
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{{Infobox Country
|country = of the Dominican Republic
The '''Dominican Republic''' is the eastern part of the [[Caribbean]] island of Hispaniola.
{{IsIn|Caribbean}} Hitchhiking in the Dominican Republic is - like in many countries in the [[Caribbean]] - farely common and especially in the evening if people finished work, you can see a lot of people waiting for a lift on the side of the road. They gather at bus stations. Sometimes they stick out their thumb, but usually they are just standing there as people know what they are waiting for anyway. As there are no bus schedules, a lot of (but not all) people also hitchhike as long as the next bus to their destination might comes by - and also stopps for them, as they often don't. Kinda everybody hitched once and enough people who have space pick up hitchhikers. As a white person you get lifts very fast, locals can wait longer, but the atmosphere is nice, that hitchhiking is just a normal thing to do. Not so common like in Cuba, but easier as more people have their own, empty car... There are a lot of pickups.
The most important word to know is "una vola" which means a ride in dominican spanish and makes clear what you want, as many people want to help you finding a bus.
Dominicans are very friendly and hospitable people and they´ll probably invite you by times.
There are a lot of private beaches and areas you can't enter next to the sea, so it's hard to find a nice spot to sleep/camp there, but possible. In There are good places to find in the countryside nobody will have something against you camping on their field, and as a white person or obvious traveller anyway, you there are usually don't get no problems with the police.
It seems hostels and guest houses are relatively expensive, in Punta Cana a girl recommended me a cheap hostel and it was 20 USD per night.
Couchsurfing works super well, also last-minute, you don't have to send too many requests (more than 5), as kinda everybody will invite you who sees the message in time. Dominicans are easy-going with that and they usually don't mind that you don't know your exact arrival time or date, you'll be welcome.
There are a lot of empty houses and apartments ("Se alquila" = for rent, "se vende" = for sale), also at the coast, at some places it's possible to just use them as a shelter for a few days. There is mostly a broken window to find somewhere around the house. Some of them though are already used by Dominicans as a sleeping place, mostly a wooden plate behind an empty window frame is the door.
== Eating ==
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