Bahia de Las Aguillas
We headed out of town toward Bahia de las Aguilas. Just as you are about to leave the town there is a military checkpoint outside a military base. We had passed it 3 or 4 times already with no issues but this time we were stopped on the road by an armed soldier. He asked us what was in the car and after my girlfriend explained he told us that we needed to drive into the base. We stopped halway and asked again and he told us again to enter the base. The next soldier at the gate seemed a little suprised and told us to pull over and wait. Shortly a serious looking officer came out and asked us a few questions. He then asked me to open the trunk. He gave a quick inspection of the trunk and then explained that he was looking for "weapons etc" and that we were free to go. Very professional and very polite. We headed off for Bahia de las Aguillas. It's about a 20-30 minute trip and we already knew where it was. Shortly after we arrived and were negociating the boat trip a very large bus came down the road and the woman told us that we should leave in the boat right away or we would end up waiting a while. In retrospect I think it may have just been a way to get us to pay the full 1800 pesos for the boat. We paid it and the two of us headed off for the 10-15 minute boat trip to the beach. At this point I am going to insert my post from the South West Coast Forum describing our experiance that day-------- Warning About Bahia de Las Aguillas
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I took the boat trip out to Bahia de Las Aguillas last Friday from Las Cuevas and thought I should share a few warnings. The little insects (no-seums/sand fleas?) at the restaurant at Las Cuevas were brutal. We sat at the table for a while and I got chewed up pretty good. Make sure to bring bug spray. I did not notice any while at the beach at Bahia de Las Aguillas--- BUT-- We went out to the beach alone, just two of us. Once we landed at the beach we noticed one other couple about 1/2 to 3/4 miles away. It was an American couple we had met the day before. The beach is absolutely beautiful but very hot at midday. The only other person we saw was a spear fisherman in the other direction about 1/2 mile away. Other than that the whole beach seemed to be completely deserted. It was gorgeous!! There was a pavilion there with a roof and 6 picnic tables so we put our bags there and went for a swim. We were enjoying ourselves complely, but watching our possesions, realizing that we were still in the DR. After about an hour my girlfriend started walking down the beach looking for shells or whatever. I got up and started walking after her. She notice me and reminded me that we should be watching our bags so I offered to return to the shade. I had turned my back on our bags for perhaps 4 minutes and was no more than 30 yards from them. When I got back to the bags nothing looked amiss so I just sat enjoying the scenery. In a little while I decided to check my watch as we had the boat scheduled to pick us up at 2:30. I could not locate my watch but everything else, camera, wallet, bags etc seemed to be there so I just thought I had misplaced my watch. After more seaching I opened my wallet and discovered that all my money was gone (US$150-$200) but all my credit cards etc were still there. Apparantly someone had been watching us from the nearby bushes and waited till we walked away to go through my bag and take my cash and watch. In a way I chalk this up to my stupidity for not being more vigilant, but I truly felt like we were alone. Indeed this could have been a lot worse if they had taken the whole bags with the rental car keys, credit cards and camera, so in a way I felt fortunate. I guess I am poorer but smarter. We reported the theft to the boat operators and and they seemed genuinely upset about it and summoned the park ranger. It seemed that since we did not see who had done it it would be hard to catch the thief. They felt that it was probably one of the four spear fishermen that work within the park. They seemed worried that if they did not find a way to stop this it would endanger all thier business and thier livelyhoods. They also said that it the same thing had happened twice before. I did not allow this to ruin my trip as it was one bad experience in an otherwise great vacation. I hope this warning helps others avoid my missteps. ------------
I would make the trip to Bahia de las Aguillas again but I would not pay as much for the boat ride and would not bring anything worth stealing, and I would be more vigilant. The boat operator said they were considering paying a guard to patrol the beach. I really enjoyed the solitude of the place and the idea of an armed guard standing behind us would detract from the appeal of the place. We headed off down the washboard road to head back to the Pontevedre. About 1/2 an hour into the trip we came apon a military checkpoint with several soldiers standing in the road as opposed to sitting at the roadside. As we got closer I noticed that one of the soldiers had his face covered with cloth and dark glasses on. This scared the bejesus out of me and I thought for sure we were in trouble. I was tempted to turn around in a hurry and get out of there in a hurry but there was a fair amount of traffic and other than the covered face it seemed like a legitimate checkpoint. My girlfriend said she thought it was ok so relying on Dominican intuition I proceded to the checkpoint. The masked man handed his rifle to another soldier and approached us with his sidearm holster opened. He asked several questions in rapid fire spanish that I did not understand and my girlfriend answered him. He took a long look into the back seat of the car and then told us to pass and something to the effect of "have a nice day". My girlfriend explained that they were serious men looking for serious bad men and we did not fit the bill. He covers his face to remain anonomys to the bad men for his own protection. I think. I was just glad to be past that and headed towards the relative safety of the bar at the Pontevedre. I will continue the report as time allows. Next: a bus full of nurses and the road home.
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