per specific request of luchtzak, I´m posting a report about a recent TB opb FI/EGN flight to Punta Cana.
As this was originally written for airliners.net, please excuse any formatting peculiarities, like the way pictures are included.
To see the original thread with pictures and replies included, please check
http://www.airliners.net/discussions/tr ... ain/54532/
Hi all,
I hate Carnival (at least the way it’s celebrated here in Germany), I badly needed a holiday, I missed Latin America and I have never flown on a TriStar.
Knowing that TUI Belgium’s new airline with the unbelievably imaginative name TUI Airlines Belgium are having trouble getting their own ex-Varig 767 OO-TUC online
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/742325
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/568091
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/642931
and throughout January leased in EuroAtlantic Airways’ L15 CS-TEB,
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/760585
I reckoned I might as well try to combine all the above mentioned factors by
treating myself with a couple of days on some Caribbean beach.
I booked Punta Cana on Friday, January 28 for the outbound on 02FEB (Wednesday) and the return on 07FEB (Monday). Unlike many other charter airlines’, TB’s flights are easily bookable through <http://www.jetonly.be>. The flying times were to be 1330-2010 for BRU-PUJ and 1335-1420/1540-0815 for PUJ-MBJ-BRU. I immediately noticed that both transatlantic legs were too long for nonstops – 11:40 and 10:35 respectively – so my hopes of not getting a 767 but the L15 grew.
A day before departure I received a phone call from the airline: flying times were changed to 1730-2155 – damn, a nonstop, must be a 767; I expected Euro Atlantic’s CS-TLM:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/769568
The following day, I made my way from my place to Brussels, by train. In order to avoid the ridiculously expensive Thalys, I took the much cheaper and equally fast ICE. However, due to the fact that there are only three daily relations, I had to pick a very early arrival. No problem, spent some hours in Brussels which I had last visited in 1990.
Having arrived at the airport, I picked up my ticket at the TUI desk. I noticed that included with the two flight coupons was a hotel voucher. Hotel voucher? Excuse me, I booked a flight-only arrangement ?:-| . No worries, the agent assured me: This was a “fictitious” booking in order to trick Dominican immigration officials. Wow, that’s bad. It could potentially bring a lot of trouble unto the unsuspecting visitor, making him violate some immigration laws. I know at the end of the day it’s just another pointless formality which nobody really cares about, but the lawyer in me can’t condone this type of behaviour – which I might have expected from a shady third-rate tour operator, but not from world-renowned TUI.
The formalities I had to go through were all completed fast and efficiently, nothing extraordinary to tell about. BRU itself is nothing special either, medium sized, easy to navigate, no real distinction from others of its kind around the globe. I had been there only once before, on a frantic twenty-minute connexion, but back then I apparently didn’t miss anything I would have needed to see.
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Bruxelles/Brussel/Bruessel (Zaventem) to Punta Cana
1730-2155
TUI Airlines Belgium TB 8635
operated by Icelandair Boeing 767-3Y0(ER) TF-FIA, delivered December 12, 1991
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/751672
At about 1630 a 763 turned up, as expected. I was kind of surprised however, to see that Icelandair/Loftleiðir Icelandic bird. To be honest, I had never heard about this company before, so I don’t blame you if you haven’t either: It’s a company specialised in wet-leasing planes, both longterm and at an ad-hoc basis. They’re relatively new and currently use FI’s AOC, so I’ll log this flight as operated by FI. I was amazed to see the colourful history of this craft:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/102446
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/555825
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/729615
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/259315
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/291321
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/456632
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/538083
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/646744
The interior was in good condition, seat pitch was quite acceptable. The cockpit and cabin crew were Icelandic with one or two representatives from TB – who did all the announcements in French and Dutch. English (and interestingly only English) was only used for the safety demonstration.
The service was quite good, just two minor complaints: no free alcohol and no blankets. I fear the former has become standard on holiday flights, while the latter was probably owed to the fact that this was, in theory, a daytime flight. In reality, however, we flew in the dark all the time, and after the meal service most of the cabin went to sleep until shortly before the landing – which was at past 0300 “biological time”.
A surprisingly good hot meal (no choices) was served, drinks flowed freely, at least during the time I was awake. In addition, a small kind of “minibar” had been set up in the galley for self-service. Halfway through the flight, a hot cheese and ham sandwich was given out, and before departure a fully fledged cold meal. Not too shabby, I might say.
Which cannot be said about the movies, two of them, both utter crap which I couldn’t be bothered to view.
We landed at Punta Cana
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/352048
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/340045
at about 2240 – the 45 minutes delay had been ours from the very start. Oh, I didn’t notice any free seats – the flight had been listed as full for both PUJ and POP from Monday. Passengers continuing on to POP stayed onboard at PUJ.
I was one of the first at immigration, so I wasn’t too concerned about the queues which would surely start to form behind me, since only one position was manned. But no: The officer didn’t give a damn about anything, he just collected the entry form and smacked his stamp into the passport – a matter of three seconds per passenger. So the dummy hotel booking was not necessary at all. I noticed, btw, many people just travelled on their ID cards, i.e. without passport.
My suitcase arrived pretty quick, and after I had bribed the customs officer and his two cronies with a Dollar each >>:-( I was on my way to my hotel in no time.
I spent four great days at El Cortecito on the Coconut Coast – magnificent beaches straight from the book of Caribbean Clichés. For three days, I did not much more than working on my sun tan, do long beach walks, smoke local cigars and basically wasting time. On one day, I rented a car and went to Haiti which occupies the Western third of Hispaniola. I don’t want to overload this thread starter with non aviation stuff, but if you wish, I can go into more detail in a later reply.
What then followed was not too great any more – in fact it was the worst flight I’ve ever had. For your convenience, up front I’m posting some flight times, scheduled and actual. So you don’t have to juggle around the four time zones involved, one of them an intermediate one, I’m posting both local and UTC:
port – scheduled/local – scheduled/UTC – actual/local – actual/UTC – delay
arr PUJ – 1245 – 1645 – 1827 – 2227 – 6:18
dep PUJ – 1335 – 1735 – 2009 – 0009 – 6:34
arr MBJ – 1420 – 1920 – 2055 – 0155 – 6:35
dep MBJ – 1540 – 2040 – 2327 – 0427 – 7:47
arr YYT – 2140 – 0110 – 0601 – 0931 – 8:21
dep YYT – 2210 – 0140 – 0744 – 1114 – 9:34
arr BRU – 0815 – 0715 – 1841 – 1741 – 10:26
You see while the initial delay was bad enough, it really piled up later on, we lost time on every possible occasion – probably a very unfortunate case of Murphy’s Law rearing its ugly head. But let me not get ahead of myself:
The day before, I had checked the times: no changes. So, after waking up quite early due to jetlag, I left the hotel at 0830 (1230 UTC – keep that number in mind when I tell you about the time of arrival at my place
) and got to the airport at 0930. The counters were to open at 1035, the departure and arrival boards showed my flight to be on time, the weather was fine enough to sit on the benches outside the “terminal” and catch the last sunrays of this holiday – life was good to me. Or so I thought…Firstly, though, a couple of words on the airport, which is unlike every other one I’ve ever been to: It’s basically a hut, albeit a very big one. The few walls that there are are made of raw stone and/or wood, bars and pillars are just polished tree logs. The whole front is open, so you are basically in the open all the time.
Landside view:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/663442
Airside view:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/401320
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/30023
So where was I? Oh ya, thinking life was good to me. Not so. By 1100, no counters had been opened, I checked the screens again: Waaaaaah!!! Arrival 1700, departure 1800! I approached some other loitering European looking would-be travellers, found out they were fellow pax on this flight (seven or eight persons, all having booked the flight-only arrangement), we ganged up and went to the handling agent’s office to inquire about the situation and ask for food vouchers. They told us the flying times had been changed, our fault if we didn’t check, we should basically fuck off and die. Well, not their exact wording, mind you, but you get the point. The thing is, all of us HAD actually confirmed the times, apparently just those passengers holding package tour arrangements were informed. Also, the indication of the “old” flying times on the airport screens speaks volumes about the alleged “schedule change”.
Anyway, there was not much we could do but wait for the check-in counters to open at 1430. If you’ve ever been to PUJ, you know it’s not an airport which is suitable for waiting – there’s nothing airside, not even benches. Well, two of them actually, both by now occupied and a tiny bit too sunny right then, in the tropical midday sun.
Check-in delivered the next blow: I was obviously very early (got sequence number 3) and requested an A window seat. Sure, now problem, row 4 ok? Absolutely. But then, I was assigned 4D. I politely pointed out that I had actually requested a window seat, specifically at the left. Ah, not available for single travellers. I wanted to say “You stupid bitch, I’m not one of the first checking in to be seated in the fucking middle section, now get me that damn window seat and no dumb excuses!” I did say: “Please, I would really like to be seated at a window, for sure there are some other single travellers or maybe a couple who both want an aisle seat.” No success; when I said I’d get sick without a window she maintained the computer wouldn’t let her do it. :-I Nothing I could do anymore, so I just accepted my fate and walked off to the gate.
The gate area is a bit funny: The open design of the entrance hall is repeated here, there are just a couple of walls, fences and gates, none higher than a metre or so separating the waiting crowd from the tarmac and the planes which are parked right in front of the terminal. This is very well demonstrated by the following pic which shows the view out from the waiting lounge:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/30024
While this layout is cool in a way, it also has serious disadvantages: There is always a strong draft, well, more of a wind sweeping trough the building, and you’re exposed to the airplanes’ noise and smell.
Good for spotting the exotic domestic traffic though, mainly Air Santo Domingo, the usual suspects for Latin America: Let 410, Shorts 360, Jetstream 31, Twin Otter, Grand Caravan.
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/550179
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/612171
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/596971
After having seen Pan Am signs in the departures hall, I was not too surprised to see this cutie, doing a flight to Puerto Rico:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/761006
What are they, like Pan Am IV?
So I waited… and waited… and waited… 1700 went by, 1800 went by, nothing, no information, no agents, nada. 1827 came, and so did our plane, finally.
Monday, February 7, 2005
Punta Cana to Montego Bay (Donald Sangster)
1335-1420
TUI Airlines Belgium TB 8615
operated by Eagle Aviation Airbus A310-304 F-GEMO, delivered August 31, 1989
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/760637
ex AF:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/200610
Upon boarding, I was shocked: The seat pitch was the worst I’ve ever had to endure. The seats were worn, cramped (despite being 2-4-2 and not 3-3-3) and, in one word, shitty. Sickbags were mostly from Sudan Airways (!) no doubt a recent lessee.
The pax who did BRU-PUJ-MBJ (about 40) were seated in the back and had stayed there during the stop at PUJ – apparently MBJ was the stop where the actual turn-around was carried out. There was free seating on the PUJ-MBJ leg – this seems to be standard procedure on short hops which are added on to intercontinental flights; I experienced this practice on SW’s FRA-LHR and RG’s CDG-AMS.
Announcements were done in French and English by the Eagle Aviation crew, followed by Dutch by one of the TB stewardesses. Throughout the flight, it often happened that several crew members were doing the same announcement from different positions, sometimes in different languages :-/ – this invariably turned out as utter garb – extremely unprofessional, if you ask me.
Flying time was a good one and a half hours, the “fasten seatbelt” sign was switched on all the time, presumably to have an excuse for no service. Unfortunately, since it was now dark, one could see nothing of Hispaniola or Jamaica, which I had particularly looked forward to. During the approach we were flying over water all the time, the runway began just right before touchdown – now I know why:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/313142
Upon landing, first those passengers were deboarded, whose journey ended there. Afterwards, the rest of us were asked to leave with all our belongings. Of course we got a transit boarding pass. We were asked to stay put, close to the a/c, because we would be right on our way, half an hour, maximum. Uhuh, sure. As if I were to believe any time indication coming from these clowns…
So I wandered about the transit area, exchanged some Jamaica Dollars as a souvenir, got some embarrassing “look, I’ve really been to Jamaica” pictures of myself, bought some equally embarrassing “look, I’ve really been to Jamaica” presents and concluded by making a complete fool of myself by writing a couple of postcards to friends and family. And still, I had ample time, because we actually spent two and a half hours at MBJ – meaning we were currently running nearly eight hours late. >>:-(
Monday, February 7, 2005
Montego Bay (Donald Sangster) to Saint John’s/Saint-Jean (Torbay)
1540-2140
TUI Airlines Belgium TB 8616
operated by Eagle Aviation Airbus A310-304 F-GEMO, delivered August 31, 1989
This time, we were specifically asked to take our actual seats. *Sigh*, so I settled into that hated 4D… All announcements, including the safety demonstration were repeated, because obviously some people just had joined us. Unfortunately, the flight was very full, just a handful of free seats, none of them by a window :,-(
After reaching cruising altitude, a hot meal (choice of beef or fish) was distributed. Was quite ok. I tried, half successfully, to sleep through the five hour flight to St. John’s.
Before landing we were explained that at YYT the cockpit and part of the cabin crew would change, we would stay on the a/c and be on our way within half an hour. Hmm, where have I heard that line before?
Due to our delay, the new day was breaking and we could see something – pity that there was nothing really to see, except snow and the occasional Dash 8.
The surroundings of YYT
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/378172
are a bit barren, as can be seen in this shot:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/385004
Here you can see some rests of snow, where on my visit everything was covered white. On the airport grounds, there were huge heaps of snow piled up.
Of course, we were underway after more than half an hour: nearly two of them, in fact. Reason this time: Telex/Fax problems, so no flight plan. Oh my, god, you guys are real pros 9-P Also, I found it a bit disturbing that a mechanic accompanied us on the last remaining leg…
Monday, February 7, 2005
Saint John’s/Saint-Jean (Torbay) to Bruxelles/Brussel/Bruessel (Zaventem)
2210-0815
TUI Airlines Belgium TB 8616
operated by Eagle Aviation Airbus A310-304 F-GEMO, delivered August 31, 1989
We left Canada at around 0800 local – over nine and a half hours late. Since it was already past 1200 Central European Time, I decided against sleeping, even though I was a bit sleepy. I had brought a couple of books.
Our routing was most strange: We flew northwest for quite some time, along the coasts of Newfoundland and then Labrador, before finally crossing the Labrador Sea towards Greenland. I guess we were nearly over Baffin Island before we changed to an eastern course. I guess the course John Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown took 85 years ago from Saint John’s was a bit different
We made landfall over Greenland in the Godthab area. I can’t tell for sure for three reasons: Clouds, no window seat, air show replaced by two crap movies.
Ah, movies, let me vent a bit about them on this occasion before I describe the beauty of Greenland to you.
I realise there are people who do actually watch movies on planes. I then sleep, read a book or look out of the window, just ignoring the screens. This time, however, the soundtrack was played over the announcement system! I was flabbergasted and deeply disgusted. Try doing something, anything else when a movie soundtrack is virtually blaring in your ears – not possible, it was pure hell. What an absolutely intrusive, obnoxious and plain rude way of “entertainment” >>:-( This is a major factor for my overall perception of this flight’s dismal quality.
Back to Greenland. I was in a bit of a situation, the clouds had subsided, plain sun, I caught glimpses of stunning views, but the captain had forgotten to turn off the fasten seatbelts sign after some turbulence near Labrador. I got up anyway, arranged myself with the two ladies in row one and together with them marvelled at the glaciers and mountains, icebergs and pack ice. I managed to get some pictures (which turned out surprisingly good), before a steward ordered me back to my seat. At this stage, I was most desolate about not having a window seat – after all, this was my first transatlantic flight to go this far north, i.e. I don’t get to see Greenland too often.
I found some pics which are similar to what I saw – the scenery is truly stunning, isn’t it?
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/702351
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/631770
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/227321
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/276658
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/464883
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/728650
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/270201
After this treat, it was back to the dull rest of the flight. Unable to read for the last four hours plus because of the movies, I just sat there and basically counted down the minutes until landing. No hot sandwich this time (compare that to the outbound flight, half the time, only one leg, but hot meal, hot sandwich, cold meal), but of course a cold meal prior to landing. It was probably supposed to be breakfast, but with around 1700 or 1200 at the respective ports of destination and departure, it was more like lunch or dinner. Fly on time, then you’ll manage to hand out the breakfast at breakfast time.
We were finally on-blocks at 1841 – on YYT-BRU, we had lost another hour for a grand total of 10.5 hours delay.
We were greeted by TUI employees who handed out sorry-notes and a bottle of Champagne for each passenger. Certainly a nice gesture, but not nearly enough, as I’m going to tell them in the complaint letter I’m currently writing.
I barely managed to catch the last train home, otherwise I’d have had to spend the night at BRU, and arrived at 0330 – or 0230 UTC, meaning I was on the road from 1230 UTC on FEB707 till 0230 UTC on FEB09, for a grand total of 39 hours – a sad record.
Another couple of records and firsts: First Eastbound transatlantic daytime flight. First direct flight with more than one stop. Five countries (D.R., Jamaica, Canada, Belgium, Germany) in one day.
All in all, it was a very nice holiday which unfortunately did not yield the main target, aviation-wise. It ended in an absolutely atrocious experience, but that will be forgotten over time, while the positive impressions of this trip will stay – /self gloss on/ as will countries 64, 65 and 66 on my “been to” list /self gloss off/
I thank you all for taking the time to read this and to post feedback or questions. As I wrote above, if you would like to hear more about the road trip to Haiti, please advise me accordingly.
Lastly, a big thank you to Sabena 690 and the guys at the <https://www.aviation24.be> forum, especially SkyStef (don’t know whether he has an a.net username as well): You guys have been a great help in planning this trip, thanks so much
DDaniel:)
HAITI
I had always planned to visit Haiti if I ever were to spend a holiday in the D.R. Haiti is just too often featured in our news, you become automatically interested in this kind of notorious country. Naturally, with all the current political turmoil going on, the respective countries´ foreign ministries point a rather bleak picture in their travel warnings section:
"Haiti is one of the least developed and least stable countries in the Western Hemisphere."
"Travel in Haiti is dangerous and not recommended."
"Some cities and towns are controlled by rogue elements. "
"There are still clashes between police, UN troops, Aristide followers and criminal gangs".
"There are no safe areas, random killings of passers-by are common."
"Even in the countryside, foreigners are often subject to harassment."
"The population engages in lynching activities."
"Kidnapping of foreign nationals (for ransom money) is increasingly common."
"U.S. citizens in Haiti are urged to consider departing until the situation is stabilized as travel in Haiti still involves serious risks."
"It is advisable not to take part in Voodoo ceremonies."
On the first day in Cortecito, I inquired a bit about a trip to Haiti. The results: At the moment, no tourist trips organised by the small local travel agencies (no cojones, these guys
); No scheduled air service to Dominican airports close to the border. Travel time by bus: eleven hours to the nearest Dominican border town (450 km away), eight hours by car. Knowing that driving during the night is not advisable, I calculated that 16 hours driving plus one hour there meant I could just do a day trip, with minimal driving through the dark. So I rented an Avis car, the smallest one they had, some VERY basic Chevrolet. I arranged a pick up just before they closed on Thursday and a return first thing on Saturday morning, all for the price of one day.
I started off at 0400. Sure, it was still dark, but because nobody else was around I could use the main beam all the time, saw the potholes from afar and could navigate around them with no problem. I wouldn´t have been any faster in broad daylight. It started to get nasty at about 0530, I was near La Romana: it was still dark (sunrise at 0700ish), but other traffic took to the streets. Damn, oncoming traffic usually didn´t dip their beams, I was blinded and had to drive slowly to avoid the potholes, the drivers behind me angrily flashed their lights because I was so slow, all while I had to avoid the plethora of unlighted motorcycles crawling along the street. Past San Pedro de Macorís and all the way to the capital Santo Domingo there was a very good dual carriageway without potholes, so the last hour of darkness was ok to drive – but the 40 kilometres between La Romana and San Pedro, as well as the drive through San Pedro gave me the creeps.
Through Santo Domingo during the morning rush hour was not fun either. At least I was never in mortal danger, "only" in danger of getting my brand new rental car damaged by some maniac kamikaze driver. Also, road signs are not the Dominicans´ strong side. I basically had to find my way through instinct and navigating by the sun. Not completely successful, I actually wanted to stay on the through highway but ended up in the narrow streets of the city centre and driving along the Malecón at the Oceanside. At least I got to see some of the city like that.
The rest of the trip toward the border was uneventful (for local standards). Except for the bridge that was lying in pieces in the river bed. One had to drive through the dry river instead.
I was waved through at every military checkpoint (about 10 of them on the last 50 kilometres before the border), because smuggling and illegal immigration is obviously only a problem from Haiti to D.R.
I arrived at the border town Elías Piña at about 1115, after 450 kilometres and 7:15 hours. Not too bad.
I kept on driving westward until a soldier stopped me and said I could not drive any further because the border was there. Bingo! So I parked and went to the Dominican immigration office.
Inside a couple of underlings were quite bored. They flipped through the pages of my passport, found the Dominican entry stamp from two days before and said it was no problem to just do a tour to the next Haitian village. No, no special procedure to follow on this side of the border, just don´t get shot. Gee, thanks a lot.
Next I approached the actual border, I was stopped by a soldier. He looked through my passport too, said for one it lacked an exit stamp, plus he wouldn´t let me pass anyway. Please go home again. What the fuck? Ok, so he escorted me back to immigration where he spoke to the underlings who were visibly embarrassed to see me again after they advised me incorrectly. In the end they agreed I should talk to the comandante – who was just away. So I waited and did some small talk with the underlings.
The comandante came back after maybe half an hour. She called me in her office and said that she wouldn´t let me leave the country. Haiti was just too dangerous, a country in pure anarchy and lawlessness, if she let me leave the D.R., she´d be responsible if anything happened to me, so, sorry, you stay here. No, I couldn´t just go to the Haitian border station, pay my 60 USD entry and exit tax and just get a stamp in my passport: it´s 10 kilometres away, so until there is no man´s land in which the threat level is even more elevated than in the rest of the country – a virtual no-go area for a white guy. However, her subcomandante would give me a tour across the border river, along the border wall and through the makeshift settlements of the Haitians who try to sneak illegally into D.R. all the time. With him I would be safe, because he was respected and, more importantly, armed. Ok, fair enough, better than nothing.
He led me past the – heavily guarded – gate in the wall, which is there to curb the already mentioned massive illegal immigration. An endless flood of people, packed with huge bundles of everything plus the most beat-up vehicles I´ve ever seen streamed across the border in both directions. The picture was not unlikely those which are on the TV when refugees desperately flee some African civil war area. The actual border is formed by a river, but no bridge: The river is not dry, but quite shallow, so the vehicles have to actually cross it via a ford. In the nearby area were makeshift tents, grills and stuff, from which the travellers were offered all kinds of services and food. Btw, I hear it´s not unheard of in Haiti to eat dogs… There also were slum settlements, very primitive huts: My guide explained that these were inhabited by Dominican squatters who take advantage of the anarchy in Haiti and just built their housings there. Having walked about for about half an hour and taken some pictures, I had had enough. The subcomandante and I left the Fourth world and got back to the civilisation of the Third. I offered him a tip and invited him to a Coke. Changed some Haitian money (called Gourdes) as a souvenir (the dirtiest banknotes I´ve EVER had), and got back to my car.
On the back, I was controlled thoroughly on the first three military checkpoints. On the fourth, one of the soldiers inquired where I was going. Punta Cana, was my reply. Beaming, he opened the door, declared he would join me until Santo Domingo, put his assault gun on the back seat and sat down. Uh, well, yes, hi, nice to meet you, um, ok, be my guest. Needless to say, I was not controlled at the next checkpoints and could skip some queues.
I got to Santo Domingo right in time for the afternoon rush hour – deeeeeelighted. I guess I lost an hour there until I found my way. I was completely lost – I rolled down the window and asked the taxi driver next to me for the way to the airport. He motioned me to follow him, which I did, and after a couple of kilometres I was on the right track. Nice guy.
From then, no problem. Except, a bit before Higüey: nightfall. Friday night, 1900 or 2000, driving to, through and out of a relatively big city was a nightmare again. Of course, lots of erratically driving idiots as well as suicidal unlighted motorcycle drivers were on the road. And yet I managed to navigate without accident, find my way while at the same time not being killed by the other motorists annoyed by my careful slow driving style.
Got home at 2030, took me 8:15 hours this time, still ok.
A nice day, though 15:30 hours driving were quite excruciating. But it was an extremely interesting experience which I´m sure not many tourists there get to make.
Thanks,
Daniel:)
Maybe in order to intercept the transatlantic flight route as direct as possible ?