Dominican Republic – Day 7 – Jimani

Not able to make few hours trip (indirect connection) to either Ellas Pinas for Dajabon for the Haitian Market on only Monday or Friday; we opted to head further west to the remain border city Jimani, hoping to catch similar open market. We found an article on the Internet about some woman´experience at the border and crossing to the free-duty zone to shop without having to show any identification. The trip to the border cost a fixed 170 pesos. The price list hanged on the window so you don´t need to bargain or fear being cheated. The landscape again brought back the feeling of a semi Third-World country, a typical sight of the Southwest. We passed Lake Enriquillo but were not able to see much because of meters of scrubs and bushes separating the lake and the road.

Hotel Independencia

We arrived in Jimani at 1pm. The gua-guas dropped us at an interesection which after walking about 10 minutes, we saw an hotel sign, Hotel Independencia. We were actually looking for Hotel Jimani, recommended by the book, but decided to stopped here and inquired about prices. The hotel keeper, probably a Haitian, offered us a room for 300 pesos (<$10). Definitely a good deal compared to $20 or more at hotel Jimani. We asked him a couple of questions about the town and thought that we found a nice one to seek further help. However, in the evening when we gave him 500 pesos, he started to blah blah which we could not understand but we both knew that the price was more than 300 pesos. We handed him a piece of paper to write on, and he wrote something like 300 for dias and 200 for noche. I probably appeared angry to him and tried to reason with my shabby Spanish ”Pero tu dice trece cientos y yo creo solamente 300 para todos, dias y noche. Vamos en la manana maxima 12.” After a while, he signed okay that he would return us the change. However, when he brought us the change, he changed his mind one more time and only gave us 400 pesos. Even though 400 pesos was still a very good deal, but we were pissed because this was a blatant rip-off. I could demand to see the owner and complained beside showing my Lonelyplanet guide and told them that I would write very bad review for them. But then I didn´t want to cause any trouble since I had to stay the night. Who knew what the owner or the hotel keeper would do? Plus I already said to Honza that it was okay if the Haitian cheated on my by telling me a higher price than the normal one he would charge the local. It was just that I hated the style.

Some shady hotel like this does not give you a receipt so you kinda have to hope that when you leave in the morning, they don´t ask you for money again. Fortunately, nothing like this has happened to us.

At the border

…to be continue…

sep 7 2008