Driving in the Dominican Republic

Blog day!

Today I was asked to pick up a friend from his mechanics. Of course I said yes. I’m just a helpful kind of gal. I was asked to meet my friend at the Playero at 10:30. While I have lived in the DR for a while now, I’m still on Canadian time which means on time, not Dominican time which can be any time.

I arrive at 10:20. Great! I have a couple minutes to run inside and grab a few bits (things for anyone not British). Park the car, put the car in park and turn the car off. Not going into get my bits cause the damn key won’t come out of the ignition. Now what.........ok, re-start car and turn it of. Nothing. Damn. Ross is not going to be happy. Start car and drive to where my friend is parked. So, my car is running and I say, alright, let’s toodle. I follow my friend to the mechanics shop (more about the Russian compound later). I turn the car off. No, the damn key will still not come out. Now’s the time I start to sweat. I silently utter several curse words. OK, who am I kidding, the words spewed out of my mouth like a drunken expat.

Now, let’s discuss the Russian mechanic’s compound. Tall, slim, shifty looking guy. Cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Not sure if he was packing but I wasn’t about to find out. There is something entertaining about a Russian that speaks Spanish. Strangest accent ever. My friend honks his horn when he pulls up to the 10 foot iron gate set it a 12 cinder block wall that surrounds the compound. The gate opens and my friend drives through. I’m wondering if I’ll see him again or I’ll be paying his wife a visit with bad news. Finally, my friend’s business is conducted and the gate slides open. The Russian dude takes one look at my chariot and his mouth drops open. Ok, my car is not in the best of shape but the look on his face was not necessary. Further, he began to laugh....so does my friend. Seriously guys? I’m more worried about the damn key stuck in the ignition then the fact that the paint is a little rough.

Well, the trip from the mechanics did not get any better. Driving down the road, I notice the fuel light is on. Damn. So, now I need to stop at the Texaco for 500 rd of gas – at 214 rd per US gallon so I got 2.34 US gallons or 8.85 litres. Today 500 rd is 13.19 Cdn. So my gas was $1.49 Cdn per litre. Don’t you just love this side story? Ok, time to get back to the real story.

We are driving down the narrow road to get to the gas station. Cars parked on both sides. Off in the distance I see a small white car coming towards me. I have more than enough time to make it through the cars so I proceed and if I don't, the car will stop and let me go through. Ok, stupid little white car suddenly accelerates and meets me head on about half way. I now have four cars behind me so I am not going anywhere. Stupid Russian woman climbs out of her car and begins to yell at me to back up (in Spanish but my friend speaks Spanish so it’s all good.) I just would have told her to take a flying leap. She is adamant that I am in the wrong and I should back up. What? Over four cars? Stupid Russian woman tells me I am in the wrong again...what the hell?? How is it even possible? So, I put my car in park and tell her I’m not going anywhere once she magically changes to fluent English. Then she asks me if I am stupid. Hey, I’m not the one creating a traffic jam. She finally gets in her car and backs up. I drive by and give her a Trudeau salute. My friend called her a really nasty name which I won’t repeat here. Can you say road war? Oh, and where I come from, the biggest tires always win, so I won!

Still need gas. Gas light has been on all this time. I still can’t get the damn key out of the ignition at the gas station. My friend asks me what I’m going to do about this problem with the key and my response is that I’ll let Ross deal with it. He just laughs and laughs.

Driving today in Sosua was like driving in a video game (arcade game for you old-timers). I needed to get from the Texaco turning left back onto the main road. Traffic was seriously backed up. I wasn’t the only one needing to turn left. A van with a local driving pulls up on my left. SCORE! He pulls into traffic blocking it. I slide up beside him and YAY! I also cut off traffic but I’m outta the damn gas station. Rules of the road you ask? Well, yes there are but most take them as suggestions unless there are legal implications such as a traffic accident. Then the rules of the road are most important.

Oh, and the damn key came out of the ignition when I got home. Ross put the car all the way into park, looked at me and rolled his eyes.