Guaga Adventure!!

After 17 hours of traveling, we arrived safely in Santiago, Dominican Republic! After a good nights rest, we embarked on a scavenger hunt around Santiago. It began with a ride in the guaga! A guaga is the DR’s version of public transportation. It is a large van that appears to seat 12 but in reality can seat up to 32 with many passengers sitting on others and hanging out the door; on this particular adventure we accommodated 24 including the driver and cobradora!! A cobradora is a gentleman who assists passengers and collects the 25 pesos to ride the guaga. His job requirement consists of good balance as he needs to hang out the door of the guaga without holding on, as well as having a strong knock, to signal to the driver that passengers need to exit. Another necessity is the horn in each vehicle needs to be heard; for example they could honk to say “hello”, honk to say “crossing the intersection”, honk to say “switching lanes or honk “to aboard the guaga” to people on the street. The horns are very much needed as there are no traffic laws only traffic “suggestions.” So we have all learned to not only double, but triple check in all directions before attempting to cross the street.

One of the scavenger hunt requirements was to ask one of the many shoeshine boys, “How much will it cost to get your shoes shined?” I did indeed ask two young boys in spanish, however they gave me a blank stare because they spoke Creole and not Spanish. Thankfully, Sue recognized this and jumped in and began speaking Creole to the young boys. Sue and I then got our shoes (keens and merrells) shined for 15 pesos (50 cents) by Willy and Charlie, 12 and 14 years of age, from Haiti. Our shoes have never looked so clean!! We plan to return to Parque Duarte (park) to have our shoes shined again by Willy and Charlie.