The first "surprise" was paying for our tickets was not enough. When we handed our tickets over to the clerk we were told that we would have to pay $30US in taxes per ticket, cash only. Luckily we had enough but no sooner had we paid that then we were told we owed another $50 Haitian for who knows what, but they would also take $4US.
That done and our cash greatly depleted we next attempted to board a bus. After going back and forth for a while attempting to determine which of the six unlabeled large busses we where meant to be on and loading our luggage on the white one, we were directed not onto that bus but on to a nearby minibus. Here we sat.
Eventually at about 12:30 the 9:00am bus actually departed and we were on our way. It was a simple enough ride for a couple of hours until we hit the border. Getting past the Haitian guards was easy enough and we didn't even have to get out of the van.
The DR side was/is a different story. We were first told to get off the bus and stand in line for immigration only to be told when we finally go there that we needed our passport which the bus company took from us when we handed them out tickets at about 8:30 in the morning.
After a little talking we discovered that the bus company was to take care of integration and we only need to sit and wait on the bus. So here we sit. The original predicted time of 30 minutes has passed about 3 or 4 times over and still no word.
So maybe sometime we will get through this limbo of a border and find ourselves in La Romana.
Well, it is now 6pm and we just got our stamped passports back, so in theory it is time to drive on.
Location:Haitian / Dominican Border (4:00pm)
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