Trip report - March 1996 - Don Juan Beach Resort, Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, by Jim Hinsch.

This was my 5th visit in 18 months to Boca Chica and my 3rd visit in 4 months to the Don Juan Beach Resort.

I arrived at the front desk of the Don Juan Beach Resort with two friends at 11:30pm. This time they had not lost my reservation, but it did not match my confirmation either. I had specifically confirmed a "luxury" suite room in the "Club de Capitanes" section of the resort and had two separate confirmations stating such. I had requested the second confirmation because on the last visit, they could not find my reservation at all and since they were full, almost had to move to another hotel. The second confirmation assured me that we would not have any problems at check-in time. We did. Luckily, there was still a room available, and they moved us to it. They also told me that I had to check back with the front desk in the morning and confirm that it was OK to stay in that room. That I never did, figuring it was their mistake to handle.

The second problem at check-in time was that we were unable to obtain a key to the in-room security box because it was "past 11:00pm". Since we planned on showering up and immediately going out for drinks, that meant we either had to hide all of our valuables and hope nobody broke in that night, or carry them with us. I complained to the "Gerente de Habitaciones" about this situation when we checked out, and he told me that next time, I need to be more insistent. He explained that the night person was just didn’t want to do it, and that security box keys are indeed available 24 hours a day.

The room was excellent. It had a separate bedroom with two double beds, a telephone, TV, and entrance to the balcony. The living room area also had a telephone and another television, along with a sofa, love seat, two wicker lounge chairs around a coffee table, and a ceiling fan. Adjacent to the living room was a kitchen table with chairs, and what I would call a kitchenette, complete with cabinets, a sink, a small refrigerator, and plenty of counter space. The living area had a door to the same balcony as the bedroom and there were two brightly painted wooden lounge chairs on the balcony overlooking the gardens. The bathroom was large and the entire place was well air conditioned with full access to the controls. The closet was a well lit walk-in type with a security box bolted to the wall. The room number was 7236 and was on the second floor. I had stayed in room 7235 adjacent to it on the last trip. Both rooms are equally nice except room 7236’s bedroom is actually a separate room, while 7235 is setup more like a studio apartment and had only 1 TV and telephone.

Both TV’s had HBO but there wasn’t a source of music. No problem, since I had brought along a Sony Discman CD player and a couple of battery powered speakers.

The next morning, I obtained a security box key. It was very difficult to turn the key to lock it, but I managed to get it to lock. That night, I ran out of money and came back for more, as we were all going out to eat. The safe key broke off in the lock and I could not get it open after that. I went to the front desk and pleaded for help. I explained that all I needed was a screwdriver to turn the key. They guy at the desk just shrugged his shoulders and said that nothing could be done until the next day. Over and over, I insisted that this was an emergency, and the somehow, he needed to summon help. He just continued to shrug his shoulders without emotion, and did nothing. We ended up having enough money amongst us anyway, and enjoyed the rest of the night. The next morning, it took a 5 minutes to pry the box open with the back end of a claw hammer (after a couple of hours of poking at the thing with a couple screw drivers and trying to peek into the side of an opening using my Bic lighter as a light source). If we’d had an early flight the next day, we would have missed it. I was so happy to see that safe open afterwards that I tipped the guys well. The hotel did not charge me for any damage.

The beach vendors near the hotel were more pesty than usual. From the moment I walked onto the beach, I was surrounded by guys saying "Hey. You remember me? Looky-looky. I give you good price." I bought a half-dozen necklaces, a coupe T-shirts, a hat, some CD’s, but it was never enough. The more I bought, the more vendors that seemed to attract and the ones I bought from kept trying to sell me more! I had to get rude to get them to back off. Others seemed to be having the same problem with the hard-sell vendors and the Don Juan rectified the problem by roping off a very large section of beach in front of the hotel. The vendors did not cross the rope.

The beach in front of the hotel was magnificent as usual. This beach is the deepest I’ve yet to see in the Caribbean. The staff at the Don Juan rakes it in the morning. We had 4 nights and 3 1/2 days in Boca Chica. It was clear and sunny the entire time except for a sprinkle between 4:00am and 9:00am one day. I would guess the temperature to be about 85 to 90 during the day and mid-70’s at night. The wind was light our entire stay, which made for some good water skiing. We hired the same boat every day, which was the same boat as many of our other stays. This boat was run by "William" and has a 75hp Yamaha outboard. It looks like an over-sized row-boat made of fiberglass with a center console. It produces a very flat wake and has plenty of power to yank a slalom skier out of the water. The resort also has a ski boat. The resort’s boat is an actual ski boat, which is smaller and newer. They also provides excellent equipment. Our guy’s equipment was rather run down, but it didn’t matter since I had brought my own ski, jacket, rope, and handle. We decided not to use that resort boat because on the last trip, they couldn’t seem to get the motor running right and had trouble even pulling me out of the water. Besides, William had become a friend. He had exchanged phone numbers and addresses with us on previous trips, and invited us out to his house. He keeps his boat, named "LEOP ..." (I can’t remember the rest), tied to the pier right in front of the Don Juan.

During water skiing, I had asked William to swing us by the Hamaca Hotel so I could spray water at those floating near the edge of the swim rope. We were pulled over by the police after that and warned to stay further from the shallow areas and people. Off to one side of the beach, near the marina, I noticed the water was complete glass and instructed William to pull me in that direction. After a wipe out, I found out why that wasn’t a good place to ski (at least if you’re going to fall). It’s right in front of the sugar factory and the water there is somewhat contaminated. It smelled. Later that first afternoon, while I was floating in the water after a ski, a fish bit my foot. I never saw what bit me but it left a 1 inch vertical cut across the top of my toe and there was a lot of blood. I felt it on both sides of my toe, but it only cut on one side. It felt like a crab maybe. Perhaps my foot was dangling above one. It was really quite minor but it scared the hell out of me, as I’ve never been bit by anything in the water before.

The pool was clean, quiet, uncrowded, and just the right temperature. They were grilling hamburgers and hot-dogs poolside. Getting a drink near the pool was always instant since it was never crowded and the bartender moved fast. A young security guard armed with a club kept to one side of the pool area where it met the beach.

One thing odd about the Don Juan Beach Resort is that there is this restaurant/bar that is positioned right in the middle of the complex on the beach, but it is not part of the resort. I don’t know the history, but it seems as though maybe somebody wouldn’t sell when the place was expanding, and they just built around it like a horse-shoe. My one friend sat down there and ordered a coke. He was surprised when they charged him for it. Also, there is a public beach access stone walkway that shoots right down the center of the Don Juan, although it’s not used much because it seems you have to first be on the street in the center of the resort to end up on that sidewalk and the streets into the resort are blocked on all sides with parking garage style gates that say "STOP" (in Spanish) and attended by guards.

For Saturday night, we decided to go into Santo Domingo. Earlier, we had been offered a tour by the Don Juan, where for $35 per person, they would take us to this one bar, which happened to be the same bar we were planning on going to, and also bring us back. We didn’t want to be tied to one place, so we hired a taxi at the taxi stand next to the Don Juan. For 600 pesos (about US $50), he said he would take us wherever we wanted to go in Santo Domingo, and wait for us until as late as 3:00am. That was a good deal.

Our first stop was Manolo Piano bar (exactly 40 minutes drive time). This sure wasn’t what we expected. It was not a piano bar at all. It was a brothel. We entered at about 11:00pm. It was just us 3 guys and about 20 young girls that worked there. All were a little on the pudgy side and wearing skin tight nightclub type dresses with high heel shoes. There was one bar along the wall with seats for about 12. The rest of the room consisted of small sofas around coffee tables. Since we were the only customers in the place, all eyes were upon us. A few minutes later, the taxi driver came in also and sat at the far end of the bar. We were very shy and sat up at the bar wondering what was going on. Where was the piano, or at least the music? In one corner over the bar was a TV screen showing very explicit X-rated sex acts and the other corner had a TV showing music videos. The sound was down real low, so there was hardly any music. We would occassionally turned around and quickly scan all the young ladies staring at us, but it was too wierd for us. I asked the bar tender what the story was, and one of the girls standing next to me jumped in and explained that all the women there spoke some English. They were all for sale. One price to take them upstairs, a little more to leave the bar with them. I asked where the piano was and she pointed to her breasts, saying I could play them if I like. We just stared down at our drinks for the next several minutes, since we were completely sober and not expecting this. Finally, I turned around, gave a bold stare at the entire group, pointed to one girl and motioned her to come up to the bar. All the other girls let out kind of a giggly shriek. I bought her a drink and all three of us asked a bunch of stupid questions about her work there at the "bar". As soon as our drinks were gone, we left, off to someplace more exciting.

Next stop was the Disco that the Don Juan had originally offered us as a tour. It was called Guacara Taina and was built out of a natural cave. As we approached, the place was jammed with cars and there was a line. It was about midnight. The cover charge was US $15 each. Inside, the place was a cave, with steps leading down and further down. Along the way were bars, most of them unstaffed. At the bottom was a medium sized dance floor. The place was elbow to elbow and it was about 85 degrees inside. People were dressed like at any fancy nightclub and the crowd was very international. Many people spoke English. I found it difficult to get a drink. We stayed about 2 hours. It was too crowded, too hot, and too much like home. We found our driver outside waiting for us and he got us back to Boca Chica in under 30 minutes.

One thing that was interesting along the way was that they used small fires along the side of the road inside what looked like coffee cans as night time construction area warning lamps.

In Boca Chica, we entered the bar La Terraza and it was packed. It was about 2:30am. We drank some and then went to eat. In fact, by about 3:30, it seemed as if the entire crowd from La Terraza had moved to the restaurant because it was packed, standing room only. This guy we had sort of hired (for beers) to be our guard the night before, knew some people at a table and we joined them. We had a great meal.

Some guys I met the night before offered to show me their house. I was curious, so I took a moto-taxi to their place. It was a cinderblock shack with a corrugated steel roof and a single extension cord running in through a wooden shuddered opening for electricity. I was told that the electricity and water were free. There was a small fan on the ground, a 19 inch color TV, and what about a $50 boom-box stereo. The floor was concrete. The kitchen consisted of a small table with a propane stove. The bathroom contained a shower head and two drains. One was the "toilet", but there was no toilet, just a pipe hole. I was told it was not yet finished. To go "number 2", there was a toilet that many neighbors shared, a few doors down. I was surprised how homey and comfortable a shack could be made. I would say the quality of living there would be similar to camping, with a little bit better shelter. In fact, I lived very much like that one summer at a YMCA camp as a teenager, except with less privacy. The shack was rented for US $100 per month. I bought us all a few beers and I walked around their town, which actually was still part of Boca Chica. The town people stared at me. We passed a guy selling used shoes laid out on a tarp. "Just like the village in Manhattan", I thought, where I had seen similar garage-sale type wares for sale. Trash was everywhere, and it smelled. I took some pictures and returned to the Don Juan.

The food at the Don Juan was good. The service was real good. I would say the entire resort had fewer than 120 guests. On more than 1 occasion, some manager types came by our table to chat and see how everything was. The entertainment was poor, as usual.

The disco at the Don Juan is very small and not worth going to at all unless you are looking for a free drink. Most of the time it is closed. It opens up after the dinner entertainment ends, is not opened to the public, and never gathered a crowed.

Night life in Boca Chica really doesn’t get rolling until after 11:00pm. We always started with some shots at a bar called Route 66, named and decorated after the famous US Highway of the same name. Locals are not allowed in that bar unescorted and it is guarded by a Dominican with a sawed-off shotgun. We usually duck in there on our way down the street in order to shake the street vendors that seem to latch on as soon as we step off the Don Juan property. Most of the people tend to be more towards the end of the street near the Hamaca Hotel, which is the opposite end of town from the Don Juan. We usually had a couple beers at one of the tables set up along the street outside and watch the people go by until about midnight, and then enter one of the bars along the beach for another. At about 12:30, people start moving towards a bar called La Terraza, which is just a couple streets over from the Don Juan, has two levels, and is right on the beach. There is also a bar built out of a cave in Boca Chica but it is filled mostly with young Dominican men. Any time we’ve gone there, we’ve left without finishing our drinks. The locals are scanned with metal detectors upon entering, but the tourists are allowed to enter without being scanned. Most nights, the power to the entire town went out at least once, turning the entire area pitch black. Within about 10 seconds, generators begin to start, and areas around town begin to light back up, one by one.

Note. My final bill was always about 20% more than quoted, after they tacked on a %13 tax, converted the cost to pesos, and then the credit card company converted the bill back to dollars.

Anybody planning on staying at the Don Juan should bring the following:

1. Small bills. The change from any purchase will likely be in pesos.

2. Candles. Keep them in your room so you can see when the power goes out - and it will go out sometime at night during your stay.

3. Something to wear on your feet when walking around the resort in a swim suit. There are lots of stones and sharp rocks.

4. Film. The film available in the Boca Chica stores is limited. I could not even find 200 speed Kodak brand 35 mm.

5. A small calculator for money conversion, unless you think you’ll be fine doing it in your head. The exchange rate when I was there was 13 pesos to the dollar.

6. A Spanish dictionary. Very little of any language other than Spanish is spoken outside the resorts.

7. Confirmation of your hotel reservation. Otherwise, you’ll have nothing for proof if the hotel cannot locate your reservation.