A reader has requested that I end my blogging from DR with a detailed description of the departure lounge and the flight back. Maybe they’re just very bored. (I nearly wrote “boring”). Writing up the flight might be tricky as I hope to be asleep for most of it. But here we go with a description of Punta Cana Terminal B, Departures.
Sort of.
Ambience
My flight is one of only three to leave tonight, so it feels refreshingly empty and relaxed for an airport.
And the Dominican Republic is a relaxing place to come, as long as you’re firm with the persistent offers from taxi drivers, souvenir sellers, masseuses, both the good sort and…the other sort. The people are for the most part welcoming. Tourism is the number one industry here so they will go out of their way to make you feel at home.
As I say that, the airport staff behind me are making one hell of a racket with their chatter. Dominicans are ebullient, which can be engaging, but not that time in Puerto Plata old town when that woman started hurling abuse at someone for a good few minutes…I don’t know why, maybe he’d said something about the fact she only had one hand.
Green chairs
It all gets a bit green once you pass security – green chairs, big green disks on the tops of the pillars, green tea-table-things-you-only-see-in-airports.
It reminds us that, like many tropical paradises, DR is brought to you by the colours Blue and Green. The stunning run through the mountains between Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata is particularly verdant but the scenery is engaging in most places I went through.
Recycling points
I’ve spotted a recycling bin to drop off my drink cup when I’m done here. And that’s not something the country is great at to be honest. You can take a photo like this
walk along a bit, and see this…
Some could argue that the environment is not the priority in a country where 40% live in poverty, but is it really either/or? And it’s a country heavily dependent on tourism, what do we go there for? It’s certainly not the driving.
Ah, still some time before my flight. Time to chill out and relax before the return to the cold drear of reality. And, in the same way, that’s what a holiday here is all about, general recuperation and fun in the sun. Not everything is as efficient as it could be, but don’t worry if your 3-hour bus ride to Santo Domingo takes an extra hour to negotiate three bus stops in Santiago de los Caballeros, just go with the flow and relax. And enjoy.
Adios!
orwellianTwo 