07.20 Morning dawns in Las Galeras, located at the Samaná peninsula in the north-eastern part of the Dominican Republic. We know this because we are there. It rained a lot during the night but now the sun is shining again. The night's sleep has not been as sweaty as the night before. I do not know if it depends on the shifting in bed or that the outside temperature drops in the rain.

10.21 The hostess, Lea, has among other things, arranged with breakfast and useful information. We now know that a big hotel nearby, sells stamps and that I can leave my postcards there. There are no mailboxes at all in the village itself. She also asked if we could pay for the room today. She needed money for miscellaneous purchases. It will not be cold today.

11.23 We paid for our days and nights here and we've gone out for a walk. We have followed the path that takes us out of the village and away from our accommodation. We are going to the hotel that may offer the postal service. I'm standing in the shade of a flamboyant tree. Further away are some horses.

11.35 We have made two decisions. We do not intend to rush through the well-guarded gate to the Grand Paradise Samaná Beach Resort and persuade the guard that we need help with some postcards. That matter could wait until later. The heat has also made us to think again about the walk. We have decided to turn back.

11.45 We left the horses and have returned home. Both on the way out and back we were offered a ride by some youths on motorcycles. Some of them have orange vests with figures and advertising for local businesses. They are registered motorcycle taxi drivers.

Morning walk just outside of Las Galeras.

Safe transport?

The nazis are everywhere it seems.

Christer and a horse outside the resort Grand Paradise Samaná.

12.23 We relax with some reading down in the bar/breakfast area. Internet reports about the unrest on the Gaza Strip.

12.57 There were a little walking, searching and some closed doors before we entered the restaurant Roma. It is the restaurant section at Plaza Lusitania Hotel where we watched the World Cup football the last few days.

13.49 A Norwegian girl, at the table next to me, tried to order pasta with garlic. She had trouble making herself understood. The waiter understood nothing. She said garlic, no success. She then pointed towards the garlic that hung inside the window, and then came the female cook came running out instead. Finally they understood everything, or? At least she got a pizza. It is possible that she ordered it to make it easier. Now let's go and visit a new beach.

14.38 Christer is standing out in the water and I stand under a fruit-bearing tree. We are at the beach here in Las Galeras.

15.14 Tropical beaches sound great but it is seldom that one is left alone. Just as we stood there a young gentleman came and told about his kiosk a short distance away. He introduced himself as Rafael and offered a bit of everything. He could even come to us with a small table. One of the things he offered was non alcoholic Piña Colada. Isn’t that just pineapple juice with coconut?

A beautiful beach waited for us.

Christer is hiding in the shadow.

The sea waits.

16.36 The beach visit has made us lazy. I have actually slept some since we got home. We have looked at football results via our fine WiFi connection here. IFK Göteborg and Brommapojkarna are ready for further games in the Europe League. Besides fatigue, we have with us some ants from the beach. We're back in the restaurant part of our accommodation. We'll read on in our books.

18.23 We have finished our beers and the reading in our books. A drunk American came in from outside In the midst of the reading. He looked at us and our books and wondered if we were reading the Bible. Now we are back in our warm room.

19.30 The man with the Bible comments has gone from drunk to wasted. He hits the table and groans, shouts something. We feel sorry for our landlady but she seems to be used to it.

20.07 Our hostess has questioned the man's intelligence and one of his friends has persuaded him to leave the premises. The dog with broom stick tail has barked as much as it can. Everything have been seen and heard from our window. We live one floor up and can sneak peek down towards the bar.

20.21 The drunk man sits in a car outside the accommodation. He looks tired. His gaze is empty. We saw him on the way to tonight's dinner. We sit down at a small table outside the French restaurant Le Taínos (http://www.letainos.com).

21.34 The food was truly appreciated by us. In my seafood stew was among other things lambi or conch. Another who seemed to appreciate Christer’s food was a red tabby cat. Next to me was a quieter, brown beige bitch, a dog to settle things. We are now, after some walking for a while in the dark to hear crickets, back home.

22.11 This is probably the coolest evening during our stay in Las Galeras. Tomorrow is scheduled. It consists of a quiet morning, transportation, lunch, new transportation and hopefully a new home.

Peter is relaxing with a beer.

Excellent dinner at Le Taínos.

Friday 11th of July

08.40 After another night with rain we have woken up. It has been hot, muggy. I really want to have air conditioning in the next room.

10.15 The breakfast is finished and luckily we are the cause of this fact. Once again, it was delicious fruits on the menu. It is now time for the purchase of food for the journey ahead. After that we will pack. We will now return to the heat outside.

10.31 On the way back from the supermarket, we passed a man and his small kiosk. He looked at us and said "Morgen!" Why did he greet us in German? Then came, "looki, looki" with a childlike voice. Did we look like we were five years old? Sometimes it can be really annoying when tourists are treated as mentally retarded. It could well be that some charter tourists have given the locals that impression.

11.06 It is soon time to say goodbye to our room, the accommodation, the village of Las Galeras and this district. In a few hours we will be in a new place, in a new housing and a new district.

11.24 Now we have checked out and out on the street we were questioned if we are Germans or possibly Canadian. I replied, Sweden and then they said, Aha Austria! Now we are waiting in the shade for our transport. The small bus station is right near the beach here in Las Galeras.

Christer is waiting for transport.

We are back in Samaná.

Peter is waiting for the departure of the Papagayo bus.

11.50 After we have ever so slowly rolled out of Las Galeras, we´re now at a standstill. The bus is refueled. Ok, now we go on. We were prepared to go on yet another truck ride, but this time our "guagua" is a minibus with nice helpful fellow passengers.

12.38 Our little trip has taken a temporary stop in Samaná where we´ve returned after a few days of exile. We are also back at the Café de Paris for lunch and a little unexpected, cranberry juice as beverage.

13.09 We are ready to continue the journey. After a toilet visit in total darkness, on my way back to the table I accidently kicked a dog that howled and ran away.

13.26 Our bus from the bus company/contractor Papagayo is blue with angels and parrots on it. It is parked right where it should be according to the information we received. It will depart for Puerto Plata at two o'clock.

13.37 After some waiting outside, we now have put in our luggage and boarded the bus. It's nice to sit.

13.48 Outside the bus is a man with a machete. He uses it to chop a piece from a coconut. The liquid inside is poured into a mug and given to a customer. A mother with two children just boarded. The daughter is quiet and the son makes sounds for at least two.

14.09 The journey has started and we go through Samaná to pick up more passengers.

15.19 The bus goes through a flat and cultivated landscape. We paid 300 pesos each to go the whole way. It is cloudy out there and windy. We see huge heavy rain clouds in the south. How lucky we are moving northwards.

15.32 The bus has turned to the side and standing idle. Out have passengers flown to resupply. Heat from outside enters the bus.

16.58 We now leave the town of Rio San Juan. Here, we have seen three turkeys.

Christer is waiting to depart from Samaná.

Bus trip along the north coast of Hispaniola.

17.38 When we reached the resort town Cabarete the bus host thought that we would get off since we are tourists. We didn’t get out and the journey continues.

17.51 We just stopped to repatriate something that fell off the bus. All that was heard was a metallic sound. We are near Sosúa.

18.45 The bus has let us off somewhere along the main street in Puerto Plata. We got good help from a female passenger to get the bus to stop. She was so involved in this that she almost forgot that she was getting off herself just before us. We have been asked about where in the city we are going and the bus host has pointed out the direction to our hotel. This was unexpected, we had hoped that we would stop at a bus station or anywhere where there are taxis.

19.05 Either did they point in the wrong direction or we misunderstood them. After some wandering on various streets up and down, a lady behind a gate and also a tourism officer have given us a new direction.

19.15 Three helpful men outside a hotel first pointed in different directions, but then they agreed on one direction. We have headed on in this direction. One thing is certain. We were not let off near our next home. The reason of the confusion might be that there is a school with the same name as our street. Therefore, the three men pointed in different directions.

19.25 Now we are finally there. We went up a steep hill, turned left and got to our accommodation Hostel Villa Carolina (http://www.villacarolina.hostel.com) just as the sun went down. Now we will go through the gate and further on. We have reached a state far beyond the "sweat". It feels as if we have fallen into a lake.

Once again we have separate rooms, big rooms this time.

19.36 After going through the gate and walked a bit further, we saw a teenage girl in a small pool. It felt inviting to jump into the cool water. She was shouting at her daddy and a reply was heard from an adjacent building. There we met a man who referred us to the building opposite. We had probably walked into the residential house. Now I'm sitting on a bed in room 9. Christer is in the lobby and fills in various regitration papers. There are few dry areas on our shirts.

20.00 I'm alone in room 9. Christer has moved to room 8. We are once again fragmented, separated. Unfortunately, none of the rooms has air conditioning. It would have been nice. Maybe we're better off anyway because we live in a cool old colonial stone villa. Now we will go out for dinner.

20.29 After having received advice and guidance of the woman who checked in Christer, we´re now at the restaurant La Leña. Here we shall drink the ice-cold beverage Limonada Frost and additionally eat dinner.

21.56 Limonada Frost is icy, lime beverage. It tickles gently down a dry throat. We have not come over any more beverages the road between La Leña and the accommodation. We will go out in the lobby and fill up with the free water which is offered there.

23.11 We have filled up with water from the water tank and with information from the internet. Now we have a plan for tomorrow.

Christer is not alone in his room.

Saturday 12th of July

07.46 It is yet another solo morning and yet another morning under a ceiling fan. In the distance I can hear a rooster and a little closer a dog. Today we might take an important step for the rest of the trip.

09.34 After a good breakfast, fruit salad, pineapple marmalade and mango juice, we´re now now planning day in more detail. A small "to-do list" has been established.

10.19 We have left Villa Carolina and are now in peace and quiet without backpacks walking the same way we came yesterday. I hardly need to add that this walk is much nicer when we know where we are and don't sweat as much.

10.36 The day could actually have started better. We have walked to Caribe Tours or more precisely Caribe Express Office, a quiet walk in itself. Here we have tried to buy bus tickets between Santiago and Cap-Haïtien in Haiti. We need these on Tuesday. It was unfortunately not possible to buy any. You buy your international ticket from the place of departure and nothing else. Now we need to cool down inside the office before we continue to the next mission.

10.56 We found a taxi on the street outside and took it to the valley station of the aerial tramway, Teleférico (http://telefericopuertoplata.com). The taxi driver says he will wait here at our return for the same price. F 049 is written on the taxi. Good to remember.

Peter stands inside Villa Carolina.

Hostel Villa Carolina, the entrance to our house.

We are walking along our "home street", Calle Virginia Ortea.

11.03 The trip was not very long and it went smoothly to buy a ticket. We were asked to sit down and wait next to an orchestra that played local music. Almost immediately we were asked to carry on and now we go over the tree tops and up against the misty top.

11.19 The gondola lift has now taken us to the top station. Our ears are hurting from the ride. This is due to the altitude (we're now 793 metres above sea level) and also due to the fact that some fellow passengers screamed hysterically on the way up. Up here, it unfortunately is more or less cloudy, mist. Behind me is a Statue of Christ. It is the fourth in just as many countries in one year. The statue is a copy of the one in Rio de Janeiro. We have gone up on the mountain called Monte Isabel de Torres.

11.56 There has been a transfer. It started drizzling and we are now in the restaurant waiting for coffee and sandwiches. The clouds remain tightly around us. It's a little pity on the view. Annoying knowing that the sun shines down in the city, but here we see nothing.

12.21 It is nice to just sit quietly at a table. It had, however, been even nicer to admire the view. Near here is a botanical garden with various hiking trails but we've no time for this. We have a taxi driver who we will meet at 1 pm.

12.46 We just have to accept reality. The clouds have defeated us. We get no views from the mountain today. Fortunately, we'll probably see a little bit during the trip down.

12.54 it became a quieter descent, not so much yelling this time. In addition, we had a soldier with us. Now we are back in our waiting taxi. I had a problem closing the door but it finally closed.

13.08 The taxi left us down in the city centre and what we thought was an amazing offer was probably a misunderstanding. We had to pay as much again for the trip back to the Caribe Tours bus terminal.

13.20 We took aim at the city centre and a post office. The postcards are still not sent. We found the office but it unfortunately was closed. They close early on Saturdays. Now we are having a bench break at a beautiful square/park, Parque Central.

We are ready for a trip with the cable car Teleférico.

We are arriving in the mist at the top of the mountain.

Information board on Monte Isabel de Torres.

Jesus is doing his best to be visible among the clouds.

The Dominican flag 793 meters above sea level.

Coffee break on the top.

Christer is resting beneath the saviour.

On the way down we could finally admire the views of Puerto Plata.

We could watch some baseball on our way down.

13.25 As usual when we want to rest and take it easy some odd person turns up. This time it was an official tourist guide who found us in the square, showed us his ID and gave assurances that he was not a gangster. He definitely wanted to be with us for some shopping with various souvenirs. Finally he gave up and we were able to take some beautiful photos, among other things, of the church Iglesia San Felipe.

13.35 We walk east along Calle Beller heading for the bus ticket office, café and our accommodation.

13.48 At the bus station we bought tickets for tomorrow's journey from here. We´re going with the company Metro. Now we are at cool and comfy Café Tropical. We just got our ordered pastries. We will of course drink coffee as well. The waiter reminded us with a smile that the Dominican Republic is a hot country when he saw how sweaty and tired we were.

15.40 After a visit to the store/mall La Sirena down by the sea, we are once again back home. We have, among other things, bought lots of beverages. There was even a nice ATM there. Here in Villa Carolina we have showered. Soon we will spend some own time in our respective rooms. A bronze match at the World Cup football waits. It is the host country versus last World Cup’s silver team. On the way here, we saw a biking man in Dutch Cycling clothing and even a hummingbird.

16.04 After some channel searching on our TV, we found the match. Just as we got a picture Robin van Persie shot a penalty, 1-0 to the Dutch. There are no comments. We can only hear music from the TV.

16.16 Not much is good for Brazil now. A blind man would be able to score on them. It has actually happened now. Daley Blind just made it 2-0 for the Dutch.

16.48 It is halftime and 2-0 to stand. Will the Brazilians miss a medal in their own World Cup? The hostess has wondered why we watch TV without sound. So we wonder, too. We have explained that you cannot get any sound out of it. Something must be wrong.

17.49 Brazil just had a tenth goal in two games against them. Netherlands makes 3-0 and has also replaced the goalkeeper.

18.14 It is bronze for the Dutch. Now we are going out on our last sightseeing in Puerto Plata.

Parque Central with Iglesia San Felipe.

Calle Emilio Prud´Homme, Puerto Plata.

Avenida General Gregorio Luperón is another name for "Malecón".

We are watching the World Cup on a small silent TV.

18.40 We have walked along a wide seaside pavement and enjoyed life. We have also crossed 12th of July Street on the right day, today. It is a nice breeze but we are hungry and Christer has shaky legs. We need nutrition.

19.07 We have returned to pizzeria La Leña. We are playing it safe. On the pavement across the road is a man with a box on his head. Now we will the wonderful drink Limonada Frost and pizzas, medium and grande.

19.25 It starts getting dark and we were the only guests here when we arrived. Now there are several more here.

20.35 After a walk back and a shower, I sit on the edge of the bed. Now is the time to plan the last days so that as little local bills and coins as possible remain.

21.55 We read in books and drink our beverages in the common room with checkerboard floor. Keep in mind that soft drink kills thirst so much better than water. We don’t drink the same amount of water as we do with soft drinks. I've actually finished my book, Two soldiers by Roslund/Hellström. This means that it will no longer be able to travel with us. It has moved into a bookcase in the lobby. In the bookcase there are also works by Camilla Läckberg and Albert Speer right next to each other. We are wondering how the two had worked together.

We walked on this street the right day.

A nice walk here just before sunset.

Impressive balance act outside the restaurant La Leña.

Evening at Villa Carolina.