Day 3-038
6 hrs, 3 .2 kms

Samana is a different sort of town, nestled between the lush, jungle comvered hills and a picturesque bay, which is the "town center" rather than the typical plaza and church. It seems to be a tourism hub more for Dominican tourists. A heavily loaded ferry carries folks off to spend the day at a nearby island. Looks enticing... but I choose against it. I still hae a lot of things to cram into my last couple of days.

A good bit of money has been spent here in Samana... but I'm not to sure of how wisely. Across the bay is a tiny little island with a long, expensive bridge going to it (which is now closed). Nearby is a new enclosed shopping area of pastel colored wooden buildings made to look like a typical American beach boardwalk. Very clean, and a nice change of scenery... except almost all the shops are empty...

There are a number of organized tours you can take from here. But after Damajagua, Cabarete and Rio San Juan, I think I'm done doing the touristy thing . I'm ready to head back inland to the "other" Dominican Republic which is more about farms and cattle and simple towns built around a shady plaza...

On the bus I observe a classic "fishing" scene. An older guy, maybe 50 or 60 sits next to a woman in her early 20s and starts a conversation with her. The conversation kind of goes like this. First he talks about how financially well off he is (although from his appearance, that seems doubtful) then he talks about how well he's raised his kids who are now adults and taught his sons to be faithful to just one woman...

The young woman is polite and converses with him. Then the conversation shifts and he tells how he "has a weakess for women"... A little later he tells her that he can "help her" if she ever needs anything...

Finally the woman gets off and he sees her off to the exit of the wa-wa. Other folks on the bus get a chuckle out if it .

"She's my daughter!" he blurts out bashfully.

As soon as the woman gets off the bus, he calls another young woman in the front of the bus to come sit by him. She politely declines.

"I don't like to sit alone" he persists.

This phenomenon of older married seeking younger women as mistresses seems to be extremely common and treated as very normal here in DR. Even women when they converse seem to treat it as perfectly normal. I hear one mother saying that she has no problem with her married son bringing his mistress over, as long as she's well behaved.

I wonder, though, what challenges face the children who come as a result of these relationships. At least it doesn't seem that the girls who chose the mistress life don't seem to be treated as outcasts of society.