The town of Puerto Plata is about 3 miles from Ocean World and we all wanted to take the cable car up to the top of the 800m to the Christ statue (not as big as the one in Brazil) into the cooler air and walk in the gardens, so we walked from the marina to the main road and fended off the taxi drivers and “tourist guides” and jumped in a guagua. He dropped us at the bottom of the cable car hill and we took a motoconcho up to the station, paid our $10 and hired a guide for $20 and had a great morning.

 

Then we went down into town in a proper taxi 300 pesos and wandered around, had lunch at an Italian restaurant and drank lots of Bohemia beer to make sure we weren't getting dehydrated. A young man came up to me and said “Hi, I saw you in the marina yesterday, I work there”. So I chatted to him and the beere was starting to filter through my system so I asked where the nearest loo was. He kept saying “I don’t want any money cos money isn’t everything” and we all followed him into a little shop, where David and I were very relieved. Then came the scam – “I don’t want any money, but you can buy some milk for my daughter” SO I bought 2 litres of milk for 400 pesos!! (about $10) and then I expect he went back to the shop and split the takings with the shop owner. It wasn’t till we got back to the town square that Nicky reminded us we were wearing bright yellow armbands with “Marina” on them – Opps!, what a bloody tourist.

 

Anyway ask the girls about a dodgy necklace bought in Luperon from a guy who apparently was our friend and kept saying he was honest and walked round to “his” house and showed us the school – anyway they all need to put food on the table everyday for their families.