Shmoobliher 🎩
@shmoobliher
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It turns out I didn't write a post yesterday, although I was sure I did - memory is a strange thing, or maybe I'm just getting old, haha. Never mind.
I've already mentioned a unique building several times - the Basilica of Our Lady of Altagracia in the city of Higuey. We visited there quite often and explored the whole city. To be honest, the city itself is only interesting in the center - mainly because of the basilica and a few other places that I personally found worth visiting: a park and ruins of houses built in the 19th century.
The rest of the city is pretty dirty. And it mainly consists of two-three-story concrete boxes, a bunch of wires and quite a lot of garbage if you move away from the center. Although garbage is a big problem for the whole Dominican Republic, which is sad.
But let's get back to the basilica - I could just look for information about it on the Internet, but it's boring. I think you can easily do it yourself if you are interested. The building is unusual, especially on the inside, and every time I looked at its massive stained glass window, I couldn't help but think of Star Trek.
The "Star Trek Church" has been parodied many times in popular shows like Futurama, Family Guy, Robot Chicken, and various parody movies and TV shows - and for some reason, what I saw in those parodies, I saw there too...
Please don't be offended if this comparison seems inappropriate to anyone - I'm speaking purely from an architectural and pop culture perspective. 0 reply
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...but this "cop", even though he lost, still wouldn't let us go - he obviously really needed those 35 dollars. He didn't know what to say and kept repeating that I had to pay a fine, and I kept asking him to write me a receipt. This went on for some time. In the end, I decided to lie to him, saying that I didn't have any money, just to get it over with.
I have a wallet, but I hardly ever use it - I usually put my money in different pockets, in case I have to haggle and pretend that I don't have any more, or just to not lose it all at once, ha-ha-ha. So I took out my wallet, opened it and poured out a few pesos in change. Then I theatrically turned out my pockets and found a few more coins - less than a dollar in total)) And I said: "This is all I have, take it if you want." But this idiot saw a local bank card and told me to withdraw money... that's impudence.
Okay, I said I'd go, although of course I wasn't going to come back, haha. Then this "cop" told me to leave the bike - yeah, of course I would have done that. By that point I was too tired to smile, and the whole thing was wearing me out. I took out my phone, called our company lawyer, quickly explained the situation and handed the phone to this extortionist.
The conversation was short - this bastard was furious and shouted something in Spanish that I no longer understood. In the end, I said that I could call the lawyer again and say that I was being detained - besides, I had a GoPro camera on my helmet and everything was being filmed (in fact, nothing was being filmed - the battery died in the mountains))). But the argument worked. He swore, made a few gestures showing that he was watching me, and showed that next time he would put handcuffs on me - it was so funny that I couldn't stop laughing.
But the real "killing blow" was delivered by my friend, who had been silent the entire time and only occasionally asked what was going on. Just before leaving - the policeman had already moved about ten meters away - my friend called over the "translator" - a taxi driver on a motorcycle - and gave him 10 dollars for his help right in front of the policeman. If this were a rap battle, this would be the moment when the microphone is thrown on the floor, ha-ha-ha. 0 reply
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My friend and I were sitting on a motorcycle when a police officer demanded $35 from us (to this day, I still don’t know why exactly that amount). Our "translator," the moto-taxi driver, stood nearby and clearly felt uncomfortable being part of this whole situation. The phrase "Well, buddy, you just have to give him $35" didn’t exactly convince me, hahaha...
I asked the "translator" to ask whether I was actually being fined. Although, honestly, I pretty much understood what the cop was saying. The officer said yes, I had violated something and it was a fine. Okay, I said, ask him what the fine is for, and then I’ll pay.
As I mentioned, there really wasn’t much to fine the motorcyclist for, except maybe not wearing a helmet — and even then, I was wearing one as a passenger. It was hilarious to watch this petty extortionist try to come up with a reason to fine me. And he finally came up with one. He decided to check the documents to see who the motorcycle was registered to… he smiled as he asked for the papers, clearly thinking the bike was registered to someone else (which is common in the Dominican Republic — few people bother to officially transfer ownership of old scooters and bikes because the process is long. None of my three scooters were officially registered to me). But he was in for a surprise. With an even bigger smile, I handed him the documents — and surprise! The motorcycle was registered to me, since I bought it new from a shop and was the first owner.
The look on the officer’s face was priceless. He had no more reasons to fine me. He was literally grinding his teeth in frustration, while I kept smiling at him like an idiot just to spite him, hahaha.
But he didn’t give up. He started shouting that I had to pay the fine.
"A fine?" I asked.
"YES!!!"
"Alright, I’ll pay. Write me a receipt, and I’ll go to the bank today and pay it." (There’s a specific bank for paying these kinds of fines, and I knew which one.)
That was it. He lost. He had no more arguments — not that he had any to begin with. That jerk thought he could scam some naïve tourists, but he picked the wrong guy… 1 reply
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The third situation that unexpectedly happened to us during this little trip occurred when we returned to Bavaro — right on the road where, in the video, I was overtaking a school bus. Just about 200 meters from that spot, we were stopped by a police officer.
The only possible reason he could have stopped us for was the absence of a helmet on the driver, but I was wearing a helmet, and so was my passenger. We were driving slowly — although, honestly, I’ve never heard of anyone in the Dominican Republic being fined for speeding, haha. So it was hard to understand why he stopped us.
But this police officer, without explaining any reason, immediately said: “You are fined.”
Then came the dialogue:
– You are fined!
– For what?
– You are fined!
– For what?
– You are fined!
– For what? x10
Basically, he couldn’t explain why — and didn’t really try. Maybe he thought we didn’t understand him and called over one of the motoconcho (motorcycle taxi drivers) standing nearby, who spoke a bit of English. The officer said something to the taxi driver, who then turned to me and said:
– You have to give him 35 dollars.
I have no idea why exactly 35, haha.
– Why do I have to give him 35 dollars?
Judging by the look on his face, the taxi driver didn’t know either. He turned back to the officer, they discussed something, and then the driver came back to me and said:
– Well, buddy, you just have to give him 35 dollars...
The whole situation was both silly and kind of funny, and it made me smile — which, for some reason, made the officer really angry... 0 reply
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There were a few dangerous or unpleasant moments during this whole trip.
The first one was that my motorcycle, although not expensive, was quite powerful, and maybe that had something to do with the engine vibrations transferring to the handlebars. You don’t really notice it when you're riding short distances, but after covering over 100 km almost without stopping (and that was just one way), my hands were shaking for at least half an hour and I had some really weird sensations.
The second moment was that some kind of large predatory birds live on the mountain — they looked like bald vultures, just a bit smaller — and at some point, they attacked our drone. We were lucky because my friend is pretty skilled at flying that thing (unlike me — a few years later I crashed an Inspire 2 with a very expensive camera in the desert near Dubai, haha, but that’s another story). We managed to land the drone safely, although a few feathers got stuck to it.
The third episode happened on the way back, almost right near home — but I’ll write about that tomorrow, otherwise I’ll run out of stories, haha. 0 reply
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We got there without any problems. But we didn’t dare to ride the motorcycle up the mountain itself… it was too scary, haha. Although some locals did ride all the way up on their bikes. But the road up is just clay and rocks — it’s narrow, and if a truck full of tourists had come down toward me, I honestly wouldn’t have known what to do. So we paid the fee and went up on foot.
The mountain isn’t very tall — about 100 meters, 96 if I remember correctly — but the hike up is a few kilometers at a pretty steep angle, under the blazing sun. Still, it was fun, and the nature there is absolutely beautiful.
By the way, we happened to go on a day when local people were relaxing at the top of the mountain, and the only tourists there were people like us who came on their own. Apparently, on certain days of the week, tour companies don’t take groups up the mountain at all.
It was a bit scary to leave our new motorcycle down below, because scooter and motorcycle theft is, unfortunately, very common. Three of my friends have had their scooters stolen — even from guarded parking lots near residential areas… and now we had to leave our bike in the middle of nowhere. But it all turned out fine. And to be honest, halfway up the trail I stopped thinking about it — I was already soaked with sweat and dreaming about the ice-cold beer they sell at the top, haha.
Though honestly, the hike wasn’t that hard — we just happened to come during the hottest part of the day… 0 reply
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Cryptocurrency, as always, entertains... - infuriates, ahahaha 😅 Of course, not all. Many projects even since the testnet work perfectly and do not cause problems, and some are just infuriating) Today I was "pleased" with Superposicion - not only has this network been in the main network for a long time, but in all wallets it is among the test ones and is not displayed in either /debank or Cerebro, and one official defi requires 4 signatures when exchanging eth, and if you accidentally miss one of the signatures, the money is transferred to weth and stops being displayed! To get them back, you will need to go, for example, to /Camelot and change from weth to eth there, but you also need to know that this is how everything works. The first time I had to figure out where the money goes was when I made a company in /layer3 - after closing the company, of course, I will never use this idiotic long again. Today the balance in Superposition became 0, I wondered - what the hell!) In all wallets in all projects listed on the official website, also 0. Clearing the cache, updating everything to the latest version and rebooting did not help, other wallets did not help. They recommended a VPN, but it did not help either. Adding a network to another wallet via chainlist did not help either - rpc error, the network cannot be added. For the sake of interest, I took out my old phone and the balance was displayed in it, but I was able to use it only after going through almost all the countries from the VPN list, and Italy saved me (thank you, Italy!🇮🇹 🫶 ). But on my laptop and new phone, all wallets still show zero in the balance, hahaha.
Although I like their official website 😁 0 reply
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My new friend had just arrived in the country. He was a freelancer and, unlike me, he didn’t know the country very well and didn’t know how to get free tours. So he talked me into going on a trip with him. I wasn’t against it, although I was nervous about such a long ride on a motorcycle with a passenger. But in the end, I agreed.
We grabbed a couple of cameras, a drone and hit the road. Luckily, the roads in the Dominican Republic are great and there are almost no cars outside the big cities — perfect conditions for a biker like me, hahaha.
But we almost had an accident right at the exit from the parking lot of our house. A car was driving towards us on a narrow street. To let it pass, I had to ride on the very edge of the asphalt. Right behind it was a ditch and a fence — it was easy to fall into it. It seemed that everything could be overcome, until the car suddenly swerved sharply in our direction — obviously on purpose. I've seen it many times: when I was riding a bike, drivers often tried to push me off the road or brake abruptly in front of me (I still don't understand why some drivers hate cyclists so much - I wish every such driver seven years of non-stop diarrhea, hahaha!). But I kept calm, didn't jerk the wheel - and we safely passed this idiot.
The rest of the ride was smooth and calm - almost straight. We visited the beaches of Macau and Uvero Alto and stopped for lunch in small villages. The only problem was that on turns my bike leaned heavily towards the turn, and I had to make an effort to keep it on the line. It turned out that my passenger leaned towards the turn, thinking it was easier. Well, yes, but it was not. 😄 At one point I almost drove into a ditch because of this, but fortunately everything worked out.
Overall, the road was picturesque, easy and almost empty - it was a pleasure to drive along it! 0 reply
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Despite having quite a bit of experience riding a scooter by that time (I even wrote about my trip from Bávaro to Puerto Plata — almost across the whole Dominican Republic!) and a background in extreme cycling, I didn’t handle motorcycles very well. In fact, I was even a bit scared of them, haha. I mean, I liked it, but it was definitely more challenging than a scooter — and way more powerful. Plus, the roads are full of reckless drivers, and you never know what to expect from them.
I fell off the motorcycle three times — all due to slippery roads. Though one time it definitely wasn’t my fault: some idiots were repairing a truck right on the road and had removed the oil pan. All the oil spilled onto the pavement — right before a speed bump. In the evening, it just looked like a puddle... When I rode over the speed bump, the rear wheel slipped to the side and I fell — with a passenger on the back. The carelessness of Dominican drivers is just insane. Of course, not everyone is like that, but unfortunately, the majority are!
And yet, despite all that, I still tried to travel on my motorcycle. At first, it was just short rides to Macao Beach — only 25 km from Bávaro. Then I started going to Higüey from time to time — the biggest city in our province. By the way, it has one of the most interesting Catholic cathedrals I’ve ever seen!
Eventually, a new friend of mine suggested we take a trip to Montaña Redonda — it was more than 100 km away. I kept making excuses, remembering all my crashes, but he convinced me to go anyway. So off we went… 0 reply
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Getting your scooter back from the impound lot is a real adventure. You have to get to the very end of Bavaro. Bavaro is not a very big city, but still, when your only means of transportation has been taken away, and there is only one bus in the city with a chaotic schedule and an unclear route, you have to find someone who will take you and stay with you until you return the scooter.
Why “until you return the scooter”? Because first you have to go to the impound lot, which is located at one end of the city, and get a receipt for the fine. Then you have to go to a special bank located on the opposite side. There you stand in a huge line that barely moves. After paying the fine, you go back to the impound lot - hoping that no one has taken your good scooter and left you with a broken one of the same model, hahaha.
In the line at the bank, there are several shortcuts. For 250 pesos the guard let me skip the line. He offered it himself - I guess it's his part-time job. I guess he picks people who look solvent and "take initiative". Even with such an easy way, I remember spending a lot of time there - banks in the Dominican Republic are pain and suffering, and time stands still there. I arrived at the impound lot just before closing and had to persuade them (with a bribe of 100 pesos) to give me my scooter that same day. The scooters in the impound lot are just piled up in a heap, as if they were unloaded from a dump truck. Mine was on top - I was lucky. But even though it was on top, one side was badly scratched 😞 But at least I got it back. 0 reply
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One time my scooter was also towed to the impound lot. I didn't know about the monthly police raids then, and I hadn't developed the habit of wearing a helmet yet... Although, when I was riding a bike downhill, I never rode without a helmet - and it saved me once - for some reason I just didn't want to wear a helmet when riding a scooter, hahaha. That's how I got into the trap I wrote about yesterday: I was riding without a helmet, trying to go around a truck parked near a speed bump, and a policeman suddenly jumped out from behind it.
I must say that this policeman was definitely not the smartest person I've ever seen - he jumped out right in front of the scooter, spreading his arms wide, which just scared me, and instead of braking, I accidentally hit the gas, hahaha. And he jumped out not behind the speed bump, where they usually brake, but about 10 meters before it, when my speed was still quite high. As a result, I crashed into this idiot at a speed of about 30 km / h.
I used to do extreme sports, so I know how to fall - or even jump - from a two-wheeled vehicle without getting injured. And that's what happened: I managed to jump off carefully, and I just fell by inertia, without any injuries. The scooter crashed into this idiot cop. Luckily for him, he only hit him with the steering wheel - because when I jumped off, the steering wheel deflected to the side, and this saved him, but it was pure luck ...
While I was standing there, trying to comprehend what had happened - and wondering how to explain it all, not knowing the language - he got up and started loading my scooter into the car ... 0 reply
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My scooter ended up in the impound twice. Despite the corruption that allows you to pay for almost any violation on the spot (and they usually either say it outright or hint at it), there is one day a month when you can’t negotiate. This is when the traffic police “fill their quota”, hahaha. So 29 days a month, if you don’t wear a helmet (which is basically the only thing they fine motorcyclists for), they will outright offer to pay you on the spot. But on this day, the traffic police actually do their job.
It’s a bit funny. They set up traps on the road, usually right in front of speed bumps. They park a tow truck or some other large vehicle and then jump out from behind it. They don’t stop the cars, because the tow truck can only carry one car or twenty scooters/motorcycles. And on this day, it’s impossible to negotiate at all.
One time my scooter ended up in an impound lot because I gave it to a friend for 5 minutes and he rode it without a helmet. He forgot something at home and I let him take the scooter - it was less than a kilometer - but he walked back, haha. However, he took my scooter from the impound lot himself... funny system, right? A random person can take someone else's scooter, and all the documents are in the name of a third party. This is the Dominican Republic))) 0 reply
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Honestly, I don't remember what I've written about and what I haven't 😅. I remember touching on the topic of transportation and how people like me get scammed in the Dominican Republic when it comes to repairing and selling scooters. I actually learned how to fix my scooter pretty quickly, even though I've never owned a motorized vehicle before.
I used to be a cyclist — I did downhill and cross-country (which resulted in a bunch of injuries)), then BMX (which resulted in chronic leg pain)), then I rode a fixie (got hit by a car twice) — and that's it. Since 2012, I've maybe ridden a bike once or twice.
But scooter repairs were much more expensive. Parts were expensive, and many (like me) rode really old scooters, so we had to order parts from overseas — also expensive. Plus, removing the plastic from the scooter took a long time.
So at some point I bought a motorcycle, even though I had no idea how to ride it 😂 — I think I wrote about this too... I have many memories associated with this motorcycle — some good, some not so good. The local motoconchos (motorbike taxi drivers), most of whom I knew by sight and even personally, were constantly laughing at me because I couldn’t figure out how to change gears correctly for months 😅🤣... but I didn’t even know what they were laughing at until one day my friend asked me to give him a ride to pick up his motorcycle from an impound lot.
This friend weighed 120 kg, and at the time I was very nervous about riding with passengers, especially in areas with heavy traffic. Due to the extra “load”, the back of the bike was constantly wagging and I constantly thought I was going to fall. But during the ride he noticed me changing gears and explained how to do it correctly. That was the only motorcycle riding lesson I ever got.
The thing is, when you change gears, you have to stop pressing the gas, and I didn't know that. For three months no one told me 😅, even though most of my friends rode motorcycles... 0 reply
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