Routes in RD!
Woke up, rode.
Through some pleasant small towns.
Now in a larger village. Having coffee in a hotel.
Recharging. Filling up batteries (laptop, phone, spare x 2).
Supposed to hit 36 degrees C or so today, plus humidity!
Also, looks like another large mountain ahead. Around a thousand feet elevation. Hopefully has some more of those delicious fruits!
Thunderstorms predicted. I'm planning to go carefully.
I aim to make it over the mountain this week, while getting some work done. We'll see how that pans out.
The Dominican people seem hospitable and commercial. By contrast, many Americans seem commercial but not as hospitable. In the South, hospitable.
It's an agricultural region here. So there are tons of agro shops, not much in the way of modernity.
The map suggests an alternative route that goes around the mountain. Way farther, still has significant climb, but it looks lower elevation.
141 km versus 20 km.
Maybe half the elevation, but hard to say because of the length of the route.
A few more small towns, and one more sizable town on the alternative route.
I'm still kind of leaning towards my straight over the mountain shot, but considering the alternative.
Looks like the alternative route, the one the map suggests, goes around the mountain on a shallower slope, but still over it rather than around it. It adds mucho distance, which I may want for a chance to do more work. However, it may be less interesting.
Each route has one medium town, somewhat likely to have wifi, so I don't think there's much increase in work.
I'm thinking of heading straight over, keep it straightforward. Then, I can still visit some of the other towns on the alternative route, if I do another inland detour further west.
Nagua looks like a coastal place where I can head inland again.
Feeling somewhat stuck. It's such a pain to find wifi, AC, etc., out in the middle of nowhere!
Still, I think it's important to go!
I'm aiming for the mountain!