Gringos in Las Terrenas

Here's the deal here:

You have the beautiful sleepy beach town area of Las Terrenas...

and then you have the bustling epicenter of the pueblo with the locals and constant stream of scooters and motorcycles zooming by.

I love that we are staying in the tranquil area near the beach, but we are five minutes away from the buzz of the main drag.  As you get closer to the more urban area, the music gets louder, the energy becomes more vibrant, and the food becomes more authentically Dominican. More on that!

Our first mission when we woke up in Las Terrenas was to eat some proper comida tipica dominicana (traditional Dominican food).  Being an old fisherman's town, there is a lot of Italian and French influence so there are a lot of European menu options everywhere around the beach.  Look, if we were gonna eat Italian food, we would get the good stuff at home in NYC--or Italy! We wanted our tostones (fried plantains), moro (rice and beans), and empanadas!

So off we went into town on foot with our Dominican hotel employee's vague directions to NaNa. As we got closer to the restaurant area, we asked several locals about NaNa. All we got were confused looks.  Nobody knew where this NaNa restaurant was!  We gave up and got two more restaurant recommendations, but we couldn't find them, either! Where were these elusive Dominican eateries??

Finally, we asked a local who gave us a new suggestion of his favorite restaurant, but he couldn't remember the name! However, he was sweet enough to call someone on his phone to help him recall this awesome place.  He did indeed get the name, and off we were again to Los Chichas with more directions that used random places of reference as guidance- no street names, just "go past this market, then somewhere around this other store".  We barely stumbled onto this hole in the wall, but what is important is that we did!

A Disney-licensed Ratatouille menu ;)

There were no patrons, and a lone Dominican woman worked in the kitchen. We got a grilled chicken platter and pork with black bean sauce.  The chicken and beans- the BEANS!- were so rich and flavorful.

Andrew made fun of how unappetizing the pork plate looked in the photo- "like a toilet".  Hey, sometimes good food looks like poop, ok.

The view outside the restaurant.  

I know I shouldn't make a judgment call about the people in the area based only on the people with whom we interacted. But I will make this generalization:  The locals ranged from stoic nice to super warm, and all of them were always willing to help.  Like that man who took time out to call someone to get the name of Los Chichas.  Even when we turned down items and services locals were offering, they were polite and congenial about it.

I loved the cute shacks along the road.





Me doing a beauty pageant pose outside of a juice bar shack





Here's a juice bar on the beach.. It's actually just a bar.  But it's where our breakfast place got our very delicious papaya juice



SO GOOD




While grocery shopping, I came across some interesting products. (One of my favorite things to do is go grocery shopping in different countries.)


Almost racist?



These cereal O's look either terrified about being eaten or super excited to eat their young.



Guys, this is red wine.

Our usual swimming spot



Don't mind the syringes.  Don't worry; there was no needle!





I swear the dogs in town know how to look before they cross. They are smarter than American dogs.


This one came to say hi.




We got to see a lot of the wildlife on the island. ;)

Crazy crustacean bug

This one wigged me out.  It was like a translucent fetus with a tail.  

We are really enjoying our travel snacks from Trader Joe's.  I bought dehydrated mangoes, trail mix, wasabi seaweed sheets, and this dried baby sweet pineapple treats that look like buttholes. 

More cute things along the beach.  When I posted this on Facebook/Instagram, everyone was saying it looked like a set. Haha. I put an Instagram filter on it, but yes, it looked quite "set-like" in real life, too! As Andrew and I were walking from breakfast, I declared that I needed an adorable boat in a photo. He had made fun of some other boat I tried to take a photo of ("You mean that shitty one made of fiber glass?"), so I was pleased to come across this sight. Even those plants look fake.

One night, we were recommended a nice dinner spot on the beach.  After walking forever, we saw nothing.  Apparently, it closes for dinner!  Due to our hunger, we were willing to eat at the Italian joint that our Italian hotel owner (probably also owns) suggested.  We arrived at a very lovely looking establishment with outdoor dining and both ordered grilled fish with lots of garlic. I got whole red snapper, and Andrew got Mahi-mahi fillet.  Verdict: Both were very good fish; Mahi-mahi was better!

Andrew and I were basically the only other customers there besides a four top full of smoking Italians.  We were early birds, and soon people were trickling in all dressed up.  The women were wearing dresses and heels as if they were going to the hottest Miami clubs.  One woman at the table next to us straight up gawked at my flip flops and sun dress as I got up from the table.  The thing was that these attractive young women were all with old white dudes.  At one table, I saw the guy inspect a photo on his phone that looked like his female companion.  Similarly, at another table, the man was reassuring his gal pal that her photo looked great.  The photos looked like profile pics!  Andrew and I look around and realized that 90% of the restaurant was now full of these couples.  Things started to click.  Those profile photos were from some online "dating" site! We were at the prime spot for gentlemen to take their escorts, I swear. Nice. Thanks for the rec, hotel owner.  

We were joking that maybe people thought we were a gentleman and hooker scenario. But not with our broke ass outfits, nope.  I debated on whether to warn people on TripAdvisor. (One review referred it to "a place for Italians to meet" but it's more like where "Italian men and prostitutes meet").  I decided not to because really...it's about the food, am I right?  If old white men and their lady friends eat there, I guess I can't hate.  I just didn't expect it.



xo,

Erica