Oh and...

I had a big day this past Tuesday that I forgot to write about...I got a ticket for not wearing my seatbelt! I hadn't even had the car for a week! I have a horrible habit of not putting on my seatbelt until I've started driving. Usually I put it on once I get out of a parking spot or the garage, but this time I didn't. Out of all the illegal maneuvers DR drivers do without getting ticketed, I was dumbfounded that I was getting a ticket for this. I tried to play dumb with the cop - no hable espanol - but it didn't work. She told me to pay the ticket at the local bank here. I went two days later and they told me that seatbelt and cell phone tickets had to be paid at the actual transport office. The timing didn't work for me to go that same day to take care of it, which was a God thing. The next morning I called the Barrick offices here in Santo Domingo to ask for directions to the transport office and found out that you have to take a 4 hour course on top of the $1600 pesos fine. Thankfully for only $400 pesos more (about $12) I could pay a man working for Barrick to "take care of the ticket." Thank you God, literally, that I called the offices instead of doing it my own indepent way!