We used public transportthroughout the country except for the La Escalera area. Most of thesites are easily reachable by bus and caritos (kind of shared taxis).When only little public transport was available (or during earlymorning) we regularly made use of private taxis as well. In contrary tobusses and caritos prices were often raised on encountering tourists incase of the latter. Bargaining was needed every single time and willdepend much on your persistence and ability to speak Spanish. Arranginga taxi ride in the evening for the next morning usually resulted indisillusion. They were either expensive, showed up too late or did notshow up at all. A back-up plan can sometimes be useful. In most cities, even if we wanted to leave very early, we usually found plenty of taxis.Long distances were usually travelled by night busses. Numerouscompanies run luxury busses that cover most of the country. They werevery comfortable, even to spend a full night on. Don't forget to bringsome extra clothes or blankets, as the air conditioning is invariablyset to freezing. Using ear plugs can add to your sleeping comfort aswell.
San Isidro Tunnel RoadThe area surrounding the open air quarryof San Isidro still seems rather intact. The entrance road to the minecan be found about 20 km coming from Santo Domingo. If you come bytaxi, ask thedriver to drop you off at the entrance of the quarry, not at the main road.It will save you quite some time walking up there. Both mornings wefriendly asked for permission to enter the quarry, which was alwaysgranted without hassle. They even stopped the digging to let us pass.Just tell them you want to see the Cock-of-the-Rocks. We followed thetrack all the way to the tunnel.Highlights: Black-and-chestnut Eagle(showed well above the quarry), Lined Quail-Dove(few seen, more heard), Saffron-headedParrot (near 2nd waterfall), Lazuline Sabrewing(seen hovering shortly right in front of us just before the tunnel), Stripe-breastedSpinetail (1 bird), Crested Spinetail (apair building anest a bit behind the quarry), Pavonine Cuckoo(seen twice, allowing prolongedshort distance views), Golden-breasted Fruiteater(regular encounters, more heard), Black-collaredJay (3 birds), Andean Cock-of-the-rock(just pastthe quarry).
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