Luperon, Dominican Republic

We’ve heard a lot of things about Luperon. The people are amazing, such a great yachting community, great produce in town, dirty waters that will make your skin peel if you fall in…. eek! So this is what we found >>>>
Luperon has a great sailing community that hangs out in town after sun down – no so great for people with (young) kids. If we didn’t have young kids I definitely understand to pull, some people have lived here for 4+ years. It’s cheap, great weather and we felt quite safe. Funny enough coming into the bay the area looks like a sailboat graveyard. From what we understand people often “abandon” their boats here and head back home for months. It looks to be a great hurricane hole and your anchor sticks well in the muddy bottom. We tried a mooring but decided to anchor after we started to drag it across the bay. It was the heaviest mooring ball I’ve ever picked up! 
Luperon is a great place for a base camp to discover the country side. We were only there for a few days but in that time we rented a car, well it was a locals car that we borrowed, put way too much fuel in and then paid $50 on top of that. ouch! But it was worth while. We went to Puerto Plata for cash** then on to the waterfalls near Imbert. What fun. We saw people riding donkeys, road side stands and many stray dogs. The waterfalls were fabulous. You have to go with a guide and wear closed in shoes (if not you can rent a gorgeous pair like mine for $2). There are 27 waterfalls but because of the kids we could only hike to the first one. Pri said it was the best day in her life. As for the rest of Luperon, there were as many stray dogs as there are people in town. It was bloody hot during the day, no wonder the locals come out once the sun comes down. And more importantly you can buy beer for $2!! But not just any ole stubby, it was the size of a wine bottle. I was in beer heaven. While we were there we had to take our baby to the hospital, he came down with a nasty case of conjunctivitis whilst in Samana that we were self treating but getting nowhere. The hospital was small, more like a clinic and smelt funny. We only had to wait about 20 minutes before seeing the doctor and he was quick to prescribe….. something. He didn’t speak a work of English and Papo the guy that services the cruisers helped up with translations. The doctor and hospital was free and the eye drops were under $2 – cheaper than a beer! The drops took a little longer that the typical prescribed drugs in the States but it’s now a week later and his eyes are almost cleared up. I was itching to take pictures in the hospital but didn’t feel appropriate at the time. The doctor looked over worked and grumpy, understandable.
Our only warning about Luperon is the poor charts (Navionics). They stated 36’ of water coming into Luperon but we hit the bottom twice. In the lagoon/ bay it also showed plenty of water depth but we had issues and it took a few times to find a deep enough spot for us, we draw 7.5’. We had the same issues on the way out as well as a few other boats and got seriously grounded on the way out. What fun, being stuck on a shoal at high tide. Quick thinking by Carl dropped the dingy and pushed us off. What was more fun was trying to get dingy back on deck in some crazy swell just outside of the entrance. These are the times I wish I didn't drop our go pro in the water – without the casing. 
** we got the “rental” car and proceeded to drive off pleased with our efforts only to find that it barely had a drop of fuel in it. We finally found a gas station in town we had our visa card or US dollars and thought they’d have to take one or the other. We put $50 in the tank and proceeded with our card – DECLINE! “Do you take US dollars?” no!!! NO!!! ahh!! Well we needed to go to a bank. The closest bank is in Puerto Plata. Bugga! We called Papo who deals with the boats and he had to come pay the bill while we drove to the closest city being 1 hour away. Won’t do that again.
Would we go back to Luperon? Probably not. Would we go back to the DR, most definitely.