If the traveler takes the precaution to furnish himself with canned
food before starting on a journey inland, he will not regret his
foresight. Inns do not exist out in the country. In the larger cities,
indeed, there are hotels, but all are modest establishments. Perhaps
the most pretentious is the French Hotel in Santo Domingo City. In
hotels which are located in important seaports or railroad termini and
are frequented by travelers, the meals and accommodations are fair. In
other localities the food is almost inedible to an unaccustomed
palate, and the sleeping accommodations are primitive cots. Even in
important towns like Moca and Azua I found the inns kept by poor
mulatto women, widows with families, having one room for travelers,
divided from the family apartment by a thin partition, through which
all the proceedings on the other side could be followed throughout
the night.
The difficulty of land transportation explains why, with the exception
of three cities in the Cibao, all important towns are located on the
seacoast. It also makes plain why water transportation is preferred to
travel by land, and the inhabitants of the north and south await the
bi-weekly steamer rather than make the trip overland, which in the
most favorable cases will take about three days.
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