As you travel around the very tall and steep mountains where I live, you eventually come across the bizarre sight of a circular, perfectly flat valley about 10 miles across, apparently created millions of years ago by a meteor strike. The valley is so high up in the mountains that for millennia people have taken advantage of its deep, rich, flat soils to grow crops that can’t be grown elsewhere. Nowadays this area is famous for producing the country’s entire supply of onions, potatoes and strawberries. In order to bring this produce to market, one of only two paved roads in the entire mountain range winds its way up from the plains, although there are still large patches that are unpaved and potholes so large that when it rains the locals have baths in them. I live about halfway along this road, and I am grateful for the fact that travel is relatively easy and not too weather dependant, unlike many neighbouring villages.

The downside of this is that traffic on this road is very heavy, with comically overcrowded lorries carting vegetables driving far too fast round tight corners. Frequently one of these tips over, spilling cabbages over the road and stopping traffic for hours. The road is eternally noisy, and when it hasn’t rained for a few days such a large quantity of dust is thrown up that the vegetation is grey for several meters on either side, before reverting to a more natural green. Sharing the roads with these are two other staples of Dominican transport, the entire family (including pets) travelling squashed on to one motorbike, and the pickup truck jam packed with passengers and their baggage. In these there is often so little space that the passengers in the open bit at the back have to stand up so that everyone and their luggage can fit in.

Today I was walking along this road when I came across some policemen stopping the cars as they drove past. I enquired what the purpose of this was, and I was informed that it was part of an Easter period safety campaign, and they were making sure that all drivers were wearing their seatbelts. Being the Dominican Republic, non-obliging drivers were given a ticking off, whilst the vastly more dangerous overcrowded pickup trucks and motorbikes were waived through.