Live the same

Yes, you could drink and drive in the Dominican Republic until 2018. Technically, it was illegal to drink and drive, as was talking on the phone... The idea wasn't that you didn't have to be sober, it was that your hands should be free. 😅 They were constantly fining people for not wearing seat belts or using phones while driving.

Honestly, in the 4+ years I lived there, I only saw two drunk Dominicans - and not even while driving, but in general. They don't have serious problems with alcohol or smoking, people just don't consume that much. But when more expats started coming here, things changed. There were more drunk driving accidents involving tourists and foreigners.

The last straw was a Russian tourist who got drunk, stuck her naked body out of the window of a moving car with a bottle of alcohol, and was decapitated with a pole. 😳 Her friend filmed the whole thing, and the video went viral on the Internet.

Glad they finally passed this law, but they should have done it sooner...

We kinda got off-topic again... So, we were just sitting at the bus stop, waiting for our "drunk" friend to pick us up. Finally, he showed up, we got in the car, and drove off.

Our friend didn’t look drunk at all—honestly, if he hadn’t told us, I wouldn’t have even guessed he’d just come from a party. The road from Santo Domingo to Bávaro is a toll highway—really good and almost completely straight. But because of the landscape, it goes up and down in some places. Another thing about this road? There are no streetlights whatsoever. The only thing lighting the way is our headlights reflecting off the road markings.

Driving at night, seeing nothing but glowing white lines in the darkness—it’s kinda mesmerizing. We were going really fast. No idea what the speed was, but it felt like the car’s owner wanted to push it to the limit.

And then, at full speed, in total darkness, just as we crested another small hill... we hit something—or someone—right in the middle of the road.