I had to get up so early my legs where all shaky. Wurgh! I said my goodbyes to Mehrdad and wished him well on his endeavours. He tried to give me some Sushi to take with me, but I can barely bring myself to eat toast at that time in the morning, never mind raw fish!

I hopped on the bus back down to Santo Domingo, a nice, big, air-conditioned affair that cost less than ten bucks. Drifted off to sleep and woke surprisingly early in the capital. A taxi driver kindly ripped me off by driving me round the block to Ken the couchsurfer’s house. It wasn’t until later that I discovered it was over the road from the bus station.

So after meeting Ken and his flatmate TJ (both American), I headed over to the ports to take down the names of the ships in dock like some demented trainspotter.

Two days later, I would discover that a boat left “yesterday” for Jamaica. Blast!

Here we go then along the old waterfront, on a sunny, Sunday afternoon. Kids running about, young lovers staring out to sea, old dudes playing dominoes. Domingo, Dominoes, y La Republica Dominica.

I ambled through the lovely old colonial town as the sun set. Once again, not a bad place to be stuck for a few days. But I’m not here on holiday – I’m trying to set a new world record and I’m going nowhere fast. The Caribbean – I will defeat you. You may have put me a month behind schedule, but I’ll have the last laugh. You just wait and see.

I hopped on the back of a motorbike-taxi and we headed up to Winston Churchill Avenue, where some random guy with a heart of gold, and travel in his blood, was letting me stay for the night. Cheers, Ken – you’re a legend!