Driving in the Dominican Republic

Driving here in the DR can really be frightful. Once you are used to it, it sort of grows on you. The rule is the first one the has the right of way. Stop signs and red lights don't really mean much, they are only just sort of a general rule. Often in the intersection there are cars going every sort of direction. You just try and put your car out there to claim your little slice of territory. While everyone else is stopped the bikers just maneuver through everyone. There are a lot of one way streets, but that doesn't even seem to make a difference a lot of the time, especially to motorbikes. The motorbikes roar along our street under our bedroom window all hours of the night. There are certain times in the day when the traffic is worse. You try and stay off the street at those times if you can. We were going slow the other day for an hour. We were going so slow that our GPS finally brought up a new screen and asked "Do you want to switch to pedestrian mode?" We wanted to, but then what would become of our car.