At the parada in the center, at ten in the morning in October, five bikes wait in a row and the man in front has been there since seven. In January, by ten, he's already been to Cosón and back twice. Same town, same bike, same fares, and a day worth more than twice as much.
These are the numbers behind the story of Rafael: ruta loans in the DR.
What a ride costs today
The fare list the drivers' association put online in 2017 still says RD$50 in the center and RD$200 to Cosón. Current sources put prices at roughly double, so we use them. Distances are road distances from the center, measured on OpenStreetMap.
| Trip | Distance | Fare used | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short hop in town | 1–2 km | RD$100 | Exploras 2026 (RD$100–150); Atlantique Sud, Jun 2025 (RD$50–100) |
| Playa Bonita / Punta Popy | about 3.5 km | RD$200 | Exploras 2026 (Bonita RD$150–250); Popy is our estimate |
| Cosón / El Portillo | 7–10 km | RD$350 | Exploras 2026 (RD$300–400); Lonely Planet, undated (Cosón RD$300) |
| Late night | — | +RD$50–100 | Exploras 2026 (single source) |
Two kinds of day
| High season | Low season | |
|---|---|---|
| Rides | 30 (22 hops, 6 mid, 2 long) | 16 (14 hops, 2 mid) |
| Gross | RD$4,100 | RD$1,800 |
| Gasoline (RD$317.50 a gallon; about 165 / 75 km) | about RD$475 | about RD$220 |
| Maintenance set aside | RD$150 | RD$100 |
| Phone and data | RD$50 | RD$50 |
| Net a day | about RD$3,425 | about RD$1,430 |
Ride counts, the mix, fuel use (about 110 km to the gallon, counting the empty ride back), maintenance and phone are our estimates. Parada dues, where they apply, come out of the net. As a check, a motoconchista in Santo Domingo Este told Diario Libre he had made RD$2,500 by eleven in the morning on the day he was interviewed.
How Las Terrenas compares with the country
The motorcycle dealers' association, AFAMOTO, surveyed motoconchistas for its 2025 study: an average fare of RD$75 and 36 trips a day, about RD$2,300 gross a day. Those 36 trips are a Santo Domingo figure; Diario Libre's write-up of the same study (2 Apr 2025) puts the interior at 12 to 18 trips a day and average monthly pay at RD$29,256. A tourist town fills that gap with fewer, longer, pricier rides in January, and with almost none of them in October.
What the gap means
Most of the day is hundred-peso hops: a bag of groceries, a bottle of gas, a tourist going from the beach to dinner. The long runs to Cosón are what make January, and they mostly disappear in October.
That gap matters more than the average. A cuota that's a quarter of a January day can be three fifths of an October day, which is exactly what happened to Rafael.
A next step
If the family has a paid-off car, yipeta, pickup or van, or you're ready to move up from the moto to a car with a down payment, that's a different kind of loan. Respaldo RD lends US$3,000 to US$75,000 over 6 to 24 months. The pre-qualification at respaldord.com is free and doesn't commit you to anything.
Fare note. Association list (todorepublicadominicana.com, published Oct 2017, page modified Jun 2024; fares outdated): center RD$50, Bonita and El Portillo RD$100, Cosón RD$200. Exploras, "Getting Around Las Terrenas Without a Car (2026)," exploras.do · Atlantique Sud, realestatelasterrenas.com (9 Jun 2025) · Lonely Planet, Playa Cosón (undated) · OpenStreetMap/OSRM distances, 2 Nov 2026 · MICM fuel prices, 31 Oct–6 Nov 2026 · Diario Libre (15 Jul 2026) · AFAMOTO, "Estudio de Comercialización de Motocicletas 2025," afamoto.org (Apr 2025) · Diario Libre, "¿Cuánto gana un motoconchista en RD?" (2 Apr 2025).
General information, not legal advice.