My calves burn against the thin plastic separating the scooter's engine from my skin. The midday Dominican sun blazes down on me even hotter. But it would take more than heat to keep me from rigidly gripping the motorcycle between my legs as I manoeuvre the pothole-pocked road toward Playa Rincon, rumoured to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean. Fresh sweat forms on my palms as locals speed by at 80kph. Even teenagers piled four to a bike glide past. The men flash jack-o-lantern grins as they graze ostentatiously close-by. Children express a different kind of intrigue as they bounce on the back of their scooters, never breaking eye contact with me: sometimes, they spit.

Road conditions are notoriously treacherous in the Dominican Republic, especially here in the mountainous Samaná Peninsula, a verdant crab claw extending from the nation's northeastern coast. "The streets are filled with amputees who used to be moto drivers," read a message board post I'd seen before leaving New York. "Riding one driven by a 'professional' moto driver is extremely dangerous, however renting one may border on insanity," warned another. The few buses and cars that operate outside cities drive excruciatingly slow to avoid kidney-jarring potholes. Daily afternoon storms erode the dents into craters and, even if there were lanes, drivers would ignore them in order to careen around the potholes. No one wears helmets.

But the abysmal mountain roads also have an advantage: they thwart tourist traffic. To many visitors, the Dominican Republic is its beaches — hard bodies dominate Punta Cana during Spring Break while the starched and moneyed hole up near La Romana. On this warm winter day, a travelling companion and I set out with a rented cherry red 50cc Yamaha to circle the peninsula's 241 rugged kilometres, ending in the region's largest city, Samaná.

Because we weren't guarded by windows or doors we could hear the merengue drifting out of houses, smell the fr...