A quick October trip to Santo Domingo

I was down there for the graduation of a friend who I consider to be my little sister, she graduated from INTEC as an MD, soon to be pediatrician. Overall, a good trip, didn't go out as much as I wanted to, but still enjoyed myself. I got there on the 7th and returned to Miami on the 12th of this month. Some pics below.

BTW, did I mention that it was hot as Satan's underpants in Iraq on a Wednesday in August? I was sweating every moment of every day that I was down there, including when I went to Dock in Acropolis Center and was under the fans!

DR Oct '10 Trip | Facebook
The album on my Facebook profile


Seeing the North Coast always makes me smile


That's in Las Americas Int'l Airport, those are the old Dominicana de Aviacion airplanes


Damn right!


No better way to start off my DR odyssey than by grabbing a slice from Pizzarelli with a cup of the coldest beer I could get from there


Las Americas Highway on the way to Santo Domingo


So I get to my house and this was waiting for me :cheeky:

More pics below....

More pics, as promised.....

So I get to Cool Bar to drop off a gift for some friends and it's Ladies Night, where the women outnumbered the men 3 to 1 and the Chivas Regal was flowing freely (it's good to know professional women who get paid )


Some of my lady friends, who were doing a farewell for the girl in the black top, 2nd from left, she was leaving to Spain the following Sunday for her Masters' degree program in Publicity and Marketing


Me and my buddy's wife, great gal, very nice person


Some of the debauchery that was going on in Cool Bar that night :cheeky:


With my friends, we had a great time that night, considering it was a Thursday night and they had to work the next day

The next morning, I dropped off my dad at work and here's something I saw on Lope de Vega Ave which I'm gonna have to pay attention to on my next journey, an Asian bistro name AKA:



Then, in another part of town, I saw this:

:disappoin Oh the ignorance! When will they learn?

Pics of the graduation of my "sister" from INTEC in the Don Diego Cruise Terminal, coming up next!

Graduation pics...


Kinda blurry, but here is when my friend received her diploma from the Dean of INTEC's School of Medicine


INTEC's Class of 2010 waving their diplomas in the air, since they do not use the traditional toga and hat in their graduation ceremonies


Now they are officially college graduates!


Here's her family, including grandma, great people


A quick interlude, to take a pic of the Fortaleza Ozama and surrounding areas


I can see Rob's new digs in Torre Caney all the way from there


The doctor and two of her younger cousins, this was at Club Naco, where she held a small reception with family and friends


Yours truly and my brother from another mother flanking our little sister the doctor


And now she's giving a speech to the crowd, grandma on the right, boyfriend on the left, dad-in-law, whose hand is visible next to grandma is Jochy Santos, who is a well-known Dominican comedian and TV show host

More pics to follow of the remainder of the trip.....

Last set of pics, I promise

So I had promised to meet with some of my old friends from school and people I've met over the years, but I had spent the entire weekend out and just went to sleep on Saturday night. However, we decided to meet at this bar in Acropolis Center called Dock, it has a nice atmosphere and is open-air, which is a plus in my book.


My high school buddy Mitchell, who came back from Michigan after a stint at Quicken Loans to start his own business (talk about believing in his country and putting his money where his mouth is )....right next to him is my friend Julissa aka Jules, great gal, a fan of the Tigres del Licey (nobody's perfect :laugh: ) another talented professional


Here is Mitchell's wife with him and Jules, nice girl from Michigan, she's proof that it doesn't have to be the Dominican leaving the country to settle somewhere else, she did the opposite and loves it down there


Yours truly with the ladies

Now onto Monday, my last full day in DR.....



I was bored, so I took pics of the living room


Oh, but wait, this isn't the living room anymore (LOL) that's how hot it was, the "Vestida de novia" part went away as soon as I took them out of the bag, thank God for Hampton Bay and their ceiling fans


One of my best friends from high school, she's the coolest thing since sliced bread, she's also in charge of all the new hires at Laurus, which is a call center support company....


The three musketeers, but in December we're doing a full-blown reunion at some club, it was a small school so it shouldn't be too hard LOL

And now it ends....


If you know Santo Domingo well enough, then you can guess what part of town this is (hint: a stretch is called Las Vegas, and not because of the gambling )


I'm trying to remember where this is at on the North Coast, but I can't remember the name


Back home where I started LOL

You know her too? Small world! She's awesome, such a great heart. I call her "do?a fulana" but because she's always been so nice with me, sometimes I just say "mami" or "mom" .....me and her kids go back over 12 years, from my high school days until now. She makes the best tostones with moho de ajo in the world