My 2 trips to the DR.

My wife is half Dominican (mom) & Half Puerto Rican (dad) and lived in the DR for 6 years. I wanted to know more about her culture, so for our honeymoon we went there for 7 days. we went to Punta Cana and stayed in the Sunscape Grand. It was the best time of my life, the all inclusive hotel was amazing! from the food to the service to the suit with sliding glass doors that opened up to an amazing ocean front view. but the best part of the trip is when I had my wife ask one of the resort workers to drive us around to the NON tourist areas! that was awesome! one of the coolest things I've ever done! people were looking at me because i guess in this particular area, they were not use to seeing a white man. hhaha! while there, we did lots of really cool activities, safari tour on an off road vehicle that seated like 15 people, went on our own power boat, then snorkeling was fun and beautiful. I loved it the entire trip. I loved it so much that I couldn't wait to come back! The only thing that frustrated me was not being able to speak Spanish! my wife did all the communicating with everyone. i didn't like that, especially to all the people that were trying to sell us stuff. btw, this was in Feb. 2005.

time for another vacation, June 2006. back to the Dominican Republic! ;-) this time I wanted to explore more. and that we did! Flew into Puerto Plata and stayed at the Marien Coral Hilton All-Inclusive. was pretty nice, the only part i didn't like was the restaurants that had no AC, i hate eating when its 100 degrees out! anyways, we did a 4 wheeler tour it was 4 hrs long. it was an absolute blast, the hotel sells the trips for very expensive, but we walked down the road and bought the same package for half price! next we went on another safari, in an off road vehicle similar to the one in the first trip, but was better cause only 5 of us total. this time, we brought 3 big bags full of candy and pens and pencils and baseballs to hand out to all the kids that are around when on the safari. airways, the coolest part of the safari was we went to a mountain that had like 27 water falls. we hiked to the water falls, than swam through the water and climbed up the waterfalls and then on the way back jumped down them! was amazing safari!

I planned to be very adventurous during this trip so we decided to rent a car and drive ourselves to the next destination; La Romana, that was probably one of the funnest drives i have ever made! and first time ever driving in a foreign country! haha! it was great! took us about 7 hours, got lost a few times, (thank God my wife speaks spanish) drove through beautiful mountains, ate at really cool restaruant in the mountains, at about the Realest Dominican food you can get. anyways, stayed at casa de campo (only cause wifes brother & family was staying there and we wanted to hang out with them). anyways, i didn't like casa de campo at all, I liked to get out and explore, not be trapped at some resort! and it was way to expensive for my taste! $6.00 US dollar for a can of beer!!!!!! $75 for lunch! to hell with that! I told the wife we MUST get another rental car, so we did, got a good deal on the rental $31 a day, and $40 for full insurance. so that night, went and had an amazing meal for only $9 US dollar! that's what im talking about! after dinner, decided to go to a club/bar, get there and notice there are like 20 female bartenders, but only like 50 people in the club???? later to find out, they were all for hire! hahahh! :cheeky: anwyays, having another rental car, and not really liking the hotel, we did a ton of exploring all the city and I loved every second of it!

Next we went to Santo Domingo the capitol, stayed at the Intercontinental V Centanario Hotel en el Malecon. was a really nice hotel, wife has a cousin that also lives in the capitol so we hung out with them also. went to boca chica, beaches, did more exploring, ate at a really cool restaurant right on the ocean down the road from the hotel. went and seen a concert that night, did all the tourist things, Christopher Columbus house and all that, more exploring, more excellent cheap food, got to see more beautiful Dominican girls more exploring etc.etc. then it was time to go home NOOOOO!!!!!!!! was so sad! I can't wait to go back! I love this place!

I know its a long long post, but i still left a ton of stuff out, if anyone has any questions i will be more than happy to answer them.

Rocky said:

You know how it is, Ken.
Unilingual English speaking people have little reason to ever learn another language, knowing full well that English is the most widely spoken language on the planet, so there's very little incentive, however, I think Havoc's new found love for the DR, may encourage him to learn a few phrases.

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You got me all wrong!!! way way way wrong! I have been busting my ass trying to learn Spanish! and, i did pretty well this last trip, i am going to continue learning, and continue getting better.

I have many many reasons to learn another language! many of the labors and general workers here are Mexican and ONLY speak spanish, therefore would be greatly beneficial for me to be able to communicate with them better. Another reason, as many jobs here in Florida pay extra if you are bilingual. another reason, we have lots of relatives that come up and visit from the Dom. Rep. and I can never communicate with them that well. there are so many reasons to learn another language! Your stereotyping of "English speaking people" is just that, a stereo type and not true for most Americans Living in the U.S.

anyways, back on topic, I was just thinking back today how much fun every minute of every day was on my last vacation. Damn I can't wait to go back! next time will probably explore a couple new places.

btw, thought of something else that was really cool about the trip, i am big into cars and racing, while i was in the capitol. Friends of ours took me to a race track and got to see my first racing in a different country! Was so cool!