My husband and I just got back from our anniversary trip in Boca Canasta. We had never been to the DR and wanted a romantic getaway but with real culture not a holiday in a box all inclusive. So we found this sight and started researching areas. We found a beautiful and inexpensive house for rent on HomeAway.com in a community named Cala Linda on the Southwestern coast. Renting the house was very easy and we arranged for the community management staff of Cala Linda to pick us up at the airport in Santo Domingo. Cala Linda is a gated holiday community 4km south of Bani. The area is very rural but beautiful. Most of the home owners are German and the manager Christine speaks German, Spanish and some English. The other caretakers only speak Spanish. We have very limited Spanish but were able to communicate with everyone fairly easily. Everyone we met even in Bani was very nice and patient with us. Well except the kid begging on the street corner that our driver gave a peso to go away. We spent most of our time relaxing around the private garden and pool and wandering the beautiful beach. We rarely ever saw anyone else on the beach except a few local fisherman. The beach is some what rocky in this area and the beautiful black sand gets really hot in the Dominican sun. We hired the managers son to take us up the mountain to a local waterfall. He arrived on schedule in a flat bed single cab commercial truck. Not exactly what we expected but we didn't mind. We hoped up on the toolbox and were set to go. Along the way we discovered that this truck was the local transport/delivery truck up to the campesinos. The truck picked up and dropped off people and goods along the way both up and back. The adventure continued once we got to the village at the top of the mountain as our guide directed us to follow him into the woods then across a small river a few times up some rock ledges until we came to a beautifully secluded waterfall. The guide and his friends cooked us lunch over a fire, served us ice cold Presidente and showed us how to slide down the waterfall. We also attracted a few local teens that we decided to share our lunch with. They were very polite, showed off jumping off the cliffs and then left us,so we could enjoy their waterfall in private for a few hours.
We chose to spend the last day of our trip in Santo Domingo. We wish we had more time. When we arrived in the Zona Colonial we knew we need to return. Our hotel was on the corner of El Conde and we loved just wandering around, talking to the shop owners and tasting the food. I have pictures of everything I am going to try and post soon.
We chose to spend the last day of our trip in Santo Domingo. We wish we had more time. When we arrived in the Zona Colonial we knew we need to return. Our hotel was on the corner of El Conde and we loved just wandering around, talking to the shop owners and tasting the food. I have pictures of everything I am going to try and post soon.
