It was time to renew our residency and cedula, what could go wrong?
In our usual Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole experience.... this trip did not disappoint. Three weeks ago, we had our medical exams and paid our fees and the ever rewarding extra VIP fee.
Fast forward to this week trip #2. For our effort, we waited in Migration for over 3 hours. Finally, we had our photo session and got our residency card after sitting forever while reciting, actually muttering, Emma Lazarus (huddle masses earning to receive their cards) poem.
With hours left, now onto the JCE but wait..... our attorney was just informed the JCE closed due to an unexpected technical issue while installing new software and would be shutdown until October 6th! Oh,joy, we get to ride the bus for a third trip!
"I" dotters and "T" crosses should be rewarded for doing the right thing not punished for getting our residency but geez at which renewal will things go as planned?
We received the official apology letter which states:
"Dear customers,
Hereby, we inform you that we are presenting technical problems we are solving the problems to better serve this will be available on October 6, 2016, we asked excuse for all the inconvenience we serving to our servers.
Muy atentamente,
Dr Hilario Espineiria Caballos
Secretario General de la Junta Central Electoral"
Not sure if the run on sentence is the fault of translation software but you get the gist, gracias Hilario.
Now for the more positive experience in Zona Colonial.
We usually use Hotel Mercure but Expedia said they were closed for re-branding. No longer an Accor hotel but now Hodelpa from Santiago. They referred us to the rebranded Hodelpa Nicholas Ovando where we have always wanted to stay but found too pricey but it was having a soft reopening at a budget price. Upon check-in we looked so bedraggled from our 5 hour trek 4.5 bus .5 taxi they upgraded us to a lovely room overlooking Calle Damas across from the Pantheon.
It was a privilege to witness the Presidential Guard flag ceremony at sunrise and sunset. The best part was seeing the everyday Dominican stopping in their tracks with hands over hearts silently showing their Dominican civic pride during each ceremony. Very heart warming.
And by the way Mercure now Hodelpa was not closed and has also re-opened.
In our usual Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole experience.... this trip did not disappoint. Three weeks ago, we had our medical exams and paid our fees and the ever rewarding extra VIP fee.
Fast forward to this week trip #2. For our effort, we waited in Migration for over 3 hours. Finally, we had our photo session and got our residency card after sitting forever while reciting, actually muttering, Emma Lazarus (huddle masses earning to receive their cards) poem.
With hours left, now onto the JCE but wait..... our attorney was just informed the JCE closed due to an unexpected technical issue while installing new software and would be shutdown until October 6th! Oh,joy, we get to ride the bus for a third trip!
"I" dotters and "T" crosses should be rewarded for doing the right thing not punished for getting our residency but geez at which renewal will things go as planned?
We received the official apology letter which states:
"Dear customers,
Hereby, we inform you that we are presenting technical problems we are solving the problems to better serve this will be available on October 6, 2016, we asked excuse for all the inconvenience we serving to our servers.
Muy atentamente,
Dr Hilario Espineiria Caballos
Secretario General de la Junta Central Electoral"
Not sure if the run on sentence is the fault of translation software but you get the gist, gracias Hilario.
Now for the more positive experience in Zona Colonial.
We usually use Hotel Mercure but Expedia said they were closed for re-branding. No longer an Accor hotel but now Hodelpa from Santiago. They referred us to the rebranded Hodelpa Nicholas Ovando where we have always wanted to stay but found too pricey but it was having a soft reopening at a budget price. Upon check-in we looked so bedraggled from our 5 hour trek 4.5 bus .5 taxi they upgraded us to a lovely room overlooking Calle Damas across from the Pantheon.
It was a privilege to witness the Presidential Guard flag ceremony at sunrise and sunset. The best part was seeing the everyday Dominican stopping in their tracks with hands over hearts silently showing their Dominican civic pride during each ceremony. Very heart warming.
And by the way Mercure now Hodelpa was not closed and has also re-opened.