re: Vacation No. 12 - Trip Report
This is brief rundown from my 12th visit [August 5th - Aug. 10th, 2004] to the D.R. . (I've been coming down since July 2000.
First, if it wasn't for a lovable Dominican Girl, don't know if I would have visited, as August is a brutally hot month. Although, sweltering much of the time, I drank a ton of Perrier and drinking more water and eating less made me feel overall better the entire trip.
Arriving at Las America, I avoided the free Brugal handout. I've learned that coming off a plane dehydrated and swigging a stiff rum only gives me wicked headaches. Next thing, I've learned is not to fumble with my papers after passing through Immigration. I did the fumbling routine trip before and was led off to little room and interrogated. Mistake of identity, but never give Immigration too long to think about you and find yourself unnecessarily detained.
Once again, I stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Santo Domingo on a $67, four night VISA special. This time my room was on the side facing Maximo Gomez Ave. I have never seen so much non-stop traffic on one street in all my life. Has to be one of the busiest in the world. More carbon monoxide output per square meter too - it just about killed me walking down to the Supermercado Nacional.
This trip I went back to Campo de Casa marina for outstanding pizza at Lemoncellos. I admit it is an expensive ideosyncracy. The gourmet pizza was 300 pesos and the taxi ride from Santo Domingo was 4300 pesos! My novia wandered off into one of those expensive marina gift shops and cost me another 3000 pesos. Aye caramba. But, it was just an unbelievably hot with high humidity day at the marina, though I was quite impressed with the overhead misting system that cools patrons as they dine under the walk around canopy.
Altos de Chavon was very quiet and quaint. I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but the stifling heat just made it unbearable. Even my Dominican girlfriend said she was heat sick. The adjacent Dye Four golf course was totally void of players. Actually, who would be playing a round of golf, to risk a heat stroke.
The road from Boca Chica to San Pedro keeps getting a little better each visit. Perhaps, Leonel can see that the highway is completed all the way to La Romana or better still - Punta Cana. It would be wonderful linking Santo Domingo with an Interstate all the way to Eastern side of the island.
Not much other interesting trip news. I did have an unusual visit to the Sol Melia. Since I have a rule of not playing craps if there is no one else playing, I meandered over to a roulette table. While I deplore the lousy odds of betting on roulette numbers, I did venture to place bets on red or black. My girlfriend went into shock as I correctly picked the right color 10 consecutive times. (Shocked me too!) Now, she thinks I can read minds as well. I'll let her think that..
Coming back to Santo Domingo in October!
--KingofDice
This is brief rundown from my 12th visit [August 5th - Aug. 10th, 2004] to the D.R. . (I've been coming down since July 2000.
First, if it wasn't for a lovable Dominican Girl, don't know if I would have visited, as August is a brutally hot month. Although, sweltering much of the time, I drank a ton of Perrier and drinking more water and eating less made me feel overall better the entire trip.
Arriving at Las America, I avoided the free Brugal handout. I've learned that coming off a plane dehydrated and swigging a stiff rum only gives me wicked headaches. Next thing, I've learned is not to fumble with my papers after passing through Immigration. I did the fumbling routine trip before and was led off to little room and interrogated. Mistake of identity, but never give Immigration too long to think about you and find yourself unnecessarily detained.
Once again, I stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Santo Domingo on a $67, four night VISA special. This time my room was on the side facing Maximo Gomez Ave. I have never seen so much non-stop traffic on one street in all my life. Has to be one of the busiest in the world. More carbon monoxide output per square meter too - it just about killed me walking down to the Supermercado Nacional.
This trip I went back to Campo de Casa marina for outstanding pizza at Lemoncellos. I admit it is an expensive ideosyncracy. The gourmet pizza was 300 pesos and the taxi ride from Santo Domingo was 4300 pesos! My novia wandered off into one of those expensive marina gift shops and cost me another 3000 pesos. Aye caramba. But, it was just an unbelievably hot with high humidity day at the marina, though I was quite impressed with the overhead misting system that cools patrons as they dine under the walk around canopy.
Altos de Chavon was very quiet and quaint. I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but the stifling heat just made it unbearable. Even my Dominican girlfriend said she was heat sick. The adjacent Dye Four golf course was totally void of players. Actually, who would be playing a round of golf, to risk a heat stroke.
The road from Boca Chica to San Pedro keeps getting a little better each visit. Perhaps, Leonel can see that the highway is completed all the way to La Romana or better still - Punta Cana. It would be wonderful linking Santo Domingo with an Interstate all the way to Eastern side of the island.
Not much other interesting trip news. I did have an unusual visit to the Sol Melia. Since I have a rule of not playing craps if there is no one else playing, I meandered over to a roulette table. While I deplore the lousy odds of betting on roulette numbers, I did venture to place bets on red or black. My girlfriend went into shock as I correctly picked the right color 10 consecutive times. (Shocked me too!) Now, she thinks I can read minds as well. I'll let her think that..
Coming back to Santo Domingo in October!
--KingofDice