Santo Domingo

We woke on our fourth day in Bayahibe at 6am to prepare for our day trip into Santo Domingo.  I hated having to get up so early because I hadn't slept much the night before, but I was looking forward to seeing the city.  Our bus was to arrive at 7:45am, so we hurried around to get ready and grab breakfast.  We grabbed croissants and headed to the lobby.......where we waited and waited.  Apparently "Dominican time" is not the same as Arkansas time.  The van finally arrived at 8:40.

The weather that morning was rainy and humid.  I wasn't thrilled with walking around the city all day, but figured it was a better way to spend the day since the beach was out of the question.  When the van dropped us at the bus to Santo Domingo, we took the seats at the back of the bus.  Bus is really a bit of an exaggeration for the vehicle that we were on.  The lack of leg room made for a lovely two hours, but the sliding around on the wet roads and fearing for our lives made it a true adventure.

View from the back of the bus

Two hours after we left, we arrived at the Columbus lighthouse.  The Dominicans claim that this is where the remains of Christopher Columbus are buried after being discovered in the Basilica.  The Spanish claim that he is buried in Spain.  The lighthouse was dedicated by Pope John Paul II in 1992.

 Faro a Colón

Me at the Columbus Lighthouse

View of Santo Domingo from steps of lighthouse

Our next stop was a trip past the government palace.  Our timing worked out so that we had to park several blocks away and walk as the president was heading out as we arrived.

Lunch should have been our next stop if I had my way, but we spent the next hour in a gift shop.  The shop was full of typical souvenirs, but there was an area in the back where you could by local paintings.  We ended up buying a painting and a bottle of water.

Lunch was at Columbus Plaza.  The food was not so great.  When we signed up for the tour, we were told that we would have a traditional Dominican lunch.  What we got was a buffet that included burgers, pasta, and fried chicken.  It was less than delicious.  As we headed out for our next stop at the Basilica, we spotted the Hard Rock Cafe across the street.  While their food is not the best, I wished we had been given that option over the buffet we had just experienced.   

Our guide for the day

The  Cathedral of Santa Maria la Menor is the oldest church in the Americas.  Construction on the church began in 1514 and was completed in 1540.  It is considered a Minor Basilica.  The cathedral is located next to Columbus Park.  This is where the Dominicans claim to have found the remains of Christopher Columbus buried before they were moved to the lighthouse.

Women that believe the legend can knock on this door to keep their husband faithful.  

Statue of Columbus outside of the Cathedral 

After we left the church, we did a walking tour of the rest of the Colonial District.  We saw the the French Embassy, the Pantheon (home for heroes), and stopped into a museum.

In the courtyard at the museum

The rain was falling, and we were worn out and the rest of the group was too.  We boarded the bus to head to La Romana at 4.  About an hour into our trip back, we had to stop for gas.  I expect that we're going to pull into one of the gas stations, but instead we pull off of the main road and into this giant lot.  It is exactly the kind of spot that I can imagine my mom getting panicky about because it looked like someplace they would take you and you would never be seen again.  Luckily, this was simply a spot for the tour guides to fuel up and we were on our way again in a few minutes.

One end of the fueling area

the pump

the other end of fueling area

We had dinner at Bordeaux that evening.  The French restaurant did not disappoint.  We had a mushroom and escargot casserole appetizer which was followed by Three Onion (aka French Onion) soup and the beef tenderloin.

Dinner at Bordeaux

After dinner we had a drink in the lobby bar.  We were joined by another couple from France.  This couple spoke next to no English, and we don't speak French.  This was perhaps the most frustrating time of the entire vacation because they kept attempting to talk to us, but we ended up needing Google Translate in the end.  I do know that they work at a vineyard and make champagne.  I'm kicking myself for not knowing more French because these could have been great people to visit with.......and perhaps visit in France :)

The rest of the evening was spent with four 20 somethings from Ireland.  This led to serious political talk, and I was happy to see the day come to an end.

Beach Tales

Our first day at Dreams La Romana started with a delightful breakfast of eggs, fresh pineapple, and a croissant filled with chocolate.  Yum!  We were scheduled to meet with a rep for orientation and to confirm our return transportation to the airport, so we had breakfast at the buffet.  Breakfast was definitely the meal that the buffet did properly.

The rep didn't show, so we ended up talking with a representative from VIP Tours.  He was pretty straight to the point, and went over several excursion options.  We decided to sign up for the Santo Domingo tour as that had the most history to offer.  I really couldn't think about paying to go to another beach when the one we were at was beautiful.

blue skies + white sand + clear water = perfection

The water was so clear that I could still see my toes when shoulder deep!

Once breakfast was over and all necessary business had been attended to, we headed to the beach.  The weather was perfect.  I was good about applying some sunscreen, but Jtl opted to skip it and ended up with quite the sunburn.  We spent several hours relaxing in the sun and took advantage of the beach wait service for a couple of drinks and bottles of water.  The biggest complaint I had that day was the bees.  They were everywhere.  Luckily, they weren't quick to sting.

This guy was recruiting people to play beach volleyball.  I passed. 

Cute little guy

That evening got off to a bit of a rough start as we were informed that we would not be allowed to dine at the French a la carte restaurant because Jtl was wearing flip flops.  Apparently trucker hats and tank tops are acceptable, but leather flip flops are never allowed for men.  This was a bit ridiculous, but led to a bit of fun for me as I teased him about his running shoes with his pants at dinner the rest of the week.

Dinner at Seaside

Since we couldn't eat at the restaurant we had planned to, we decided to give Seaside a try.  It was a lovely location, and I was pleased to dine outside.  If there were one thing that I would change it would be ordering a glass of red wine prior to being seated at our table.  The staff is trained to assist women with their chairs, and I ended up with red wine on my white dress when they bumped the chair into me.  Ugh.  I was so frustrated.  Thankfully, the housekeeping staff took it and was able to get the stain out.

BOO!!!

The next day started much like the previous one, but this time I was headed to the beach by myself  while Jtl stayed out of the sun.  I was able to read quite a bit of the John Grisham book that I had with me and just enjoyed a bit of quiet by myself.

We spent the afternoon eating lousy lunch at the buffet (still hadn't realized that Seaside served lunch too!), and then just relaxed a bit.

hahahaha!!!

Dinner that night was at Portofino (the Italian a la carte restaurant).  This meal was amazing.  I had a cup of minestrone soup and chicken parmesan.  The menu said that the chicken would be served with gnocchi, but it came with tortellini instead.  It was good, but I would have gone with the tenderloin were it not for the gnocchi.  Jtl did order the tenderloin, and it was perfect.  For dessert we enjoyed tiramisu.  Yum!

After dinner hours were spent watching the Olympics in the lobby.  It was another wonderful day in paradise.

Headed to Bayahibe

We woke at 4am on Sunday, July 29th to head to the airport.  Our flight was scheduled for 5:50 am, and we were supposed to land in Santo Domingo, DR at 1:20pm.  From my research, I anticipated that we would arrive at our resort by 4pm.  I looked forward to hitting the beach or pool right away and relaxing before our first night's dinner, but this was not how things would turn out.

At 5:25am, the Delta employee announced boarding had begun for first class.  I was quite excited as we were soon to be on our way!  At 5:40 she announced that there was going to be a delay.  It wasn't long before the passengers that were already on board were allowed to deplane and wait in the terminal.  The plane had a hydraulic fluid leak, and there was no telling how long we were going to be delayed.  This created a big problem for me as there was only one flight from Atlanta to Santo Domingo, and the delay meant we weren't going to make it.

The lady at the counter assured me that she would get us out of LR, but after a half hour I gave up and called Delta.  They confirmed that we would not make our connecting flight and that there were no other flights.  I was able to get us redirected through Punta Cana instead, but this led to questions as to whether our pre-arranged shuttle company would honor our arrangement in a different airport.  I was a bit worried, but thrilled that we would be landing in the Dominican by 4:30.

For our trouble, we were given vouchers for lunch while we were in Atlanta.  We grabbed McDonalds as we were already short on time to make our connection.  Another nice perk (not that McDonald's is really a perk, but FREE food is always nice) was that we were seated in the exit row on both flights.  I thought that the 3.5 hours on the plane would never end!  I kept looking out at the beautiful, clear water below and wishing we could speed the flight up!

Once we arrived in Punta Cana, we were herded through the immigration area, and we were nearly run over by a little Asian woman who was intent on getting her family of 5 through the line before those of us ahead of her.  I was a bit cranky at this point, and entertained myself by assuring that she did not get past me.  It's the little things sometimes.

We lucked out with the shuttle service, and were placed in a van with another couple.  They were staying in Punta Cana, so we got to drive past most of the resorts in that area before making the trip to the Dreams La Romana resort.  We got in the van around 5pm, and arrived at the resort at  7pm.  It was a long 2 hours with some of the craziest traffic I've seen.  Narrow two lane roads with cars passing without enough room and scooters everywhere.  Our driver talked with his hands and picked his nose too much for my liking, and I was pleased to get out of that van.

We were greeted with a glass of champagne as we walked into the lobby.  The entrance was beautiful, and the stress of the day quickly began to leave me.  The champagne was terrible, so we grabbed a beer to take in the view of the pool before heading to our room.

A welcome Presidente Light as we review the resort map

 Our room was beautiful.  Very modern and spacious.  We dropped our stuff, and headed to the buffet for dinner.  It was decent, but I am so thankful that we didn't have to eat there for dinner any other evenings.  

The evening's entertainment was the Michael Jackson show.  I'm a sucker for seeing MJ shows, so we headed over to check it out.  The team did a great job, and he was probably the best dancer I've seen as MJ but his lip synching sucked.  haha!  We bailed fairly early and headed to watch karaoke in the lobby bar instead.

Man capris in the lobby bar

More man capris...

We finally crashed around 12.  It was a long, but wonderful first day of vacation.