Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic January 2014

Little did we know that when we planned this trip to the DR, Atlanta would be experiencing its coldest temperatures in 10 years. We left on Sunday with temps in the teens and when we arrived in Santa Domingo, it was 87 degrees! After immigration, we were met by a driver from the Renaissance. He was holding a sign with our name. First time ever for that.

The hotel is right on the Caribbean; however, Santa Domingo has no beaches.

After check-in, we walked the streets around the hotel, found a store to buy wine, and checked out the nearby Casinos. That evening we ate dinner in one of the hotel restaurants and sampled our first local beer, Presidente. It was a nice pilsner.

Monday we went for a long walk along El Malecon, Avenue by the Sea, also know as Avenue George Washington, which runs for miles along the Sea.

 We spent some time at the hotel pool and then headed for the Colonial Zone. The Colonial Zone is all the historical buildings that are about 500 years old and is in the area where Christopher Columbus first landed. No one told us that all the museums and churches are closed on Mondays. We discovered that soon enough and after walking around for several hours headed back to the hotel. Before doing that, we found a Hard Rock Café where we got a pin for grandson Alec’s collection and stopped for a Presidente.

We had signed up for the meal plan at the hotel, which included a bountiful breakfast and dinner and all the bottled water we could drink. The bottled water is very important since even the locals do not drink tap water. Even at our hotel, we used bottled water.

Tuesday we went to the Jardin Botanico Nacional. It was too far away to walk, so we took a cab. The driver spoke no English, but he got us to the right place and made sure we had tickets and got us on the tour tram the runs through the gardens. He then waited for two hours to take us back to the hotel. Our favorite part of the Gardens was the Japanese garden.

 

 

Then it was back to the pool. After dinner, we went to the casino at the hotel next door where Zach played Blackjack. The tables at this casino had lower minimum bids that our hotel’s, 100 pesos (1 US dollar = 42 DR pesos).

The next day we took another Taxi with picture stops at the Palacio Nacional (Presidential Palace) and the Faro a Colon, the place where Christopher Columbus is buried. The Faro a Colon was built for the 500 anniversary of the European settlement of the Americas.

From there we went to the Acuario Nacional (Aquarium). It was OK. Probably would have been more impressive if we did not live in the hometown of the largest aquarium in the world.

The last stop of the day was at one of Zach’s favorite places, Los Tres Ojos (The Three Eyes). It’s a series of lagoons in limestone caverns/sinkholes. It is very old with large Stalactites, Stalagmites, and Columns. In addition, it is very picturesque!

 

 

Thursday we went for an out of town excursion to Isla Saona. We left the hotel at 7 am. We finally arrived at the start location after three hours. We had stops to pick-up more people from different hotels and a stop at a massive gift shop that had really nice stuff. After pictures, we loaded on two speedboats for an hour ride to the island. They were fast!

 












We had one stop along the way for pictures and a swim. That’s about the time they started serving the rum and cokes. It was all-inclusive, so the R&C was flowing freely.

 

 On the island, we continued to drink R&C and had a nice lunch with Dominican foods.

 

We only had a couple hours on the island before heading back on a catamaran. That was a much slower ride back with, of course, more R&C.

 

The bus trip back was a lot faster and we were back by 7 pm. It was a fun day!

Our last day we spent several hours at the pool before heading to the Colonial Zone to see the churches and museums that were closed on Monday. We went to Catedral Primada de America, the oldest cathedral in the Americas; building started in 1514 and was completed in 1540.

From there we went to Fortaleza Ozama, the first permanent military structure in the Americas built in 1504. It was also build in medieval castle style. Just a little farther down the street was the Alcazar de Colon.

 

 

The Columbus Palace was built by Christopher’s son Diego just inside the old city gate. Cortes, Pizarro, and Ponce de Leon had all stayed there.

From there we went to the Amber Museum. DR is one of a few countries that mine Amber. Zach was going to buy a piece until we found out how expensive it was. The Amber tour was very interesting.

We ended the day with dinner and a Presidente at Pat e Palo Restaurant on the Plaza de Espana across from the Alcazar de Colon.

Saturday we hung out at the pool until it was time to go to the Las Americas airport and fly home.