Blogs from Samana, Dominican Republic, Central America Caribbean

Wednesday June 26 - I didn’t sleep great, but I definitely slept more than last night. It was hot, despite two fans. But at some point, the power went out and then the fans stopped. Not an emergency, but not as pleasant as it could have been. I actually drank a lot of water yesterday and had to wake up twice to pee, despite the sweating. The first time I woke up with a headache, and the second time I still had it so I took an advil, which did not do the job. I had the headache for most of the day but it did go in the end. I got out of bed around 6am and decided I would take the 8am bus with Caribe Tours to get to Samana rather than the 10am. ... read more

The coach that took us from Cap Haitian, in Haiti, across the border to Santiago, in the Dominican Republic, was the newest and shiniest vehicle we had seen in Haiti. It seemed out of place. But it is amazing what a change there can be, just driving across a border. All we did was cross a river ... well, that and be searched, photographed and fingerprinted. It is as if we drove from sub-Saharan Africa, across a river, and into Spain. Even the agriculture is different. In Haiti the farming was small scale, more like allotments and a lot of land was left unused. In the Dominican Republic there are larger farms - we see many fields of rice, bananas and tobacco. Tired after our seven hour coach journey to Santiago, we decided to eat in ... read more

While making our travel plans to visit the Dominican Republic, we booked this tour with Whale Samana managed by Kim Bedall, as it was a unique opportunity to observe humpback whales in their natural environment. We were not disappointed at all. So, on Valentine's Day 2014 we sailed out of the boat pier in Samana on the "Pura Mia" a specially designed whale watch vessel with about 55 enthusiastic people all eager to see the whales in their calving and mating grounds. Kim and a Marine Mammal Specialist accompanied us and gave an excellent live narration throughout the voyage in three different languages, English, Spanish and German. The boat itself was a 55 foot double decker with two modern restrooms and a snack bar. There was plenty of space to move around, and to get a ... read more

"On the first day we went on a plane to go to the Dominican Republic. It was a long flight. But then, the ride to get to the apartment was longer. When we were in the car it was such a long ride that I even counted the cars that passed by. I go all the way to 509. Whoa. Then when we got to the apartment I saw my friends - Luna, Tati, and Le-Le. We had bunk beds woo-hoo, I was on the top bunk. We mostly just played on the ipad that night. The next day we went to the beach. The salt hurt my eyes and throat. But then we went to the Rio Frio and it was cold but I liked it because I like being cold. It was not salt ... read more

Samana, Dominican Republic I awoke to a cloudy sky. By 10 am the when the tour started it was pouring. The rain stopped as we boarded the tender. At the pier our group boarded the catamaran and Wellington, our guide promised sunshine in a half hour. Evidently he has a long line to the weather god as the sun came our and we had a beautiful day. We sailed along the coast and Wellington pointed out the various resorts and small villages that line the coast. Fishing and farming along with tourism are the main economic activities. DR also fosters and trains promising young baseball talents and the major leagues have profited. We sailed/motored to a small offshore island. I was second into the warm water and headed to the rocky shore. The bottom was mostly ... read more