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Published: September 8th 2009
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Sat., August 8, 2009 - Departure from Miami to Santo Domingo Everyone who travels with me knows that I like to sit in an aisle seat on an airplane. Contrarily, this time I was happy to get a window seat because I anticipated seeing islands surrounded by breath taking water. I sat next to a Dominican boy approximately eleven years old named Sodocrenise (he advised that it was ok to call him Sam), who was fearful of flying. He kept talking to me, which I believe was a way for him to calm his nerves. I took various inflight videos on our way to Santo Domingo. I'll mention the video link later, so please continue reading. 😊
Our landing was a bit bumpy unlike our smooth flight and admission into the country. Going through customs in the Dominican Republic was the easiest that I've ever experienced. The agent simply greeted me and stamped my passport without asking me any questions. Then I paid $10 for a mandatory tour card, turned in my customs form and picked up my luggage. Joseph Ramos "Eyoodie" picked us up from the airport and we practiced our Spanish along the way. Our accommodations,
TheHotelAtarazana made our ride arrangement for us. It was refreshing to get settled into our rooms and to get into some fresh clothes. Eyoodie offered to give us a walking tour at 4pm. We accepted his kindness and became familiar with our new home, the Colonial Zone in Santo Domingo. We also received a personal tour of the Amber Museum provided by Presidente Director, Jorge Caridad. Then Eyoodie took us through a few stores so that we could see the local art and other goods. In one of the stores we got to taste a strong Dominican drink called
Mama Juana, which gives you a delayed burning sensation as it goes down! Several of the stores that we visted had Mama Juana, as well as other concoctions on a display table, available for free samples. Later, during our walking tour, Eyoodie introduced us to Green, a local tour guide who was assisting other tourist in Columbus Park. We were famished so Green recommended Mi Mosa, a great inexpensive restuarant which served authentic Dominican food. He showed us a few monuments on our way to the restaurant and gave us a history lesson about the Dominican Republic, during dinner. Green showed us a
few more sights after dinner, we gave him a tip, parted ways and headed back to our hotel. We needed to rest up and then change clothes for our night of dancing.
Our Discotec Encounter Music and dancing is a priority in the Dominican Republic, so later that night Eyoodie and his friend took us to the Makumba Discotec in the heart of Santo Domingo. Cramming into his compact car, not wearing seat belts and flying down the pothole filled streets in a car without shocks, was a true adrenaline rush. In addition, dogs kept crossing in front of us, causing me to yell out, "Mira Perro!" because it seemed like our driver was actually trying to run them over since he wouldn't slow down. Nonetheless, we made it to our destination safely. I'm sure that we were the only tourists there. The streets were lined with discotecs, bars and other businesses, all packed with hundreds of people socializing on the sidewalks and parking lots, with Dominican music blasting in the background. Entering the discotec for the first time was exciting, but as the night progressed it turned into an overwhelming experience. Not in a bad way, but
just in the sense of my mind being over stimulated with a significantly new experience. Initially, I felt like I was in any other dance club. However, it was clear to see the pride of ownership of music, dance, language and overall culture that every Dominican possessed in the discotec compared to what I've seen in other dance clubs! They sang passionately in unison when certain songs came on. Furthermore, they danced the merengue with variations that I've never seen before. By the way, I managed to get one dance in with Eyoodie's help, which was a tremendous accomplishment. Otherwise, one didn't stand a chance for success, if they didn't speak fluent Spanish. The Dominican ladies were respectful enough to at least hear me out, but the slow Spanish banter mixed with some English just wasn't appealing to them...LOL. Eyoodie's friend informed us that there were other clubs where the women were more accepting of the language barrier. We spent most of our time just observing our festive environment and then we went back to our hotel when our senses were full. Back at the hotel, we talked until we fell asleep, about the amazing time that we had at
the discoteca all for only 100 pesos per person (appprox. $3 USD)!
Sun., August 9, 2009 - Venturing Out Into the Colonial Zone On Our Own An amazing breakfast awaited our arrival. Although our hotel was very quaint, the service was top notch! Futhermore, its small size made it easier to meet the other hotel guests. We met Caroline Doon, who is originally from Vietnam and doing volunteer work in Haiti. She dispelled all of the myths and fallacies that we've heard about Haiti and she made us excited about adding it to our list of places to go. We exchanged facebook information, finished our breakfast and took our own walking tour to Malecon, a popular thoroughfare alongside the ocean. Our first stop was Alcazar de Colon, which was built as a palace for Christopher Columbus' son Diego. Within minutes, the weather changed from extremely hot to an intense storm. The rain blew out a transformer box connected to a business and caused the box to catch on fire, which scared the local police officers inside. The police ran out of the business and came full speed towards us while we waited under our covering from the rain.
One officer had his gun drawn and headed right for me while I was filming! We watched two older Dominican amigos playing what appeared to be a form of checkers, while waiting for the rain to subside. Then Jorge Caridad from the Amber Museum, took cover under our same shelter and had a few friendly words with us. After the rain stopped we proceeded to walk to the Malecon. It was great to be exposed to the real city scenes and not just the tourists spots, which included both eye pleasing and disappointing images. Furthermore, it was rewarding to be treated so well by many of the Dominican citizens. We built up an appetite after so much walking so we munched on club sandwiches and fries at a classy looking restaurant in the heart of the Colonial Zone. Afterwards, we ran into one of the nicest people in the Dominican Republic on our way back to our hotel. He thoroughly explained the significance of a life sized picture of a man being electrocuted, after seeing us viewing it in awe trying to figure it out. Check out the video:
Passporters Expedition 2009-Santo Domingo Ciudad Colonial. We thanked him and then continued to walk to our
hotel. A ten year old boy named Miguel followed us along the way. We conversed with him in Spanish and gave him a sandwich and a Passporters wristband.
Mon., August 10, 2009 - Bus Ride from Santo Domingo to Sosua Breakfast was just as savory today as it was yesterday. Our meal consisted of fresh fruit, well seasoned eggs, cheese slices, turkey, ham, pepperoni, sour dough rolls and passion fruit juice. We checked out of the Hotel Atarazana and took a cab to the Caribe tour bus station. Security is very intense at many places in Santo Domingo. Upon arrival at the bus station, a security guard armed with a 12 gauge shot gun walked up to the cab driver and me and observed while the cab driver was giving me my change! We hurried and purchased our tickets, hopped on the bus ten minutes later and enjoyed our four hour ride to Sosua, the location of the management office for the townhome we rented in Cabarete.
Passporters Expedition 2009 - blog continued in Cabarete, Dominican Republic....click Next Entry.
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