Blogs from Dominican Republic, Central America Caribbean - page 36

It´s been a strange week, with seasoned veterans leaving the guesthouse and newbies arriving. In theory, this leaves me as one of the most experienced people in the house but it´s a bit like the blind leading the blind! It was an odd week at school, too. Without Sarah to take the lead, Amanda and I struggled a bit to gain control of the classes who were even more excitable than usual because it was the end of term. By Thursday (the last day of school before the Easter holidays), half of the teachers were away on courses so we abandoned all hope of teaching English and just had goodbye parties for Amanda who also leaves on Monday. On Friday, everybody in the house took a trip to Boca Chica, the nearest beach to Santo Domingo. ... read more

I´m sitting in the i to i guesthouse in Santo Domingo to write this. We´ve got a computer with access to the internet which will make staying in touch much easier - assuming it´s working. I´m discovering that not much works as it should in the DR but the pace of life is so laid-back that it doesn´t really matter. There are about 10 volunteers at the guesthouse (give or take the odd overnight guest), all working on projects in and around Santo Domingo. I started teaching yesterday so today so I´m pretty knackered at the moment, especially as we had a big night out yesterday and I only had 3 hour sleep. Dominicanos just love to dance, mostly merengue and raggatan, so there´s no chance of just standing around for a quiet drink. It´s hot ... read more

We are the first and last tourists to visit the Dominican Republic and NOT go to the beach. We did not do any sex tourism either. We were too busy trying to find tickets for mainland south america, or central america. We opted for Venezuela in the end, as tickets to Mexico from the DR are more expensive than transatlantic flights between new york and london. go figure. Air travel to and from Caracas is cheap. It rained most days we were there, but we got these photos. And I swam in a voodoo baptisim cave, 50 feet under the earth. bSilvie and I got engaged too./b ... read more

Boca Chica is the closest beach town to the capital city of Santo Domingo.Boca Chica Beach is about 30 minutes away and is a great beach to hang out at all day. The water is clear and extremely calm as Boca Chica beach is a natural lagoon. Kids can play in the water all day long without lifeguards as the water is calm and shallow. The East end of the beach features lots of bars and restaurants right on the beach, while the western end is more for locals that will rent a table under an umbrella and order their food and drink from strolling vendors. Speaking of vendors, people will try and sell you everything under the sun in Boca. Some find it annoying but some like the local flavor. From beach towels and beach ... read more

We left Edmonton on Aug 21 and headed out to Montreal and attended Debbie's wedding. Then we stayed in Toronto. Our original plan is to stay in Toronto for a few days, then head out to Florida, USA to visit the Everglades National Park. However, because of Hurricane Katrina (the one that hit New Orleans real hard) which raised gasoline prices as well as created a possible gasoline scare, we decided to look elsewhere. A look on the web gave us an option to visit the Punta Cana, in the southeast part of the Dominican Republic for a very good price (Cdn$350 + $250 tax including flight, hotel, all meals and drinks). (Another tourist found the same package cheaper by $50 on "Sell Off Vacations") We spent 7 nights in the beautiful 3 star all-inclusive resort ... read more