Ever since Jeff returned from his mission to the Dominican Republic, he has told me that he wanted to go back. For a couple of years, we have been talking about going (one of his mission buddies and his wife wanted to go with us), but we had never really gotten serious about going. So, Jeff decided 2016 was the year.
Because Jeff had so much he wanted to show me, in addition to all the beautiful beaches and tourist attractions (which he didn't get to see as a missionary), we covered a huge portion of the island. We joked around that we probably saw more of the island than most of the Dominicans ever see, and that's probably completely true.
We started on Thursday night, with a red eye flight to Miami. My Fitbit says I slept for a total of 1 hour and 1 minute that night, which explains why we were so tired on Friday when we got to Santo Domingo. We waited for two hours for our rental car (which was "at the car wash," supposedly), and it was close to 5:00 when we left the airport, so we went straight to our hotel in the Zona Colonial to check in.
This is our room at the Hotel Palacio, which is a very old Spanish building converted into a hotel. It was super cool
We got situated, went to dinner (where I almost fell asleep), and went to bed early. Saturday morning, we got up and toured the Colonial Zone. I knew very little about the history of the Dominican Republic, so it was quite fascinating to learn all that happened in the late 1400's-early 1500's. Christoper Columbus sent his brother to settle Santo Domingo, and it became the capital of Hispaniola. Diego Columbus (Christopher's son) was the first governor.
We visited the first cathedral in the New World, which claims to have been the burial place of Christopher Columbus. The architecture was spectacular.
Awesome stained glass
Diego Columbus' house was destroyed by the pirate Drake, so it was restored as a museum.
We also started our love affair with chinola (passion fruit), as we tried to get our hands on everything we could in the flavor. This was an ice cream bar, and it was delicious.
Parque Colon, outside the cathedral, with a statue of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus).
Refreshing limeade we bought in the Colonial Zone.
We also drove over to the temple. When Jeff was at the end of his mission, the ground had just been broken for the temple. It was fun to see it finished. There was a wedding going on, and a whole bunch of people waiting outside. The MTC is right next to the temple.
After two nights at Hotel Palacio, we left for our long trip up to the north part of the island. I took a picture of our rental car in the parking garage at the hotel. There was absolutely no space, so the parking attendant just had us park right in the middle of everyone else. Good thing we were the first to leave in the morning!
We spent Sunday touring the areas Jeff served in in his mission. I had hoped we would be able to meet some of the people he had taught, but he didn't think that would be possible. He had no way to contact any of them, and hadn't talked to them in 20 years. No one had cell phones in 1996. But he told me about a woman named Coki, who he had found tracting in his very first area. He told me he knew she would still be active, but he had no idea if she still lived in Villa Gonzalez or not.
We pulled up to the new church building (new to Jeff--they met in a home when he was a missionary) just as church was getting out. A group of women and children were leaving, heading home. Jeff recognized one of the women, and it was obvious she recognized him, too, even though her face said she couldn't believe it could possibly be him.
Her name is Digna, and she is Coki's daughter. After Jeff baptized Coki, and Coki's sister, he taught Digna and her husband Jose. They had a small son and had to get married before they could get baptized. And 20 years later, that small son just returned from his own mission to Mexico City. Digna invited us back to their small house and we spent some time with them there. Even though I couldn't understand a thing that was being said, it was so special to be there. Jose and Digna have two other children, and now live in a different house than they did when Jeff taught them. There's no way we would have found them had we not been at the church when she was leaving.
Jose, Camilla, Digna, Snayki, Tommy and the tall boy is from Jose's first marriage, I don't know what his name is
Sidenote: Coki now lives in a different town. Jeff talked to her on the phone for a few minutes.
Getting Digna's contact info before we left. Jose had to leave because of all the tears.
Jeff's first home in his first area in Villa Gonzalez. Neighbors were quite concerned with the white people posing for photos in front of the house. Haha.
We continued on our way through Villa Vasquez all the way up to Montecristi, where we stayed Sunday night.
Chofan, an Asian dish that is popular in the DR. It reminded Jeff of his mission,
Chivos (goat meat)
We stopped and took a tour of the salt ponds of Monte Cristi. They bring sea water into the ponds, let evaporation do it's thing, and collect the salt. Here's a cool photo Jeff took of the ponds. The salt is stored in the shed. El Morro is the hill in the background.
We stayed at the El Morro Eco Adventure Hotel in Montecristi. There was one other couple staying there, and they left early Monday morning, so we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.
Our little bungalow at night
Avocado face masks in Montecristi
Beach at Montecristi. Jeff did a baptism here during his mission. All I got for my time there was a bunch of mosquito bites (three on my butt, right through my clothes!). Needless to say, we didn't stay here longer than a few minutes.
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Bungalow at day.
We took off Monday afternoon (after some lounging at the pool) for our trip up to La Isabela. I told you I learned a lot of history on this trip, and this was a place you only need to visit once in your life. It's far off the beaten path, and there isn't much left. But if you want to say that you are standing in the first settlement Christopher Columbus created in the New World, you have to go there.
The trip there took a lot longer than we planned, through small Dominican towns that probably never see white people. It was rainy, so the dirt road was not passable in our rental car. Instead, we had to go up and around, adding an extra hour to our trip. But hey, it was all part of the adventure.
From La Isabela, we headed to Puerto Plata, which was another of Jeff's areas on his mission. It was actually the crown jewel of his mission, being a city on the ocean. We checked in to our hotel (it was actually a cheap hostel) just as night was falling, and we were afraid that the place was abandoned. It didn't look good. But there was a dog eating a mango in the backyard (between the main house and the rooms of the hostel), so that was a nice welcome.
Our humble room inside Villa Carolina
In addition to the homemade soap we were provided, our shampoo and conditioner was packaged in bottles that look eerily similar to formula bottles I got in the mail after I had a baby. I didn't use them, but a quick photo was in order.
We ate at Los Tres Cocos, which is very popular with visitors to the area. I think everyone else in the restaurant knew the chef personally. He did make some yummy chicken skewers.
The beef was fine. But we learned that beef in the US is just a lot better.
On Tuesday, we drove to the top of the hill overlooking the city and were welcomed by Christ the Redeemer.
It's pretty cloudy every afternoon, so the views weren't great, but the garden was pretty.
Villa Carolina from the front. It looked much better during the day. And it cost $40/night.
Common sight everywhere we went! Trucks loaded down with everything imaginable.
One of the most fun things we did during our trip was Damajagua waterfalls. When the conditions are right (there has been enough rain), there are 27 waterfalls that you can slide down, jump into or swim through. We drove ourselves to the falls and were the second group of the day at 9:00 am. We got our guide, Omega, and we hiked about 30 minutes through the jungle to the top of the falls. More mosquito bites were received, and our chance of getting the Zika virus grew (spoiler alert: we didn't get Zika).
Getting ready to start
What a blast the falls were! Omega had Jeff's phone in a plastic bag, and really went out of his way to earn a tip give us a good tour. He took a picture of us at nearly every fall. Here are just a few.
Fearless guide. He kept Jeff's phone nice and dry!
I lived my childhood fantasy of being in Honey I Shrunk the Kids or The Goonies with some of these slides! It was so much fun. I would love to take the kids back there someday.
We left Puerto Plata and drove down the Samana peninsula for my favorite part of the trip on Wednesday. We stopped at Playa Grande, which was an absolutely gorgeous beach!
We rented chairs, a boogie board, and got ourselves some pina coladas. This was by far the most touristy beach we went to, and there were not that many people there. It was just a small taste of what was to come.
Timer picture of us. Big legs and all. Blah.
After a few hours of sunshine, we drove the rest of the way to Las Terrenas, where we stayed the remainder of our trip. Here I am outside the grocery store. This little bus was blowing my mind!
We found a really cool place online to stay. It's called Monte Placido, and it is a few kilometers outside town, and straight up a hill. Really, it was straight up. But our little rental car was a champ and made it right up there.
There are several separate living quarters there, and we got the honeymoon suite. It had amazing views from all sides. Some pics of the inside:
Our own balcony, where we ate breakfast in the morning and enjoyed the amazing views
Thursday morning, we drove to Samana and met our whale watching tour. It was fun and we saw a lot of whales (a lot more than we did in Kauai). I got a bit seasick from all the rocking we did on the boat, but not nearly as bad as the lady right in front of me and the lady right behind me. They were not doing so well.
Best shot that I got
And even though we had told our tour guide that we only wanted to do the morning part of the tour, we were still taken to Cayo Levantado for lunch and a little beach time. We got the discounted rate, but still got the full tour. Can't complain.
Cayo Levantado is beautiful and full of tourists. Most of them are European. We didn't see many Americans anywhere we went.
This is Cayo Vigio. It is a small island at the end of the "Bridge to Nowhere." Jeff had me read a book called Pirate Hunters about a group of divers who were looking for a sunken pirate ship called the Golden Fleece in the late 1990's. After searching all over, they finally found it right off the shore of this small island. Really cool history (the captain of the ship was a respected merchant until he decided one day to become a pirate and stole the boat), and we were right there. There are probably still cannon balls buried on the island from the battle with the Royal Navy.
After our tour ended, we got back in our rental car and drove to Playa Rincon. It is consistently ranked one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world, and we just had to see it. It isn't close to anything else, so people who go there just go for the beach.
The view as you get close. Look at that blue water!
It certainly didn't disappoint.
Jeff had done some research before we left, and found that there was another beach close by that was less known, and we decided to try to find it. We took a hike through the jungle, on a small horse path to find it.
Every few minutes, we came to beaches that looked like this. Spectacular.
And then we found Playa Colorado. The most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life.
What was even better was that there was no one else there. I had to take a quick dip in the ocean. It was too beautiful and so refreshing.
We both agreed that we have to go back there. Soon. There are houses you can rent right on this pristine beach and yet it is so isolated, you could pretty much have the place to yourself. There is a caretaker who lives on the property, and he brought us some fresh coconut to drink. That didn't suck either.
We saved the best for last, though. On Friday, the owner of Monte Placido, Don, arranged for his local fisherman to take us on an adventure. We met Freddy and Elvis early in the morning and set out in their boat. We got a tour of the coastline (it looked a lot like the Napali Coast), stopped for some fishing, and then proceeded to our own private beach. Playa Puerto Escondido.
We spent the afternoon there, snorkeling, collecting thousands of awesome shells, and eating. Elvis cooked us an awesome lunch (the fish we had just caught and platanos) while Freddy went spear fishing for even more.
It's hard to even put into words just how amazing it was. We felt like we were the only people in the world. Freddy and Elvis took good care of us and really gave us the adventure of a lifetime!
Elvis scaled a coconut tree and got some coco for us. Jeff could barely make it a couple feet off the ground.
One of my favorite pics from the whole trip. My shorts were soaked, so they were drying in the sun. My kids wondered why I had no pants on. I did have a swim suit on, if you were wondering.
We stayed there for a while, and then stopped off to see some more remote beaches that you can only reach by boat. This one is called Playa Hermitano.
Honestly, I don't remember which one this is. Could be Hermitano as we were leaving. But you can see the rugged coastline that edges the area. So gorgeous!
Don't mind my face in this pic. We were driving straight into the wind. I thought it was great of the boys, though. We had so much fun with them!
Saturday, we got up, packed, and reluctantly headed home. We stopped at a convenience store right outside Santo Domingo to fill up with gas and to try the BBQ we had heard about. We got some grilled octopus, as well. Yum!
Typical rice and fried banana
Ribs
That was the last good meal we had for over a day. Our flight out of Santo Domingo was delayed by two hours, making our connection in Miami impossible to catch. When we got to Miami, it was after 8:00, and it took another 2 hours to clear customs and immigration. We were in a group of hundreds of people who had missed their connections, too (although most of them arrived on time--immigration was just a nightmare in Miami!). We stood in line for another 2.5 hours to get rerouted. Finally, at 12:30 am we had our flights home (leaving from Fort Lauderdale at 7 am), and American Airlines gave us a hotel room nearby. We used the room for all of 3 hours before we had to meet our shuttle at 4 am to take us to Ft Lauderdale. Oh, and the airline had lost our luggage, so we had no change of clothes, toothbrush, etc.
Sunday morning, we flew to Dallas, where we were again met with a two hour delay home to SLC. So, instead of getting home Saturday night at 11 pm, we got home Sunday at 3 pm. But we made it. And I wrote an email to AA, and they gave us $200 credit to use on a future flight. That helped soften the blow a bit.
Still, it couldn't dampen our spirits. We had an amazing trip! I love traveling with Jeff, because he always wants to do things that I would never think to do, but I love, I really fell in love with the Dominican Republic. It is so beautiful and the people just love life so much. They may not have much in the way of material things (I made the comment that all you really need to be happy is a machete, a motorcycle, and a plastic chair to sit in), but they don't act like they are missing out on anything. They are a very social people and are always sitting together (men playing dominoes, kids playing, women working) and enjoying each other. It was so refreshing! I know the amazing weather lends to that kind of socialization.
My biggest takeaway from this trip was just how big the world is. There is so much out there, and so many people just doing the best they can with the life they have been given. Not only did it make me grateful for all that I have, but also gave me the desire to see more, learn more, and experience more of all that our planet has to offer.
And, of course, I want to go back to the DR. Soon. :)
