When presented with the opportunity to go to on vacation – always take it, if you can. So when we got notified of my cousins upcoming wedding in the Dominican Republic (República Dominicana), we scrounged up some money and time and made our reservations. It not very often that one gets to hang out with so much family, let alone in a fun foreign environment. June came quickly and we hopped on a direct flight out of Charlotte to the DR.
After some antics and language lessons with our driver, we arrived at the resort “Dreams La Romana” about 1.5 hours away from Punta Canta, and immediately saw my mom and dad in the lobby. It was strange but awesome feeling to see them outside the country on an adventure. Now they have their passports so there are no more excuses. The first day was meeting everyone who had shown up for the wedding and walking around the resort to get our bearings. Much of my time was spent at the beach and the poolside immediately getting engrossed in the rum culture. Mojitos! Pina Coladas! Dirty Bananas! Keep them coming.
The next day, again the focus was resort life and making use of our all-you-can-eat-and-drink-abilities. By this time we had found the infinity pool and the swim up bar. Pretty much all of the family hung out here today and drank and swam. It was great time with some great weather. We also were productive enough to coordinate a fishing charter the next day for several of us.
Tuesday was a fishing day, we walked down the beach and off the resort to talk to this big man name Tito. Tito was a hustler, definitely the man to talk to and work out a deal for what you wanted to do for the day. Prices always were changing in the area, so you had to play hard ball sometime. We got 9 of us together for the fishing charter and took off from the port of Bayahibe. The day started out promising but soon the real world of fishing-and-not-catching took hold. After an hour of seaweed and tangled lines, we changed bait for the big marlin, but this again proved fruitless. So out came the rum, and the El presidente beer. Rum and beer on a boat pretty much made up the rest of the trip on the boat. We did accidentally catch one fish. The captain was pulling in lines and seemed to accidentally snag a small mackerel.
Wednesday was wedding for my cousin Matt and his bride to be Rhiannon. The morning was spent snorkeling and beaching before the wedding. I ended up seeing a “sharp tailed eel” and a bunch of sea urchins around the pier near the beach. Later on I would meetup with Marty and Jack, down the coast some more, to swim in some better coral features.
Before the wedding Matt was waiting next door in Seth’s room, so I surprised him with some coffee by climbing out the balcony and in his room. However, I did not get away scotch free with this, my mom caught me mid-climbing act. The wedding was very nice and pretty, as it was set against the backdrop of the ocean and beach front. We were tucked up and away from the rest of the resort. Aunt Andrea was able to get connected to Wi-fi, which allow Alexis to FaceTime with Emilee (who just had baby Brinlee that morning).
Then there were photoshoots and drinks along the ocean.
Then there was the reception and partying. For Matt and Rhiannon to kiss, there was a requirement. Each table was required to sing a verse of a love song before they would kiss, none of the clanking of glasses. Tyler was able to start out with “When a Man Loves of Woman”, but then the drinks and laughter blur the night together. However, here is what I remember.
“Frank Sinatra – That’s Amore”, “Beatles – she loves you ya ya ya”, Boys II Men – I’ll make love to you”, “Sir Mix a Lot- Baby Got Back”
Everyone got so into singing and dancing to no one stayed seated during the meal. Pretty much no one was seated when desert got served.
Thursday rolled around and several people had to leave early, but Alexis and I were staying the entire week. We went back down to the town and talked to Tito and got put on a tour down the coast to Saona Island. I am pretty sure they just snuck us on an existing tour, because we hopped on the back to 2 small bikes, drove to the boat, and were just shown how to hop on board. Either way, we made it on board the catamaran, and cruised and drank down the coastline. We eventually got the island and walked the soft beaches, then we took a speed boat back up the coast to snorkel and see some starfish. We made it back, after a long day, much longer than the ½ day I thought it would be.
Friday, we talked to Dave Fallow and he apparently worked out a deal with Tito for some quad riding for cheap. We took a bus up in to the town of “Benerito” and got a buggy tour of the sugar cane fields. Dave wanted an adventure and we got one with this tour. Our buggy already had busted out light and several others were burning oil while warming up. Anyways, we signed our wavers and hopped in the buggies, no more than 100 ft out the gate, Dave’s buggy died in the middle of the street. They pulled the battery out of ours and used it jump his. We then were able to proceed through town and to the sugar cane fields. We tasted sugar cane and got some pictures. Alexis and I switched positions because she wanted to drive. 10 minutes later our buggy was dead in the middle of the sugar cane field, and we were the last car, so we were left behind. Luckily, there were 2 mechanics on a bike following 5 minutes behind us. They tried to ciphon gas, clear the air filter, jump start but our buggy was dead. By then the tour leader had turned around and found us, we hopped on 3 to his quad and took off down the road to meetup with the rest of the group. However the group started to had buggy issues too, others stalled and died. It took about 30 minutes waiting alongside the road before everything go in running order again, and we were still without a buggy. We continued as best we could and made it to the Anaconda/Rambo river. We got to rope swing and hang out with some livestock for the next 1 hr or so. By now the tour guide and the mechanics had had a rough day so they start to drink and swim with us. Many Santo Libres were consumed with the best rum. The locals had also warmed up to us by now, and Lino our guide told me tell Pablo (guy at the resort) a joke for him, something about mama quebos. We eventually made it back to the resort tired and hungry, but with some good stories to tell.
Saturday, we were able to coordinate and get my parents to join us for a tour excursion off the resort. We did a tour to coffee/cocoa plantation and to a fun beach on the north side of the island. We drove through the town of Higuey, and to a plantation on the side of hill. Here they show us a “typical” Dominican house as well as the old method for pick and making coco and coffee. We then left for lunch at the tour guides headquarters. A nice bbq lunch was had with some fried chicken and pasta, but the nice surprise was a free cigar rolling demonstration which came with a free cigar. Next stop was down on the northern coast for some swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. They took us to Playa Macao, which had crystal clear water and smooth wave action. We hung out for about 30-45 mins, playing in the surf and then took off back to the resort. All of our excursion were now complete, so we hung out at the beach the rest of the night with all the people who were left.
Everyone else would leave the next morning at 8AM back to Pittsburgh, but we had a later flight to Charlotte so we pooled and beached our morning away.
