Como Se Dice "Spectacular"?

The sun sets over Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic

We've only just returned from a spectacular trip to the Dominican Republic where we visited our good friends Matt and Jen Pierson and their darling baby Jake.  We met the Piersons in Beijing where we were neighbors.  We're glad they work for the State Department so we can visit them in exotic locations!

Jen, Matt, and Jake Pierson

We left the January cold of Virginia and arrived in Santo Domingo just in time for the Piersons to introduce us to a warm Caribbean sunset from the terrace of a seaside restaurant.  No fooling.

From frigid Virginia to fabulous Santo Domingo

 We spent the first couple of days enjoying the warmth and visiting some historic sites in Santo Domingo, guided by Matt and Jen.  In the center of the city is Zona Colonial, where many buildings date back to the years following Christopher Columbus' arrival in Hispaniola.  So picturesque!  We loved walking down the narrow streets.

Colorful bouganvilla erupts from a window in the Zona Colonial

Picturesque buildings in the line an embankment in the Zona Colonial

Two impressive ruins stand in the Zona Colonial--the Monasterio de San Francisco and Ruinias del Hospital San Nicolas de Bari.  The monastery is not open to the public, but we were able to walk all the way around it.  It was burned by Sir Frances Drake in 1586 and then two earthquakes damaged it extensively in the 17th and 18th centuries.  It was used from 1881 unto the 1930s as a mental asylum.

Monasterio de San Francisco

Hospital San Nicolas de Bari was the first hospital in the New World.  Sturdily built, it survived Drake and the earthquakes that followed, but was catastrophically damaged by a hurricane in 1911.

The first hospital in the New World

Parque Colon is a central feature of the Zona Colonial, and we stopped for a rest.  While we sat in the square enjoying some water and a Magnum bar (yum!), Matt fed the pigeons, who became his best friends.  

Matt flings corn to the pigeons

While we were there, we visited Catedral Primada de America, the first stone of which was set in 1514 by Diego Columbus, the son of Christopher Columbus.  It is the oldest cathedral in operation in the western hemisphere.

Christopher Columbus statue in Parque Colon next to Catedral Primada de America

The interior of the cathedral bedecked with Christmas lights

The church was festively decked out in Christmas lights.  We found a powerful mural showing Mary and other mourners surrounding a bier carrying the body of Christ.  Beneath the painting were the Latin words, "Vere languores nostros ipse tulit, et dolore nostros ipse portavit." We'd like to say that we could translate this unaided, but we actually found out by consulting the Internet that it means, "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows," from Isaiah 53:4.  Mary's face is most expressive.

"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows."

Nearby is the oldest colonial military building in the New World, Fortaleza Ozama.  Work on the fort began in 1502.  We learned that the term "buccaneer" originally came from the local word for barbecue.  It referred to people from the island because they barbecued their meat.  Because there was so much piracy in the area, the term became synonymous with pirate.

Fortaleza Ozama

Matt carries little buccaneer Jake who is all tuckered out

Ancient cannons still stand guard at Fortaleza Ozama

In the evening Matt and Jen treated us to dinner at El Meson de la Cava, a restaurant that is partially in a cave, as the name suggests!  The food and drink were delicious, especially the Pina Colada (non-alcoholic, of course) that Mary enjoyed. So many scrumptious fruit drinks in the D.R.!

Matt, Jen, Mary and Kyle on the terrace at El Meson de la Cava 

Jen and Matt en la cueva, next to the bar

The next day was Sunday, and we were delighted to attend church in the two-story meetinghouse where Matt and Jen attend.  Theirs is the magnet ward for English speakers, and headphones were provided to those who needed translation.  Because of Kyle's teenage years which were spent in Ecuador and Mary's college Spanish, we were able to understand quite well, and we loved hearing the testimonies of the members.  Especially memorable was a temple missionary couple whose native language was French.  We believe they are from Congo.  The wife gave her fervent testimony line-by-line in French, and her sweet husband translated it into Spanish.  We met many expat members there to work for the Church in the area office and some with other businesses.  We miss our expat days!

LDS meetinghouse in Santo Domingo

In the afternoon Jen made the most amazing chili and Matt made savory waffles to eat with it.  Muy delicioso!  Que rico!

Jen's delectable chili and Matt's tasty waffles

After dinner we went to see the ethereal Santo Domingo Temple.  We arrived to find that the temple president, President Flake, was there showing his son and family the temple.  He even opened the door and let us come into the reception area where the spirit of the temple enveloped us in a silent cloud.

Santo Domingo Temple

Afterwards we walked across the street to the park where families were celebrating Three Kings Day in a fairyland of lights and amusements.  So fun to stroll down the crowded walkways and see all the happy children.

Families enjoy Three Kings Day in the park

Monday morning it was time to drive the three hours to Puerto Plata where we had rented a four-bedroom villa for the week.  Matt, with his death-defying driving, made it in two and a half hours. Let's just say that he drives like a local and considers that double yellow line to be more of a guideline.

Three Sisters Villa in Puerto Plata

View of the sea from the patio

We visited El Dorado Beach with its endless white sand.  Jake wasn't sure the sand was a good idea, and we delighted in his reaction to putting his feet in.

Cute Jake tries out the sand

At the bottom of our street was a building with a sign that read, "Del Oro, Fine Dominican Chocolate."  We really really hoped that it would be open, but every time we drove by the door was closed.  Finally one day we saw two women standing outside the open door, and we pulled right over!  Matt, ever the schmoozer, charmed them into letting us come inside, even though it was past quitting time.  We discovered that the building is an actual factory where chocolate begins as beans and ends as chocolate bars.  We were given a handful of samples each.  Dominican chocolate has a fruity flavor that is delightful. What could we do?  We bought a lot!

From cacao beans...

to chocolate!

 Tuesday Matt, Kyle, and Mary embarked on an excursion to 27 Charcos of the Damajagua River. Charcos are waterfalls, and the intrepid, the adventuresome, and the hardy climb for about 45 minutes to the top waterfall and then wade, slide, or jump down all 27.  We felt like we were in a challenge on the Amazing Race!

Sadly, our disposable, waterproof camera took poor photos, but here are a few that give an indication of our experience.

Kyle at the end of our hike--"YOU HAVE REACHED THE TOP!"

Kyle takes a leap

Matt, Mary, and Kyle survived the 27 Waterfalls!

We found the experience to be exhilarating and dangerous!  As Mary was invited to climb over a ledge preparing for the 26 foot plunge, she nearly lost her balance, and that little moment made her aware that this was, well, CRAZY!  Fortunately, the biggest injuries were to Kyle's elbows from not pulling them in far enough before a slide down the rock face of one waterfall.  He never made that mistake again.  At the final waterfall our guide told us it was a twofer--we could first slide down, then climb back up and jump off. Matt and Kyle did just that, while Mary declined.

The next morning Matt, Jen, and Jake had to return to Santo Domingo, so we bade them farewell, rented a car, and set out on our own adventures.

We decided to do some sightseeing around Puerto Plata.  There seem to be several stories to explain the name, Silver Port.  Lonely Planet says that when "Columbus approached the bay in 1493, the sunlight reflected off the water so brilliantly it resembled a sea of sparkling silver coins," so he named it Puerto Plata.  The city was founded in 1496 by Columbus' brother, Bartolome Colon.

We began our visit in the center of the city at Iglesia San Felipe, a lovely church that was damaged in a 1988 hurricane, so most of what we saw there was recent.  Next to the church is the inviting Parque Central.

Iglesia San Felipe from lovely Parque Central

The Dominican Republic is well known for its amber, so we visited a couple of amber museums with their attached gift shops.  One was housed in an atmospheric colonial building and contained fascinating examples of plants and insects captured in the ancient sap that over millions of years becomes amber.

Colonial architecture of one of the amber museums

Plants caught forever in amber

We strolled on down the Malecon, stone-built embankment or esplanade along a waterfront. Evidently many Caribbean cities have a malecon.  One of our favorite things to do is to wander hand-in-hand along a street in a foreign city.  We ended up at Fuerte de San Felipe, a fort built in the mid-16th century to protect against pirates.  In the years since its construction it has often been used as a prison.

Fuerte de San Felipe

Each night we ate at a different Dominican restaurant, and we got to know tostones (double-fried plantains), sancocho (a stew made of various meats and vegetables), mofongo (fried plantains, garlic, and pork rinds that are mashed together in a mortar and pestle), and coco tierno (a sweet coconut dessert made from young coconuts).

Kyle with his massive lobster and some tostones

Mofongo

Thursday morning we took the teleferico (cable car) to Pico Isabel de Torres, a 2,600 foot high flat peak overlooking Puerto Plata.  The peak is named for Queen Isabel who, along with her husband Ferdinand, sponsored Columbus' voyages to the Americas.  On top is a statue of Christ the Redeemer, similar to the much larger one in Rio de Janeiro.

A cable car ascends Pico Isabel de Torres

From the top we found the views to be spectacular.  We could easily see the small port of Puerto Plata, including the Fuerte de San Felipe which we had visited the day before.

Port of Puerto Plata with the Fuerte de San Felipe on the peninsula to the right

Looking south towards the mountains

A lovely botanical garden has been cultivated on the peak, and we spent more than an hour exploring the tropical paradise, ending with a view of Christ the Redeemer from a bridge.

Brilliant flowers in the botanical garden

Christ the Redeemer statue watches over Puerto Plata

Christ the Redeemer statue

We were glad to be there in the morning since often in the afternoon the peak is enshrouded in clouds, as we had noticed in the previous days.  Afterwards we put on our swimsuits and headed off to Sosua Beach for a snorkeling excursion.  We wanted "some guy with a boat" since our experience in Bali where we found that the big companies charge a lot of money for the same experience.  A guy in a tourist booth flagged us down by saying, "Does the tall lady want to go snorkeling?"  Yes, she did, so he connected us with the boat guys, and three nice young men took us out.

We wish we could share the experience with photos, but we just lived it with no camera involved. However, we saw a multitude of multicolored fish aided by a water bottle filled with bread crumbs that attracted them. We loved paddling around for an hour or so until we started bumping into other people and found that a large tour boat had disgorged it's snorkelers, so we reboarded our boat and headed back to the beach.  On our way we passed a fascinating Italian restaurant with individual dining niches built into the side of the cliff.

Italian restaurant built on the cliffs

We paid another guy about about four dollars for a couple of beach chairs and a umbrella on and under which we relaxed as the sun started its decline into evening.  What a perfect way to spend our last afternoon in paradise before heading back to ice-encrusted Virginia.

The blue-green water and white sand of Sosua Beach

The next morning the sun rose brilliantly over Puerto Plata, and we sadly loaded our bags into the car.  However, we had one final unplanned adventure awaiting us.  We had been driving for about forty-five minutes when Kyle jovially said, "And you have the passports, right?"  The panicked look on Mary's face led him to cleverly deduce that she did NOT have them.  In fact, she realized that in her effort to be surreptitious, she had hidden them AND her wallet containing cash and credit cards underneath her mattress.  Yikes!  We turned right around and zoomed back to the villa, all the time watching the time we needed to make our flight enter the danger zone.

Even though we didn't tell the manager what we were missing or where we had left it, there he was with both in his hand.  We must be the most naive tourists to not realize that we had hidden our valuables in the most obvious place.  Lesson learned.

We only got lost once on the way to the airport, and it was on the crowded streets of Santo Domingo.  Fortunately, Mary was able to communicate with a friendly man who showed us on our map how to get there, and we got there!  In fact, our flight was late, so we had time for one last meal before we left the country.

When we arrived at BWI after midnight, we found our car frozen in a couple of inches of icy snow. We're glad we had soaked in all that Caribbean sun.  Thanks Piersons!  Thanks Dominican Republic!

Our last sunrise in the Dominican Republic