Warm Sunny Days In the Republica Dominicana

We could not have picked a better time to get away from Atlanta and celebrate SJR's birthday! We boarded our Delta flight the morning of January 29th with the local temperature in the low 30's and expected to get even colder over the weekend.
With a rather uneventful and reasonably short flight we landed in Santa Domingo as probably the only American tourists. Everyone else was then heading over to Haiti to offer their hands; expertise; spirit and tools to assist with the horrible aftermath of the earthquake. Honestly I felt a bit guilty but our trip was booked well before the devastating event.

We were graciously welcomed outside the airport by the transportation coordinator for the Barcello Cappella Beach Resort and made a quick 45 minute journey to the hotel. I had flash backs of our trip to Panama driving through some pretty rough spots mixed right in with all the resorts; modern high rise condos and surprisingly a lot of car dealerships!

Upon our arrival at the resort we headed to our lovely corner room changed out of our winter clothes and headed over the the Ocean Grill snack bar for a rock solid and cold hamburger and a couple of cervezas! We did not care about the food we were on our way to having a fantastic weekend in the DR.

We walked the beach a bit; checked out a couple of the other bars, enjoyed the sights and shared a few laughs with the great bartenders. Dinner that night in the main restaurant was a typical Caribbean fare which was well done for a buffet. Following dinner we took in the nights entertainment show in the Tropical lounge and had a great time chatting with Juan Sosa the bartender. We were both amazed at what a great performance all the singers and dancer provided. The women were absolutely beautiful in their elaborate costumes.

Saturday was a lovely sunny day with a bit of an ocean breeze. Breakfast with wonderful tropical fruits; pastries; ham; eggs and fish. We walked around the resort checking all the venues; the south end of the beach and played several games of dominos. Later in the afternoon we played 18 holes of mini golf where SJR made a statement and kicked my butt 64 to 100!  The rest of the evening we ate, drank and laughed with the comedians at the evening's entertainment show. SJR bought a ton of mamjuana root at the local fair and we bought several Dominican leather wrapped bottles for gifts for some of our friends. Needless to say SJR has a way with negotiating for the best price!

Sunday was by far the hottest day but we had a great time! We walked to the north end of the beach over to the Costal Caribe Resort and wouldn't you know it we got roped into a time share sales pitch; complete with a tour and fortunately we were able to get out of the 15 minute video telling the nice man that we had to catch a bus into the city...hated to fib but certainly did not want to waste anymore time away from the sunshine.
The beach in Juan Dolio is very pretty; water is very clean and although we read there were many seashells we did not find that to be the case. We had a great lunch at the buffet restaurant off the pool bar and loved the grilled to order pork chops; lovely salads; sauteed pastas and wonderful ice cream!
Our afternoon was filled with several games of scrabble and dominos and several flavorful Dominican beverages...my personal favorite were the banana daiquiris!
Dinner at the a la carte restaurant Bohio was very disappointing. We were both craving a steak and I am not too sure what type of animal our "steak" came from. It was nice to be waited on but we did not linger very long. Our last stop of the evening was at the Tropical Bar where we tried our hand at Dominican Bingo which proved to provide many laughs trying to follow along with our limited Spanish.

Our last day in the DR was again a beautiful day and we hated to say goodbye to all the wonderful people that we met. One of our favorite bartenders Juan, the "other" Juan gave us a beautiful departing gift of two bottles of Ron Barcelo Anejo Rum...what a nice surprise. Once we arrived back at the airport we had a great little lunch of prosciutto bocadillos and empanadas. The perfect way to end a great long weekend of fun in the sun with my main man.

Until our next adventure....
Peace, Love, Food

Yellow Band Chef