Off to the Caribbean!!

I'm waaaay behind on my blog posts, so I'm determined to get this post done tonight and then I'll still have several more posts before I'm caught up.

I found a great deal on an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic that included airfare from Washington, DC, so we signed up for it, and so did our friends, Jim and Bonnie Jeo. 

Our flight out of DC had a layover in Miami, then on to the city of Puerto Plata, on the northern side of the island.  We flew over lots of the Atlantic Ocean and saw lots of island archipelagos, and since it was a clear day, I took some pictures.

Here's Kent on our first afternoon after our arrival, on a Thursday

On Friday we took a tour of the city of Puerto Plata with the Jeos.  Below is the main square of the city.

I took a picture of this fort because it reminded me of the old fort we saw in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was also settled by the Spanish.

We went up the only cable car in the Caribbean, which wasn't too far away from the resort where we were staying.

Here are some lovely views from the cable car.

 At the top of the mountain is a statue of Christ the Redeemer, much smaller than the one in Brazil.  I took the picture below because it was momentarily clear.  Most of the time we were on the mountain top it was foggy.

 Like this.......

The next day Kent and I took a three-hour bus ride to get to the capitol of the Dominican Republic, the city of Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo's claim to fame is that it's the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the new world.  The Jeos decided not to join us. The bus was very clean and modern, not like the ones you see in movies with chickens and pigs on it.  And it only cost $20 each round trip.

Here's some of the countryside we saw as we drove the width of the island to get to Santo Domingo.

 We stayed at a Marriott hotel in Santo Domingo, and this was the view out our window.  I chose this hotel because it was close to the LDS temple.

 After getting a city map from the front desk of the hotel we walked to the temple grounds, but didn't go inside.

 It's a large temple for the size of the country, and was opened in the year 2000 and was the first temple in the Caribbean.

Our next stop was to go to the city center via taxi, and the statue of Christopher Columbus in the picture below was in the main square in front of the first Catholic Church built in the new world. 

This is the main entrance of that church.  The date on the church was 1523.

 Here we're standing in front of a fort built during the early 1500's, and Columbus allegedly stayed in that building behind us. We hired a private tour guide to take us on a walking tour of the city.  The people of the Dominican Republic seemed to be quite proud of Columbus.

 He showed us where the first street and the first hospital was built by the Spanish in the Americas.  I think that's what the signs in the following pictures are saying.

 I thought this was a pretty view of the city, also taken from our hotel window.

On Sunday morning we found the LDS church in Santo Domingo and went to Sacrament Meeting.  That afternoon we took the metro bus back to Puerto Plata. We were back at our resort in time for a banquet for the evening meal, with the best food we had in all the time we were there.  The desserts weren't ever very good, but the fresh pineapple was awesome.

 On Monday Kent and I had heard about the "27 Waterfall National Park" as being one of the top attractions in the Dominican Republic, and it was only 30 minutes away from our resort. We read the reviews saying it was really fun to slide down the waterfalls.  The Jeos didn't join us on this excursion, either.

 So we hired a taxi to take us there.  We were woefully unprepared for what we were about to experience.  Here we are crossing a rope bridge on our way up the hill to get to the waterfalls.

 For one thing, we were told not to worry about having water shoes, because we could rent them at the park.  I had to show a picture of them, since they're not at all what I expected.  They were ill-fitting rubber men's shoes, which were totally inappropriate for the 30-minute hike through rocky terrain, streams, and up hills, we had to take to get up to where we could start sliding down waterfalls (which we only slid down about eight of them, not all 27.  That was a longer excursion.)  By the end of the trip a three-inch spot had been rubbed raw on my left foot and was very painful.

We're smiling in all these pictures, but as we were climbing up rope ladders and swimming through freezing pools of water to get to the next waterfall, I wondered why in the world two senior citizens like us were doing this!!

 We had two young men as private guides to take us on this excursion.  I handed my phone to one of them and he took all of these pictures and video with the camera on the phone.  He did an amazing job of keeping the phone dry as we jumped or slid between 10 and 30 feet into the pools below us.

 Oh well, we survived it and have the big stories to tell.  I'll admit it was the highlight of our trip.

 The scenery was beautiful, and the water a lovely aqua color, though very cold and deep.  After we were on our way up the hill the guides asked us if we could swim.   I don't know how we would have been able to do the trip without being able to swim!!

 Our guide took several videos, but for some reason the one below is the only one that would load.

 After this vacation I came to the conclusion that I'm definitely not a person who enjoys the beach.  We only spent one morning swimming in the ocean, which was fun, but once in the six days we were there was enough for me.  Of course I managed to get sunburned even though I thought I was being careful and wearing enough sun block.  I think we're done with the Caribbean, at least for a few years.