Santo Domingo tomorrow Juan Dolio

We arrived just on time to Santo Domingo and were greeted by one of Esperanza’s drivers, Rafael. We were thankful when we saw him holding up a paper that read, “Maira”, since we were uneasy about calling a cab without a cell phone or Dominican money.

We chose to stay at a hostal to save ourselves some money. So far we love this place. It isn’t so much a hostal as much as it’s a friendly hotel. We have our own bathroom and our room has a queen bed and a twin. The room has sweet amenities to it too, like AC, cable, wifi. The hostal has a kitchen we can share, we are making our own breakfast here to save money and time.

When we arrived from Santo Domingo we slept for a bit, 15 hours of traveling can get exhausting! Paola was a little sad and for a moment wanted to catch a plane back to San Diego but after a nap, a shower, and a call to her mother she was encouraged. After we freshened up we went out to the main touristy street, El Conde. We had great taxi drivers and didn’t have a problem traveling from one place to the next.

The next morning we made eggs, toast, and oatmeal for breakfast and then headed off to the Esperanza office. At the office we were greeted by Claire and all of the other staff that I left a year ago. Clara was so good too us, she let us borrow a cell phone for the time we were in the Dominican Republic and helped us book four nights at an all inclusive hotel in Bavaro. We then made our ways to several museums only to find one open the rest were being remodeled. We enjoyed our time at the Modern Museum of Art, the air conditioning was the best part.

After the museum we grabbed a “carro” that would take us to the Independence park. Taking a carro was an experience of it’s own considering we were seven people squished in a small Honda made only to fit four to five people comfortably. We walked through El Conde once more and then went to Banco Popular to take some cash out for the next few days. Can you believe they charge me $3 to take out money and an addition 3% for all withdrawals!? After the bank we went around the corner to a taco shop, El Taquito, where we ordered tacos and hamburgers. I know all this way to eat Mexican food! We toured a little more and then came back to the hostal to shower and get ready for dinner. We went to Adrian Tropical, a nice restaurant on the shore, where we waited at least an hour for our food. This place is three stories high and always crowed but the wait is well worth it. I had traditional food while the other two Becky’s enjoyed Italian food. After dinner we tried to catch a movie only to find out that we missed the last ones by 10minuts or so.

There was talking and so brief planning to hit Puerto Rico for Paola’s birthday on Sunday but we think spending around $300 for a night there might be a bit much. So we are going to Juan Dolio, a beach town, tomorrow and might head towards Boca Chica on Sunday.

So far it’s been awesome. Keep on praying so this trip can continue to be safe fun.
God bless,
Maira