Beyond Rose

Cities visited:
​Santo Domingo & Punta Cana

This trip started from May 23 through May 28.

​Our flight departed from Luis Munoz Marin, PR and arrived Santo Domingo, Las Americas, DR.

The first night was spent in Santo Domingo- in a hostel (with free breakfast). For the next few nights we decided to spend it in Punta Cana- a touristy spot near the resort hotels. Our hotel included yummy free breakfast. This area of the country seemed easiest to explore with limited time. For the last night, we decided to spend it back at Santo Domingo. That way, we are not on a tight time crunch for the airport.

• ​Santo Domingo

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The area we stayed in is known as the Colonial Zone. Unfortunately, we literally stayed in one “zone” (basically a strip) due to safety measures. It was still interesting to see the history.

Santo Domingo is known to being the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas. As shown in below’s gallery, Christopher Columbus, aka Spanish name Cristobal Colon statue, is centered at the street with the most foot traffic along with restaurants and gift shops.

We tried one Dominican local restaurant- a dish of rice and chicken and plantains.

Lucky to also try Haitian food (picture is shown below) fr Maison Kreyòle restaurant boutique. Tastey pork & goat with traditional black rice + sides.

Right now, Haiti is very dangerous so this will be the most authentic Haitin food we are able to try by the neighboring country, Haiti.

Also*** The tap water is not drinkable. You must buy bottled water or drink through a filtered water. At times it did smell like sewage water. Imagine showering in that!
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• Punta Cana

The local beer is Presidente- we drank this every day and found better deals at mini marts versus restaurants.

We tasted two different rums made in DR. Punta Cana Explendido & Barceló Gran Anejo.
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​Their local mixed drink is Mama Juana- very sweet.

Tuesday- I pre-booked a dune buggy tour which was a fair experience for a low price of $39 USD. This is where we were able to taste their coffee, hot chocolate, and Mama Juana. For water activities we jumped into a cenote (pretty cool) and dipped into the beautiful, white sand and bright, blue water of Macao beach. Personally, I thought the dune buggies would be crazy off roading but it was pretty sane.
The tour guides tried to sell us bandanas even though many of us had face masks.

“So much mud splashing everywhere with poop.. horse poop, cow poop, we don’t know what goes in the mouth.”

says tour guide

In the end, I used my face mask and nothing really splashed.

Couple decent deals out there for dinner:

Two hamburgers & two cokes for 800 pesos
Choice medium sized pizza (probably 10”-12”) + choice of pasta for 700 pesos

There was countless tour guides trying to pull you for conversations to sell you on activities (boat ride, dune buggy’s, gift shops, restaurants, etc) or selling individual items or services (hair braiding, bracelets, sunglasses, massages, etc). I didn’t mind it. Unless I was hangry.. that is a time to not be messed with. I can’t help it!! Haha.

Tropicana Suites Deluxe Beach Club & Pool (the hotel we stayed at) offered free breakfast at Kat’s Corner or lunch for 2x the voucher. Both delicious (:

I bought Dominican Republic crystals

“Larimar is a rare blue variety of the silicate mineral pectolite found only in Dominican Republic. Colors may vary from white, light-blue, green-blue to deep blue. “

”Healing properties of Larimar: abundance of love and peace, stimulates tranquility and dreams, balances the body with the soul, dissolves energy blockages, helps serenity, clear thoughts and stimulates creativity”

instagram @ larimarCA