Life's a Stitch

It’s been 30 years since we were in the Domican. The kids were 5, 10 and 12. Lots of good memories there.

The first day in the Dominican in the oppressive heat we walked from the port, past three baseball fields, over a bridge and into the town of La Romana.

It was a large city with a population of 250,000 in the greater metropolitan area. It reminded me a lot of urban Bali: the dichotomy of strong tourism with poor infrastructure and poverty. 

We accomplished a geocache despite being stopped by the police. I explained what we were doing, showing him the app and he gave us a thumbs up to continue. I think that’s the 33rd country in which I’ve geocached.

The next day we docked at Cabo Rojo at an amusement park built by the cruise lines. We stopped at a wonky village, like an outdoor funhouse, that was so disorienting I turned around. It looked so normal it took me by surprise. 

We headed past the $80 per person beach club to the free public beach about a 15 minute walk for a refreshing dip in the ocean.

There was a gift shop that only carried items made in the Dominican where I was able to find a tiny turtle to add to our nativity. We try to buy a little animal or angel from the countries we’ve visited. This trip I also bought a wee metal rooster while in Portugal.

Heading back to the ship we went by  the ATV track, a lazy river ride, a Ferris wheel and carousel not knowing they were all free or we might have given them a try and our priority was a swim. There were no lines so we figure there was an assumption that they would be as high priced as the beach club.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Jamaica.