DR and PR day 12 and 13 – the wrap

Since “All good things must come to an end”(Geoffrey Chaucer 1374), today we’ll suffer through three flight legs (SJU-DFW, DFW-SFO, SFO-RDD) to get back to our home town of Redding California.  King Solomon (1000 BC) had it right when he said “There is a time for everything…”, and it’s time for us to replenish our depleted travel kitty!

We had one hiccup along the way though.  While our bags went on without us, we missed our last flight leg out of SFO and we missed getting back to work on Monday morning.  Whups!

So, off we went to San Francisco’s China Town!  Our first stop was an awesome little import and antiques shop called Ravanelli’s located not far from the Chinatown gateway arch on Grant Avenue.  It seems our souvenir collecting hasn’t yet ended after all  😦

And as usual, we were on the lookout for a new place to eat, so after spending our last few nickels at Ravanelli’s, we discovered our new favorite seafood restaurant called Sam’s Grill on Bush Street.  Sam’s is a historic eatery that’s been in operation since 1867.  The place is dripping with history, and the clam chowder was superb.  Five stars for sure, and we can’t wait for our next visit there.

This vacation turned out to be quite a doozie if not an expensive one.  We had a lot of fun, saw a lot of sights, and made a lot of friends.  It does seem though, that all the civilizations in all the corners of our planet somehow know just how much we Americans will shell-out for services and goods.  Sadly, truly cheap places to visit are becoming fewer and fewer.

But, to end on a positive note, since we missed our flight through no fault of ours, we now have a couple of airline vouchers to put towards our next adventure.  So, as soon as the travel kitty is replenished, we’ll spin the globe once again!

Chris and Jess

DR and PR day 11

OK, so, at this point during our vacation, we’re feeling a little desperate to find some sort of souvenir to bring home.  But to be honest, we haven’t really seen anything that caught our attention.  PR doesn’t seem to have “that thing” that you must have have on your shelf at home  So, off we went to the most touristy street on the island – Calle Fortaleza.  This eight block-long one-lane street is door-to door shops that offer everything you can imagine:  cheap junk from from China, wood carving from Haiti, jewelry from Dominican republic (tons of over-priced Larimar), locally-sewed clothing and artwork, lots of places to duck into for a snack or a coffee, and all of it at -wouldn’t you just know it, at California prices!

We fell in love with some interesting pottery from one of the local artists, but it was so incredibly expensive, we could only shake our heads and walk away.  So, as we ducked in and out of shops partly to look, but mostly to dodge the latest cloud-burst, one particular cloud-burst found us in a jewelry store where Jessica spotted a Caribbean Topaz ring that she couldn’t leave behind (ok, I liked it too), and finally we were done (or so I thought at the time).

Calle Fortaleza

The waterfront at the end of Calle Fortaleza.

On the end of Calle Fortaleza opposite the waterfront end, we found the Parrot Club.  Pooped out from twice-traversing the eight-block-long Calle Fortaleza, we had no choice but to cool our heels there before heading back to the hotel.  We found the dried plantain chip nachos to be superb, but the mixed drinks there were among the worst on earth.  My mojito was by far the most pitiful drink ever. It contained four tiny un-muddled mint leafs- one of which I had to dig out because it was black and dead.  There was NO LIME!  Just a shot of lime juice I guess. I paid $12.00 for a double. Yes, that’s $12.00 for one drink!  Jessica’s Island Punch tasted like cool-aid.  Two stars max, and I feel like a real sucker.

After lunch, and just when I thought we were done shopping, we happened upon Frankie’s Vintage Shop.  Frankie is from NY and founded and co-owned with his brother six record shops in lower Manhatten in the 80’s called Downtown Records.

This place rocks and Frankie is a real hoot! Frankie’s vintage shop is not to be missed and is just one block off of Calle Fortaleza.  We spent about two hours there poking around the never ending variety of vintage odds and ends.  We left with a couple of vintage brass candle-sticks, a Gucci tea set, a few Disney collector tea cups, a “made in Puerto Rico” serving dish (flawless and unheard of), and I FINALLY found a wooden mortar and pestle with which I’ll forever make super Mojitos.  Lastly, Jessica left with a gift from Frankie himself -a pair of gold earrings.  The best find of all?  Our new friend Frankie Ramos.

As directed by our new Friend Franky, we found the El Asador a few blocks away and with it, the best mojito that PR has to offer  It was just, PERFECTION.

What a way to end our tour of the old town!

As luck would have it, there was a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse just a short distance from the Hilton, so after we freshened up a bit, we made the rather sweaty walk to my most favorite steakhouse of all time. We’ve enjoyed Ruth’s Chris just two times during our nine years together, and have thoroughly enjoyed our experience both times.  This time however, we were underwhelmed a bit and neither of us had a very warm and fuzzy feeling while signing the check for US 190.00   We won’t be back.  Three stars.  😦

DR and PR day 10

We started our day on a three-mile long City Walk of Old San Juan as recommended by the 6th edition Lonely Planet Puerto Rico guide book.  The walk takes you past various city attractions before you see the toll-booth for the Fuerte (fort) San Cristobal.  This ancient battle-ground is a fascinating maze of six inter-connecting forts covering 27 acres and includes soldier barracks, connecting tunnels, and fabulous views of the Atlantic.  It was constructed between 1634 and 1783 and protected the City from land attacks from the east.  This turned out to be one of the best three dollar history lessons we’ve ever taken and was very interesting.

Afterwards, we found enough time to take the shuttle to another fort called the San Felipe del Morro located at the Western-most tip of the island.  This fort dates back to 1539 making it the oldest Spanish fort in the New World.  Its cannons, perched atop 140 foot high walls, protected the City from sea attacks from the British and Dutch navies, and yes, the US Navy too.  Another $3 well spent.

The San Felipe del Morrow fort served as the movie set for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 9 of Season 2 which we recently watched.  Click here for Marvel pics!  It was very fun watching this episode while recollecting our trip!

Tunnels, tunnels, everywhere tunnels.  Some of them were fitted with explosives just in case the fort was overrun.

An ancient sketch on one of the tunnel walls.

This is one of Marvel’s marvelous super stars that Hollywood left behind by mistake.

The Lonely Planet walking tour has you start your hike at Pier 2 at the Port of San Juan where we found a waterfront restaurant called Tijuana’s Bar and Grill There’s nothing quite like relaxing over a meal in a water-front restaurant.  Five stars.

By the end of the day our dogs were definitely barkin’ so when we came across this street-side eatery called the Aji Dulce restaurant, we pulled up a chair and enjoyed some fabulous al fresco dining with live guitar strumming in the background.  It doesn’t get any better than this.  Six stars!

DR and PR day 9

We’re in San Juan Puerto Rico, and four hours early!  We managed to mistake California time with PR time (a three hour difference ) and arrived at the Santo Domingo airport three hours early.  But through dumb luck, there was a flight just boarding for PR and we were able to walk on.  Yay Jet Blue!!!

On the surface, this may sound like a sweet deal, and we certainly thought so at the time.  But after arriving at the El San Juan Resort and Casino, a Hilton Hotel,  there was no room ready for us.  So we waited.  And waited.  And got a room.  And it was horrible.  So we waited.  And waited.  And got a different room.  And it was a little less horrible.  So we took it.  Except for the wondrously gorgeous lobby, this is not a good hotel.  Tent camping would be preferable.  Don’t stay here.  My review is below.

Here I am in front of a giant Banyon tree on the Hilton property.  Later there was a giant wedding that took place under it.

We relaxing most of the day enjoying the beach and their three pools.

Our Trip Advisor review for this hotel:

My wife and I stayed at the El San Juan for three nights to celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary. Happily, two of the nights were free as a reward for taking out a Citi HHonors Visa card, and the other night cost a whopping 70,000 HHonors points. But thankfully, no cash out of pocket.

Upon arrival, we were disappointed to learn that we were given a 7th floor tower room located as far from the beach as possible. We were going to settle for it, even though the room had cracked paint where the windows have leaked since the day it was built, and the floor was loaded with hair everywhere you looked. The approximately 12 x 24 floor tiles at this hotel have sharp edges at the joints which apparently somehow hinder the removal of hairs from the floor. Perhaps the maids are sweeping instead of vacuuming? Perhaps bad vision is the issue. At any rate, we were standing there contemplating all this when the couple in the room next door began talking and we could hear every word they were saying. Granted, the woman had a voice that sounded like an old witch with a sinus infection which didn’t help, but the point is, we weren’t going to share the next three days listening to, and being heard by the strangers next door no matter what they sounded like.
Three hours later, we were moved to a 6th floor room at the beach-end of the tower (overlooking the pool area and a super ugly roof) with a partial view of the beach. Great – except that this floor was also loaded with hair. Too burned out to move again, we lifted up the bed spread a bit and bending over, gently blew 50 or so hairs under the bed and under the dresser to make clean areas to walk. Disgusting!

There is almost ZERO counter space in these tiny bathrooms There is a ledge over the sink measuring 3.5 inches x 24 inches available for all your stuff – except that the mirror sticks out a few inches limiting the vertical space over this ledge to about four inches.

The walk-in shower is super small. I am 5′-7 1/2″ 165 lbs and each day I showered sideways or risk bashing my elbows into the tile wall.

One of the nights, some drunken fools woke up the entire floor at three o’clock in the morning yelling, laughing, and slamming around trying to make it to their room.

The beach is very nice. While walking it, we discovered many other hotel choices.

I recommend checking out the other hotels in the area. We won’t stay at this one again. It doesn’t appear to be worth the cost. If you do decide to stay here, don’t look under the bed.

The fitness Center is nice.

We won’t return to this hotel.

DR and PR day 8

What a day this turned out to be!  During breakfast, Thaylor – the owner of the Village On the Beach restaurant that we’ve become friends with, suggested we meet Bruce after we inquired about a boat outing.  Bruce was also having breakfast at the Village, and when we met, we instantly clicked.

It wasn’t long before we were headed to his cruiser with a bag of groceries with which to make lunch for the four of us: Bruce, his hired hand Juankarlos, Jessica, and me.  Our outing was met with a squall and we were both soaked to the skin before stepping aboard, but it didn’t last long, the sun soon came out, and everything was right.

Bruce and Juankarlos are running a fishing charter service out of Boca Chica and can be reached by calling 809-805-8125 or 829-816-9416.

Here’s Cap’n Bruce at the helm.  Bruce is one of those rare individuals who has a ton of colorful stories to tell and is still alive to tell them!  Thanks for the outing Bruce!  We hope to catch up with you once again some day soon!

As usual, the caribbean sea showed us our most favorite color on earth.

After our boating, we all agreed to meet for drinks that evening at Village on The Beach to hang with Thaylor at the village during our last evening in Boca Chica and to sample his signature drink.  Here’s Thaylor in action!

viola!  Yum Yum!

DR and PR day 7

Today we checked out of Hotel Garrant and into what we now refer to as “The Palace” for some peace and quiet, and a change in atmosphere (Hotel Garrant, while clean and charming, had thin walls and neighbors that liked to party till late!).
The Villa Florencia is an absolutely stunning building, and while set back a few blocks from the beach, all rooms boast views of the caribbean from an elevated position.  The Florencia architecture is neoclassical style and is only a few years old.  All the building materials were imported from Italy   It is a superb property, and without question, is the best that Boca Chica has to offer.  Doors are of mahogany, floors are of marble or granite, ceilings are at 12 feet, water is purified, the building is behind full-time guarded security gates for your protection, and rates for these apartments are reasonable at US$100 to $120 per night for a 1B+1B, depending on season.  A 2B+2B can be had for US$150 to $180 per night.   There is a full size grocery store within walking distance (be warned – cash only at the store) that you can use to stock the kitchen.  Reservations are recommended – although we walked in un-anounced and rented a second floor 1B+1B for two nights for US$240.  A real gem in our book!  Heck, the safe is behind a wall painting!  Neat!

After shopping for souvenirs and having a burger and a beer at our favorite restaurant, Village on the Beach, we went snorkeling off the beach into the calm shallow bay (we brought our own snorkeling gear).  After swimming out a hundred yards or so off shore we discovered that we were floating just above hundreds of what at first appeared to be flowers of some kind, but were actually a jellyfish species called Cassiopea, or “upside down” jellyfish – AKA: Mangrove jellyfish and Cabbage-head jellyfish.  We both practically walked on water to get back to shore where we were later told “they’re harmless so long as you don’t touch them.”  Yikes!
Check out this link for photos and more info:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55257385@N00/4615226739

More on way.  We’re just getting started here!

DR and PR day 6

So we’ve left the big city of Santo Domingo and have made our way to Boca Chica to bring it down a couple of notches.  One thing worth noting about Boca Chica is that there is scant information about this town.  Our Lonely Planet book includes the bus schedule from Santo Domingo and exactly three paragraphs describing how there is nothing to recommend here and that “…it caters to a weathered crowd and is marred by in-your-face sex tourism.”  The chap that wrote that simply didn’t spend a whole lot of time there.  There are plenty of little gems in Boca Chica.  You just have to dig a little.  We did.

Our first breakfast at Village on the Beach was so pleasant that we ended up walking from Hotel Garant to eat there every morning.  There’s nothing quite like the laid back atmosphere of beach-front dining, relaxation, and people-watching.

A few doors down, we found Tropical Sea divers (www.Tropicalseadivers.com) and although Lonely Planet recommends Caribbean Divers, we rather liked the looks of Tropical Sea Divers (TSD) instead and found them very personable.  So, later that morning we joined up with a small group led by TSD owner Alex Cottier.  Unfortunately, the seas were so bad that day that the ride out to the dive site was spine-jarring, visibility was reduced to 50 feet, and our lives were literally in jeopardy while trying to get back into the boat at dive’s end.  I’ll never forget the vision of the boat hull rising six feet into the air and slamming back down every few seconds while going for the ladder. How we’re still alive to tell the story of getting back into the boat is truly one of God’s miracles.

Sea life, and manta’s too – alive and well off the coast of Boca Chica at the Manta Reef dive site.

Even further down the beach, we stumbled upon the Boca Marina Restaurant & Lounge – one of the gems the folks at Lonely Planet missed. After a fun-filled day, we enjoyed a very nice dinner overlooking an incredible Caribbean.  And, yes, they had pink champagne on ice.  Appetizers, drinks, two splendid meals, desert, propina, and great white-napkin service: RD$5,203.60 (US$115) – about 50% less than what it would’ve cost in California.

There’s more.  Stay tuned.

DR and PR day 5

This morning we hired a taxi to drive us the 40 minutes or so from the Embassy Suites in Santo Domingo to our hotel in Boca Chica (Translation: Small Mouth) called Hotel Garant & Suites (www.Hotelgarant.com).  The 40 minute drive slowly became an hour as we suffered through some seriously heavy traffic along the way.  Picture a stop and go LA flow but with traffic laws treated like recommendations.  Do not rent a car here.

Modern highways, modern bridge construction, trash everywhere you look.

Here we are entering Boca Chica and searching for the Hotel Garant.  Obviously we’ll do just about anything for a good photo!

We quickly learned that there is no shortage of artwork for sale in Boca Chica.

Boca Chica has a way cool old-town beachy vibe.  We really enjoyed most everything about Boca Chica except for the in-your-face sex-for-sale.  On a daily basis, we saw middle-aged white women walking along the beach hand-in-hand with 20-something year-old local boy companions, and lots of young women beach-side and very much available.

We found a quaint beach-side restaurant called Village on the Beach (villageonthebeach@gmail.com) and soon met the owner, Thaylor Grammont from Washington DC.  He’s done a fabulous job of remodeling his restaurant and now has a few rooms to rent as well.  We didn’t stay there, but we enjoyed many of our meals there (all of our breakfasts, some lunch and a dinner) and many a mojito, all the while people-watching just ten feet from the beach.

Thaylor recommended that while visiting Boca Chica, it’s best to look like you belong there (wear nothing expensive, little to no jewelry, do not bring a purse or bag etc), just fit in! Not that you’ll get robbed if you don’t (of course that could happen anywhere), but that you won’t continually get pestered to purchase something by the locals.  Great tip!  It really works!

Santo Domingo is mostly Spanish speaking, while Boca Chica is mostly French.  But, if you only speak english like us, you’ll get along just fine.  We did.

More to come!

DR and PR day 4

On our last day in Santo Domingo, we walked several miles from the Embassy Suites to the Malecon.  The walk was hotter than a sauna, we weren’t too sure which way we were going most of the time, but we did finally get there to discover an under-utilized and mostly unimproved and trashy coastal Malecon with azure waters and waves bashing against a rocky shoreline. During our three mile or so walk from the hotel to the malecon, we discovered the local, rather than the touristy, flavor of Santo Domingo which is always interesting to us.

Too pooped to walk back to the hotel (and we weren’t too sure where it was anyway), we finally got up the nerve to hail one of the thoroughly beat up cabs that rattle by every few minutes.  After a lot of hand gestures and showing him the address to the hotel, we headed back to the ranch by way of a liquor store for two cold ones for us and a Coke for him.  It’s kinda neat when the liquor store worker opens up our bottles of beer and stuffs a small napkin in the top.  Good to go!

Later that evening after getting freshened up, we hired a hotel taxi to take us to a local Italian eatery that our Lonely Planet book recommended called the El Capuccino.  It was decorated jungle-like with paper mache trees everywhere and sported Spanish-only menus.  But they had great pizza.  We each enjoyed our all-time favorite – Hawaiian “jamone and piña” pizza which we were able to spot in the menu – lucky for us since nary an english word could be understood by anyone working there.  We also enjoyed a great botella of primitivo (zinfandel) and finished off our meal with a gelato with real coconut flakes.  Dinner, wine, desert, bottled water, tax, and propina only came to RD$2,708.82 ($US 60.93).

 

What a splendid evening to end our short visit to Santo Domingo!

DR and PR day 3

Our first full day in Dominican Republic was spent taking in the sights of the old town, Zona Colonial.  Our first stop was the Catedral Primada de América where we rented a head-set tour for 120 DOP (less than $3 USD for two) – a must-do unless you’re Spanish fluent.  The church was quite beautiful, air conditioned, and lays claim to being the only cathedral in America with gothic-influenced architecture.

Diego Columbus (yes, Christopher’s son!) started the project in 1514, and First Bishop Alejandro Geraldini took up the project in 1521.

There are some 14 individual chapels inside – each worth contemplating.  You’ll need nearly two hours to see it all.  Plus, an air-conditioned building in Santo Domingo is definitely tough to leave when it’s triple digits outside.

Here we are entering the Catedral Primada de América.  The end of the tour will leave you at the opposite side of the building facing Parque Cólon – a giant stone plaza surrounding a giant statue of Christopher Columbus.

These gothic-style ceilings are very impressive indeed.  Did I mention that the place is air-conditioned?  🙂  🙂

The wall separating Plaza Espana and Puerta San Diego.

Talk about history!  There is simply no shortage of history here.  In 1492, Columbus and 90 men tried to sail to Japan from Spain,  so, they sailed the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria eastward and bonked into Cuba!  Then, they found Haiti by accident just before wrecking the Santa Maria on a reef!  What a dufus!

I was impressed to find real cannon here – in stark contrast to those we found surrounding the old city of Cartagena Columbia where they use fake ones of painted concrete.  (but that’s another blog)  🙂

Here’s Parque Cólon and the statue of Christopher Columbus with the Catedral Primada de América in the background.

So we really wanted to bring home some Larimar from DR but found it incredibly expensive.  DR is the only place on earth where Larimar is found and they know it.

Here we are following a local through a construction site to an off-the-beaten-path jewelry store (likely owned by either his family or a friend )after being promised “best prices Larimar. ”  NOT!

One of Jess’ favorite stops was Choco Museo.  The DR is the ninth largest producer of Cocoa beans in the world at 72,000 tons per year (2012).

The Coco Museo also has a few styles of Mama Juana.  Mana Juana is a mixture of bark chunks and herbs soaking in a mixture of rum, red wine, and honey.  This stuff is a real big hit around here (we thought it was horrible…) and is only found in the DR.

You’ll need an hour or so in here!

Ahh, yes.  Here we are at a busy day’s end at the roof-top pool at the Embassy suites in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic.  As is usual for all Embassy Suites (even here in DR), the Manager’s special happy hour each evening is not to be missed.  And, besides this hotel being the nicest in the city and in the tallest building in the city, the happy hour bar is located at the outdoor infinity pool on the seventh floor.  Nice indeed!

Beware: The sixth edition (2014) Lonely Planet DR book is way off on several counts when describing this hotel:  it is most definitely NOT on the malecon, the elevator does NOT give you a ride to the top for view, but rather stops at your floor only, and there is NOT a “bar and restaurant with stunning ocean views”.  The hotel is a few MILES from the malecon – we know, we walked it and the walk just about killed us.  End rant.

More to come.