A Unique Experience in the Dominican Republic

 June 26th-30th Sarah and I flew to the Dominican Republic for our friend's wedding. Be prepared for lots of photos in this post. I think it's over 100. As always you can click on the pictures to make them bigger. For the videos, if you're viewing this post on your email and they don't play, visit the blog here. 

The hotel we stayed at in the capital of Santo Domingo. 

The first night there we ate with our friends at a food truck park in Santo Domingo and they had a car show going on there. 

The driving there is pretty crazy - reminds me of Honduras traffic but I think there are a lot more people in DR. 

I took this picture as I was standing outside a mall waiting for an uber. 

A successful shopping trip. :) 

At one mall they had a very large fish tank and this interesting fish was in it. If anyone knows the name please tell me. :)

This restaurant in the mall offered healthy, create-your-own-wraps or bowls. 

This was fun - I got to photograph our friend's civil wedding at the courthouse. :)

The group of witnesses 

One day before the wedding we went on an outing downtown. 

This place is a memorial. 

I can't remember who it is, but a famous person is buried inside. We just looked inside, took a photo, and left.

This picture is blurry, but it has an interesting and kind of gruesome story. I was standing here taking a picture of the flowers (shown in photo below) and I saw this cat stalking a little bird who was pecking at the ground. The cat sat still for a bit, then started slowly walking toward the bird. Out of nowhere a small hawk swopped down upon the little bird and killed it after a small fight. The cat ran over to the bird and started eating it. Poor bird. I walked away after that. 🐦

Across the street from the above memorial is this long road. I believe it's the downtown. Many buildings line the street and there are some small businesses in the downstairs while most of the upstairs are residences. 

These sights are quite common. People set up their stuff and sell it right on the road.

This is another common way to make money. This man was selling drinks -some people sell food or ice cream, like the man in the picture below.

A bunch of pigeons were gathered around a man with corn and he gave me corn so I could feed some. 

They have gorgeous coloring.

This guy looks fake - but he's actually real! He stood there for hours like that. People take pictures with him.

This is an old cathedral where nuns live. We were too late to take a tour but still walked around the property.

Next stop was to visit Ozama Fortress, named after the river. It's one of the last surviving sections of the Santo Domingo wall. 

I spy Sarah. 😁 👀

Replica of canons and soldiers next to the fort.

Looking at the Ozama River

Looking at the entrance.

This is the fortress's prison. The description on the sign said: Throughout its more than 500 years of history, the fortress was used longer as a prison than as a defensive building. Its impressive silhouette, emblem of the greatness of another time, became a symbol of repression. It was a sinister and gloomy place and a painful memory for the Dominicans during oppressive regimes. Here, political leaders, intellectuals, and national heroes were imprisoned for the simple fact of thinking differently than their captors.

*prison entrance*

There are different rooms you can go in and read some history as well as some rooms that showed history videos projected on the floor. This was one.

stairs

On another day we went to get our fingernails done.

Chatting with our friend Yulia at the nail parlor.

They served iced tea. 😋

Friday night we had a girl party and gave Maty gifts, talked, and ate snacks. What a fun time!

WEDDING DAY! 

Maty with the maid of honor and bridesmaids

The ceremony was beautiful. 😊

Cute flower girls

I loved the outside set up they had. The decorations were simple yet beautiful. They had pre-cut pieces of cake in boxes for the guests to eat and some other little finger desserts.

Cutest decor!

One thing about D.R. (and Honduras too) is that the people are more relaxed than Americans. Maty had a bunch of activities planned for us to do and places to sightsee, but we didn't get to do half of them. The wedding started close to 2 hours late, but it wasn't a big deal because people were still tricking in. 😅It's just different. 

Sarah and I, along with the bridesmaids and a few other people ate at this restaurant after the wedding. It was right on the water and even at night, you could see the clear, blue water.  

Sunday our whole party which included the bride and groom, the bridesmaids, the best man and his sister, and the groom's family travelled a couple hours away to Puerto Plata and spent the day doing activities: first, eating at a really yummy restaurant, then going on a walking tour, swimming at a beach, then eating some more good food. 

A man with a parrot greeted us as soon as we stepped out of the van. 😄

Jose's (the groom) mom was so sweet! I loved talking to her and practicing my spanish. 

Eating at the restaurant. 

This is across the street from the restaurant. 

Total group

Pecans

Do you see that bald spot on the mountain to the left? It was caused by a plane that crashed into the mountain.

This is an old lighthouse. A tour guide met us at the restaurant and we followed him on a walking tour through the town. It was a lot of walking but fun! 

The sky was gorgeous that day and several people flew kites. I tried to capture some in this picture.

Statue of Gregori Luperon, president of D.R. from 1879-80. He was named a national hero during the War of Restoration in 1861-65. He dedicated himself to ending turmoil and uniting the country. 

The water looked incredible. It was just inviting me to go swimming! 😄

We walked quite a way back to close to where we had parked and walked through this small museum.

These animals are all made out of blue amber. Blue amber exhibits a rare and clear coloration. It's most common in the amber mines in the mountains near Santiago, D.R. Amber is a semiprecious gem made of fossilized tree resin. It's also used to describe the more or less dark and semitransparent yellow of the gem. 

After a quick stop at the souvenir shop after the museum, we paused to take pictures at this pink alley.

Back up the street we walked to the van. The rest of the afternoon we spent at the beach. Sarah and I and a couple other girls swam in the water for a couple hours. It's so neat to be at the beach and see mountains close by. That's the first time I've experienced the ocean and mountains at once. :) Sarah and I sat at an outdoor restaurant that was right on the beach and ordered these drinks. This was called Banana Mama and I don't know exactly what was in it but it's one of the best drinks ever! It had a texture similar to a milkshake, but the flavor was fruitier like you'd expect in a smoothie.

On the drive back to Santiago we spotted mountains dotted with palm trees. 🌴That's unique.  

And that's a wrap! The next morning we left for the airport early. 

I am thankful for this opportunity to go and visit the D.R. So fun!