Exploring the Dominican Republic: February 2013

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Aubergine Restaurant (San Cristobal)

The Aubergine restaurant is located about 1 hour drive from Santo Domingo. It has a wonderful patio deck with a stunning view out over forests, mountains, and eventually the ocean on the horizon. The drive to the restaurant takes you up winding mountain roads and through some quaint remote villages. Getting to the restaurant is an experience in Dominican life itself, as you get a glimpse of life outside of the busy capital city. If you take Autopista 6 de Noviembre west from the city, you'll see signs for the road to Cambita-Garabito off the highway. There are then signs for the restaurant that you can follow as the road winds up the mountain. The road is accessible in a non-four wheel drive vehicle in dry conditions, but I wouldn't try it if there is rain.

The food is an eclectic mix of Euro

View from the mountain road en route to the restaurant.

We arrived! The restaurant sits on an outcrop over the hillside on a bend in the road.

The back patio deck.

View from our table.

The wienerschnitzel was quite good.

I had panko encrusted chicken fingers with yucca mash.

The menu has some colorful entree descriptions. The main dishes tend to run around US$10-15. Items like steak are of course a premium.

Punta Cana

For our third weekend in the Dominican Republic, we decided to head all the way east to Punta Cana. Driving on the highway from Santo Domingo took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Arguable the most internationally known area of the Dominican Republic, we were curious to see what the area has to offer. Since we wanted to explore various beaches, we decided against staying at an all-inclusive resort and instead chose the Four Points by Sheraton, Punta Cana. It was a modern, large hotel with a free hourly shuttle to Playa Blanca, La Cana Golf and Beach Resort, and the airport. The hotel is directly across the street from a cute little village of restaurants and shops. We can specifically recommend El Burrito Mexican restaurant for good fajitas and tacos and Brot Bagels for breakfast sandwiches. As Punta Cana is geared mostly toward the all-inclusive crowd, there are only a limited number of restaurants in the area.

We spent a long weekend in Punta Cana, which meant we were able to take the free shuttle on two of the days to visit beaches close to the Four Points. On the third day, we drove up the coast a bit to explore other beaches in Bavaro, including the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel (which we hear is the largest hotel in the Dominican Republic).

I love how this mangrove tree leans out into the turquoise water.

Playa Blanca. It is free to use the lawn chairs and cabanas at the resort, so long as you purchase from the restaurant. We had freshly barbecued ribs and chicken wings which were delicious.

Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca. One downside of this beach is the sea grass. When you look out into the ocean, there are large sections of grass growing on the ocean floor. The grass also floats to shore of course, leaving the beach covered in decaying grass. The hotel didn't seem to clean this up. Also, the water is very shallow. You have to walk several hundred feet out before the water becomes chest high.

We walked south from Playa Blanca to an area with some very expensive private homes. It was so charming to see scenes like these two fishermen.

One of the must-see attractions of this area are the Ojos Indígenes, which are freshwater pools hidden away in a protected private reserve. The reserve costs $10 to enter for non-hotel guests, but we were given free entry with our Four Points key card. There are also guided tours of the reserve for US$99 per person, but since it takes one hour total to see everything we're not sure what would be included in that tour. There are about a half-dozen pools, four of which are large enough to swim in. The water is chilly, but what an experience to swim among tropical freshwater fish and turtles in crystal clear water.

This beach was a short walk from Playa Blanca, and was part of the La Cana Golf Club.

La Cana Golf Club, Punta Cana. The pool has a beautiful setting overlooking the water. There is a club house just behind, which had very elegant styling. This had the feel of a very classy beach getaway.

The golf course at La Cana Golf Resort.

On our second day, we drove to the Jellyfish Cafe in Bavaro. It is located down a long dusty road that leads from the main road through Bavaro. There is a sign from the road that is hard to miss. Once at the Jellyfish Cafe, there was guarded parking and free use of beach chairs and cabanas with purchase from the restaurant.

We managed to snag a bed on the beach!

The view of the ocean from Jellyfish Cafe. The water was absolutely gorgeous. It's also a fun place to people-watch, as lots of tourists walk the entire beach between all of the resorts. Right next to Jellyfish Cafe was a local market with some souvenir stalls and a small bar.

Freshly grilled grouper with lots of garlic!

We decided to drive up to the upper reach of Bavaro to visit the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel, Punta Cana. We were able to park and walk around the grounds without being guests. The grounds are huge; the place is so large that three shuttle routes ferry guests around. The main hotel building has the feel of a large Las Vegas casino complete with shops and restaurants. We noticed in the gift shop that a can of Pringles runs US$8, so eat up at the included buffet!

The beach here was one of the more beautiful we've seen in DR.

There are no rocks and no sea grass. This was the most beautiful beach we saw in Punta Cana.

The grounds of the Hard Rock feature lots of pools and natural waterways.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Beautiful sunset over Santo Domingo

I love how the sky looks like it's on fire! This shot is looking south toward the water from our roof.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Setting up a cell phone in the Dominican Republic

If you're going to be living in the Dominican Republic for an extended period, you'll probably want to obtain service for your cell phone. First, I'll break down the two parts of this: 1) buying a cell phone, and 2) setting up a voice and/or data plan for that phone.

First, it may be to your advantage to purchase an unlocked phone before arriving in the Dominican Republic. This is because the DR has an 18% value added sales tax on top of prices that are already inflated as with most island economies. You can't just purchase any unlocked phone however. You should check a website such as GSMarena.com or WorldTimeZone.com first to make sure that the phone you want to purchase uses one of the frequency bands that is serviced by any of the cell providers here in the DR. The two primary providers are Claro and Orange. If you buy an unlocked cell phone that uses the wrong band, you may end up paying for fast 3G service while your phone only operates on a much slower frequency band.

Once you arrive in the country and have your phone in hand (or want to purchase one locally), you must venture into a cell provider's store. Note that not all of the stores that appear to be representatives of Claro, Orange, or any other carrier can set up your original contract for service. To set up the account in the first instance, you need to find a "main" branch which are larger and have the look of a bank. They have the words "Centro de Atención a Cliente" on the facade. You will need your passport together with evidence of your employment or residence in the country. You must complete an application form, and then wait for it to be approved (this happened in about 4 hours for me).

There are a range of voice only plans, or plans which include both voice minutes and data. For an example of pricing, Claro provides 300 minutes of voice plus 3 gigabytes of data for US$49 per month. The plans must be recharged each month at any of the company's stores (which are all over town).

Bayahibe and Isla Saona, Dominican Republic

For our first big weekend trip since arriving in the Dominican Republic, we headed east to Bayahibe. This small fishing village is the jumping off point for Isla Saona, which we had been told was one of the most beautiful parts of the Dominican Republic. The drive is easy as most of the route is on a newly constructed highway. If you stay on the highway, the trip takes about 2 hours. On the way there our Garmin routed us through some towns, however, as I believe some stretches of the highway are closed for repairs. But on the return trip we managed to stay on highways almost the entire way.

Bayahibe itself is a very charming village right on the water which has a good mix of tourists and locals. While many tourists choose to stay in one of the small inns in Bayahibe, we saw a parking lot filled with dozens of coaches that presumably brought cruise ship passengers to Bayahibe en route to Isla Saona. Bayahibe itself never felt crowded, as the cruise ship passengers go directly from the beach where the Isla Saona tours drop off directly to the parking lot to catch their ride back to their cruise ship. At about 5 p.m., you can watch a flotilla of catamarans and speed boats come racing back to shore to drop off all of the people who ventured to Isla Saona during the day.

We were so happy that we chose to stay in Bayahibe and not at one of the all-inclusives. We stayed at a local inn called Villa Iguana. The inn's website makes it seem as if though it is a German-themed in, but we found that it is German only in the sense that it is German-owned. At breakfast it seemed that most of the other guests were American or Canadian. From the inn you can walk to a number of great seaside restaurants that are locally owned and have a nice atmosphere. From Bayahibe you can watch the sunset and listen to the gentle sounds of the ocean as you wash down your meal with an ice-cold Presidente. We liked a seaside shack that had a surfboard as a table and had a great view of the harbor.

For our day trip, we booked the VIP Saona tour with ProExcursions for US$130. It was without question an amazing experience which we highly recommend. Most tourists opt for the US$50 day trip, which includes a speed boat out to Isla Soana and a catamaran trip home (with a stop at the Natural Pool to see the giant starfish). All of the tours include lunch on the island, which featured the local lobster. Incidentally, when you snorkel you can also see this species of lobster hiding in the reefs. You can see from the pictures below that the scenery on Isla Saona is simply hard to describe in words. Enjoying this island together with the Natural Pool via Pro Excursion's catamaran was the best way in our opinion, and we were glad we paid the extra money for a smaller group (the limit is 25 people on board). If you want a more private tour, there are dozens of local boatsmen who will sell an ad-hoc day trip. Simply go to the harbor in the morning and you can work out a price.

If you want to immerse yourself in a quaint Dominican fishing village where the palm trees sway in the salt air, roosters wake you at dawn, and locals share a Presidente at the local watering hole, then Bayahibe is a great option.

A colorful house in Bayahibe.

Looking out over Bayahibe from our hotel balcony.

The view of Bayahibe from our hotel balcony.

The Bayahibe harbor.

The Bayahibe harbor on a cloudy day.

Sailing en route to Isla Soana.

Isla Soana, Dominican Republic

See the washed-away pier to the right? That is one of the snorkeling sites included in most tours. The pier was destroyed by Hurricane George, and now is home to reef fish and lobsters.

Isla Soana, Dominican Republic

The so-called Natural Pool, where you can pick up giant starfish. You can also see the private yachts of wealthy residents from Casa de Campo, which is a short boat ride away.

After the free rum starts flowing, dancing naturally follows! Here the staff leads a dance on board the Pro Excursions catamaran tour.