Santo Domingo

Our Hotel in Santo Domingo, Hostal Nadir. Each room has 2 double beds. We squeezed 9 people into 2 rooms quite comfortably for the low low price of $180 Dollars a night (Divided by nine its not so much, eh?). For our accomodation in Cabarete we are getting a discount at the windsurf resort because our ISV tour leader happened to live in Cabarete and knows the owner (Thanks Adolfo) $60 dollars a night for a room that sleeps 4.

A Funny sign in santo Domingo. Dr Manuel Labour.

"These bags fit in here, no problem!" We had a crampt ride to the Caribe tours bus depot. Caribe tours is one of the best ways to get around the Dominican Republic. They drive massive coaches to most places and it only cost RD$250 (GBP 3.78) for the 5 hour drive from Santo Domingo to Cabarete.

We stayed in hostal nadir for 2 nights as we didn't want to travel all the way up to cabarete on the same day. (we were in bahoruco, 4 hours away from santo domingo). The merengue festival has been moved so now we are just going to be spending our time in cabarete, the windsurf capitol of the carribean. Lots of fun. Santo Domingo was a laugh and a good place to buy all our souvenirs. While bartering in a foreign country can be a hassle and despite tourist traps being everywhere we managed to get good deals. It did take all day but it was worth it.

Just found out about the import restrictions from spirits from outside the E.U. Aparently the 5 litre keg of rum is over the 1 litre import limit. I dont really want to pay tax so my import plans may have to be revised. :(

Things are going well and we're having a lot of fun. The weather is sunny and we're spending this relaxing time to top up the tans and have a blast on the beach. The bars all have to shut at 12pm on weekdays due to the new licencing laws but all this means is that going out starts in the early evening and the party can carry on later at our hotel.