Day 11 – Travel from Puerto Rico to Dominican Republic

We left San Juan around 9am on Sunday and caught our flight to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.  Once we landed we jumped in our van and drove three and half hours to a little surf town on the north side of the island called Cabarete.

All aboard...

Jet-setter Garrett

Our driver Joselito

The drive to Cabarete took us right through the middle of the island so we saw a lot of the forest areas as well as a lot of their agricultural lands - they grow rice and coconuts.  We also witnessed numerous villages and towns, which we must say, were so third world it was tough to look at.  There were shacks along the street, trash littered everywhere, kids running around without shoes and a lot of the would-be business structures looked abandoned.  Scooters and motorcycles are the main mode of transportation in the DR and in some cases they get three or four people including infants on a scooter.

It was a three-hour tour...

We passed a few palm tree fields with the frawns chopped off

Rice fields in the middle of the Dominican

There were plenty of beautiful scenic views along the drive

Although a few of the towns were rough, the landscape  was  gorgeous

We stopped for lunch at Cafe de Paris in Rio San Juan

We arrived in Cabarete around 6pm and our assumption after seeing some of the other towns was that we were in for a rough couple of days.   To our surprise, Cabarete is a lot more developed and has a large tourist business.   Unlike the other locations where we stayed in hotels, in Cabarete we rented a condo on the beach so we had prime real estate. 

Our Cabarete condo, walking distance to the beach, restaurants and bars

After we unpacked, we headed out to get something to eat and check out the scene.   The town is one main road with restaurants, shops, hotels and condo complexes all with entrances on both the street side and beach side.  Walking along the beach side was fantastic because there’s about 10 restaurants all side-by-side with gorgeous ocean views and fun, comfortable beach-side dining. 

We started with a drink at LAX and then moved onto dinner at LA CASITA DE DON ALFREDO, aka Chez Papy, because it was the most packed of the bunch.  Since it’s the offseason and we got into town on a Sunday, the town was pretty quiet.

We started with a few appetizers and drinks at LAX

Chez Papy did not disappoint.  We had delicious ceviche to start followed by massive platters of langostina (mini lobsters) and camrones (shrimp) smothered in their special "Papi" sauce, delicious!

Bebidas at La Casita de Don Alfredo

"Me gusta tocar la guitarra, me gusta tomar el sol"

Langostinas a la papi

Boom!

After the massive feast, it was time for a siesta

For after dinner drinks we settled on JOSE O’SHEA’S – great name – and hung there for the evening meeting the locals and making friends.

Matt and Mery sitting in a tree...

What should we order next...

By the end of the night we were all close friends

Mas amigas - Summer, Mery and Cherish

Lauren enjoyed her coconut juice

Lauren making friends with stray dogs - we had four or five dogs following us by the end of the night

We closed O’shea’s down around 2am and headed back down the beach to our condo.  Day 12 is another beach day, our final one of the trip because Santo Domingo is mostly site seeing and city life.  

Day 10 - Beach'n It!

With such a big Friday night, we planned for Saturday to be a lazy, recuperation day at the beach. 

The popular Condado beach is a long stretch of sand lined with hotels, resorts and restaurants and it's about a 10 minute stroll from our hotel. On the walk we stopped for a quick bite at PINKY’S, a breakfast place we stumbled upon that apparently is popular with the locals, just our type of joint.  With our bellies full, we made our way to the beach. 

Once we settled in we jumped in the water, tossed back pina coladas, took a few naps and lounged in the sun…a perfect San Juan beach day. 

Walking to Condado Beach

Lauren played Words with Friends all day with her imaginary pal

Mo and Garrett bronzing

Lauren finally believed there were no sharks and made it out past the waves

Garrett doing a little body surfing

Matt catching up on some reading

In the late afternoon we made our way back to the hotel.  On the walk, Mo, Garrett and Matt stopped at a bar next to the hotel called PLAN B for a bite, some beers and to catch up on college football. 

Plan B offered us a plan A of food, beer and football

Mo's bowl-o-cheese - top to bottom mozzarella 

Our plan for the evening was to incorporate the USC v. Arizona State football game, which kicked off at 10:15pm local time, but first we needed to find a place to eat dinner.  Along Ashford Ave., one of San Juan’s most popular entertainment and dining streets, we came upon a teppanyaki restaurant called CHERRY BLOSSOM.  Greg and Lauren lit up like a Christmas tree.  You would have thought they won the lottery.  Apparently, these types of joints are at the top of their list of dining establishments.  You knew they were in their element when they began calling out the food tricks the chef does like, “Make the volcano with the onions” or “Here comes the choo-choo, here comes the choo-choo,” as the chef prepared to push the onion tower with smoke billowing out of it around the stove like a steam-engine train.

Kampai!

"We're the two best friends that anyone can have, we're the two best friends that anyone can have" 

Matt displayed his culinary skills by tossing an egg in the air and cracking it with his spatula

After we scarfed down our grub, we walked to EL BARRIL for some drinks and USC football.  It was doomed from the get-go.  USC trailed early and never recovered.  As the game continued to go south, we continued to order drinks in effort to drown our sorrows.

We were all smiles before kick off

Still holding out hope the Trojans will pull it out

At halftime concern really began to set in

By the end of the game, we were doing shots

After the game, Lauren and Garrett headed back to the hotel while Mo, Greg and Matt continued their evening at the La Concha Hotel & Casino. 

We made a few friends at the lively lobby bar and then made our way to the tables.  We’ve all heard of free drinks while you gamble but San Juan takes it to another level – free food.  With our late-night eating habits, this was a fantastic revelation.   We had the waitress bringing out grilled cheese sandwiches, turkey and cheese sandwiches and ham and cheese sandwiches by the handfuls.  Once our bellies were full and our pockets were even more full, we called it quits and headed home.

We found Waldo

Mo fraternizing with the help

Matt making friends at the La Concha bar

Free sandwiches!

Day 11 is a travel day from San Juan to Cabarete, a small upbeat surf town on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.  

Day 9 - The Best of San Juan

Day nine was spent exploring and experiencing the best San Juan has to offer – a bit of culture, a bit of shopping, some local cuisine, and a night of dancing, dancing, and dancing!

We started with some culture in Old San Juan at the Castillo de San Cristobal.  The massive castle, built between 1634 and 1783, sits atop a cliff in Old San Juan with gorgeous 360 degree ocean and city views.  The castle has amazing history as you can imagine and it’s in terrific condition for how old it is and for the amount of wear and tear it has been through.

Mo outside San Cristobal.  Mo likes flags

The main entry walk to the castle

Castle corridors

Mo pondering life while overlooking Old San Juan

Open sesame!

The view looking east from the roof of the castle

The view looking west from the roof of the castle

There were lots of tunnels and hidden passages throughout the castle

Lauren making one of her six daily bathroom breaks... 

Lauren made one too many bathroom stops so we locked her up in the dungeon

Next, we walked the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan and bounced in and out of souvenir, clothing, and arts & crafts stores.  We stopped at Barrachina, the restaurant that claims to have invented the pina colada.  

The architecture and design of Old San Juan is filled with color

Mas color en Old San Juan

Garrett outside Barrachina, the home of the original pina colada

"If you like pina coladas..."

Slowly our shopping turned into a hunt for a new pair of shoes for Lauren, which as you can imagine was not a simple or concise excursion.  The search eventually led us to the most American of all traditions, a massive shopping mall called Plaza Americas.  We figured “When in Rome” so for lunch, we raided the mall’s food court and had Taco Bell, Sbarro, and Subway.

Lauren leading the shoe-hunt expedition

Shopping malls in San Juan are just as large and confusing as they are back home

After we completed our shoe search, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our big night out.  For dinner, we went to Plaza del Mercado de Sancturce, aka, La Placita.  It was a short walk from the hotel (that was made longer by our street choices) and you could hear the lively bars and people from blocks away.  There were numerous restaurants to choose from and we settled into Café de la Plaza because it was centralized, had lots of people, and it was serving local Puerto Rican cuisine.  Speaking of local food, Garrett and I each ordered mofongo, a plantain mash with olive oil and garlic that is topped with some sort of meat, in our case we had chicken in creole sauce. 

Dining at Cafe de la Plaza in La Placita

Mofongo topped with chicken in creole sauce

We finished up dinner and hopped into a cab to CLUB BRAVA inside the luxurious El San Juan Hotel.  We knew the dress code at Brava was strict but we only had our tennis shoes so we had our fingers crossed that they’d let us in…not so much!  We got stone cold denied.  We were about to change our plans when we were directed to a local boutique inside the hotel where we were able to buy reasonably priced dress shoes.  The club and the boutique had a racket going because along with us, there were several other guys buying collared shirts in order to get into the club...they were in cahoots!  None the less, our plans were back on track.

Me gusta tus zapatos

Shiny shiny shoes!

Brava was slow at first which was concerning considering the extent of what we had just gone through to get in.  Fortunately, it started to pack up around midnight and lots of dancing, mingling, and boozing followed.  We headed out around 4:30am, stopped for a bite to eat, did some last minute dancing in the cab home, and wrapped the night up around 5:30am. 

Garrett got things going with his air accordion rendition

The club started to pack up around midnight and it didn't stop until 5am

Matt made a couple new friends - Yari and Janid...

Apparently, Matt's new friends were taken so he got bullied by this gentleman who was twice the size of a normal human

Garrett fist pumping all night long

With the late night (or early morning), day 10 is going to be a lazy beach day…can’t wait!