the entrance area of the marina Puerto Bahia Samanáthe hotel in the backone of the restaurantsthe infinity pool at the sea sidethe view from upstairsone terracethe second pool at the first floorthe entrance to the lobby
Santo Domingo first day strolling around
so typical DR 😁this hand had to hold the car door so it didn’t open while drivingobelisk in Santo Domingo, it was built in 1936 to commemorate the change of name of the city from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo, in honor to the dictator who led the country by then. it is one of the few monuments built to praise Trujillo which resisted to the end of the regime. In 1996 it was painted by some Dominican artists. The theme is the Mirabal sisters, famous by their resistance to the dictatorship and killed by the regime.checking out where to start to explore the city, El Capitano, Mike and Jennjust a pretty houseI think that was close by the Ozamar Fortaleza somewhere in the historical area, close to Calle Las DamasLa Fortalezaa part of the wallParque Independenciathe gate of the ParcNorbert, Mike and Jenn 5:30 pm flag parade, the guys were taking down the flags all at the same time and folding them in a special waya sad looking cemetery some muralswalk side along the watercouldn’t figure out what that wasit looks nice on the pic but the water was not the nicest
Our second day in Santo Domingo
a nice commitment house and car in the same colourno words needed am I right? so funny!we started the guided tour here at Plaza España, Nicolás de Ovando was a Spanish soldier from a noble family and a knight of the Order of Alcántara. He was governor of Hispaniola from 1502 until 1509.not far from Plaza España La marina Punto Italia in the river Ozamacouldn’t find out the name of that plaza and who made the sculptures Catedral Primada de Américathe front side of the cathedralI just liked the numbersParque Colón, the statue of Christopher Columbus in whose honor the square was renamed in 1887. Previously the square was known as Plaza Mayor.ruins of San Nicolás de Baridifficult to see, parrots lived in the holes, there is one sitting outside of a holeruins of San Nicolás de Bari hospital ,”a place of mercy built under a reign of terror, what many consider to be the first hospital of the Americas was constructed in 1503-1508 by order of Nicolas de Ovando, Spanish soldier, knight, and Governor of the Indies”Calle las Mecedes with its colourful housescan’t remember just another ruinMuseo de la Policía Nacionalmore ruinsa pretty streetaccording to wikipedia: the Cathedral of Santa María la Menor in the Colonial City of SD was dedicated to St. Mary of the Incarnation. It is the first and oldest cathedral in the Americas, begun in 1504 and was completed in 1550. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of SD who has the honorary title of Primate of the Indies because this cathedral was the first diocese and the oldest cathedral established in the New World.I liked the ceiling in one of the smaller chapels
Constanza
I liked the “flying beer bottles” fog coming up the mountainsgoats on the truck and strawberries!!! Unfortunately they were not as delicious as we hoped for the back yard of our airbnbthe terrace and the heated pool in the backthe fire placecoffee time
Heading to the national park
so hillywe had to wait until the trucks were ready to move agin, the whole street was under construction I hoped they were using organic fertiliserthat was the good part of the streetmost of the time it looked like thisthat was were we gave up, we had just passed another scary street partit was very European green up here in 1950m heightthere was even clover up herewell, don’t know what to write
Just to give an impression how most of the route looked like:
On our way back
we had a stop at Constanza. The next day we headed back to the marina but not without stopping at a big supermarket for provisioning.
horses everywhereand sometimes they were right next to the street or a big cattle was grazing next to the streetso many fields the comfortable roadpassing a small villagea church in Constanzawe had lunch at this barParque municipal de Constanzawe tried a typical DR dish ” Mofongo”, it was made with crispy green plantains mashed with garlic, olive oil, and pork rinds, I must say it was not my favourite dishonce again our airbnbjust a few steps away was a small pondI saw some hollyhocks , so prettyand wild strawberries?I was walking around our accommodation and this house was kind of hiding in the woodsthe beautiful backyard with the probably very cool creekafter shopping we stopped at an as well very typical road stop and had super yammi sucklingit was served with plantains and yucca much too muchwell every corner in our little car was filled with groceriesand back at the marina we needed 2 hours to store everything away🙈😂
After repairing the autopilot we had again time for other things
the new and the old hosewhen you need to transfer all your storage from your cellar into your living roomjust fixing the autopilot autopilot was working so we allowed us a free day to walk to Samaná town through the woods along the coastlinethey were wondering what we were doing in their territoryafter about an hour we arrived at the bay of Santa Barbaraplaya Cayacoathe white tower was an elevator for the hotel guests to easy reach the elevated hotel areathe anchorage where we arrived first in Samaná and the bridge finally we were on the bridgeafter a loooong walk we needed some relaxing time at the poolsome youngsters were having fun
Waiting for the strong winds to pass
Even in the marina we had to take precaution because of the strong winds. We tied up Altimate with many more lines like a spider net to prevent her from bouncing against the concrete pier. The marina is usually very safe but not in south winds as the wind creates wind waves which roll right into the marina.
that was the reason we still waited to leave the DR we would have just run into strong west winds
it doesn’t really show how turbulent the water was but maybe gives an impression
SY Altimate 