Around The World

We were sound asleep when the alarm went off at 8:30 am this morning. But we were excited to get up and get organised for our visit to Puerto Plata in The Dominican Republic. Puerto Plata, officially known as San Felipe de Puerto Plata, is the third-largest city in The Dominican Republic. It has a population of around 300,000 people.
It is a port city, founded in the 16th century by the Spanish. (The Dominican Republic is located on island of Hispaniola; the other country on the island is Haiti.)

We opted for a quick breakfast of Bircher muesli (and coffee for Keith!) in the café just down the hall from our room while the ship docked at Puerto Plata.

We disembarked around 10:30 am and met Romy, our guide for the day. We had initially booked a walking tour of Puerto Plata, but we made a last-minute change and arranged a private car with our own guide. Even better, our car was a classic American car, a 1952 Chrysler Saratoga Club Coupé.

The car was surprisingly comfortable. It even had (relatively) modern air-conditioning, which was a big plus because it was hot and humid, and still only mid-morning.

The traffic was absolutely chaotic near the port because five ships had docked, so there were thousands of people making their way into town. We edged our way through the traffic (that included a lot of motorbikes, many with numerous people on board!) and got out onto Av. Gral. Gregorio Luperón. This road took us along the coast, where there are some beautiful beaches. We stopped at Puerto Plata Beach, where we had a walk and looked at the Neptune statue out on a small island off the beach. The statue was considered to be a mascot of the port but was stolen a few years ago. It was quickly located (since it is rather hard to hide!) and the decision was made to put it on the island to prevent any further theft.

We then hopped back in the car, ready to continue exploring.

As we drove back up Av. Gral. Gregorio Luperón we saw a group of men playing dominoes. Our guide, Romy, told us that they meet in the same spot every day to play.

We turned off Av. Gral. Gregorio Luperón and headed into the downtown area for our next stop, Umbrella Street. The very pretty Umbrella Street is generally closed to traffic. But it was opened for us as we approached and we drove into it and just parked in the middle of the street!

From Umbrella Street we walked to Paseo Doña Blanca, often just referred to as “the pink alley”. Paseo Dona Blanca in Puerto Plata is an alleyway created to commemorate the arrival at the end of the 18th century of Mrs. Bianca Franceschini, a pioneer in the development of the early tourism industry in Puerto Plata.

We did a bit more walking around the city, making our way to Parque Independencia, and on to San Felipe Cathedral.

After looking in the cathedral we walked to the Amber Museum. We had a quick look but didn’t want to wait for a guide to become available to take us through the museum so we hopped back in the car and drove to our next stop, the Macorix Rum Factory. The tour was very well done. Not being big rum drinkers, we didn’t stay long enough to sample all eight rums on offer but we did enjoy some excellent rum cocktails at the bar.

We had mentioned to Romy that we would like to try the famous chocolate from The Dominican Republic so he suggested that we go back to Umbrella Street for a hot chocolate. On the way, we stopped and walked around a back street to get some photos.

When we got back to Umbrella Street, the security people moved the bollards again to let us in. Romy jumped out to get us some hot chocolates while we sat parked in the middle of the busy pedestrian area!

Romy was only gone for a few minutes before returning with two cups of hot chocolate, which were delicious.

We left Umbrella Street to drive to our last destination of the day, Fort San Felipe. The fort was commissioned by
King Phillip II of Spain in 1564 to protect the city from pirate attacks, and completed in 1577.

We explored the fort for a while and then hopped back into the car to return to the port, where we said goodbye to Romy.

We walked back through the very nice shopping centre at the port and stopped to buy some of the local chocolate, before heading back down the dock to re-board the ship.

Once back on board, we decided to go straight to the pool grill for a bite to eat.

We then walked back to our cabin to relax a little before dinner. We had a nice view of Fort San Felipe out of our window.

Around 6:30 pm we headed to Compass Rose for dinner, to enjoy another lovely dinner.

After dinner we went back to the room and relaxed for about half an hour before heading to the theatre for the night’s entertainment. The ship’s entertainment team put on a great show, feature music and dance from around the world (otherwise known these days as “cultural appropriation”!).

The cabaret finished around 10:30 pm. On our way back to our room we stopped in at the piano bar and enjoyed the music and one last cocktail for the day (for Keith, that is!).

Overnight we’re sailing to the US territory of Puerto Rico. Tomorrow we’re doing a tour around the capital, San Juan, which we expect will be a lot of fun.