Well this past week I got to go somewhere new in the Caribbean and that rarely ever happens to me nowadays. Our ship called at Amber Cove in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic for the second time. I wasn't onboard for the first call so it was new for me. I've been to DR several times before but not on the north coast. So my friends and I decided that we were going to take the local bus to the market. Some people discouraged us from doing it and others encouraged us. We walked out of Amber Cove (the port area that our company built and developed) and walked out of the premises. We got bombarded by taxi drives and guides offering to take us to the market for $30 there and $30 back. Since the bus was $1 we insisted that we would take the bus. Regardless of two of us speaking Spanish to them, they still followed us around and pestered us to take them up on their services. Then just as we were going to cross the street and catch the bus, a young gentleman stopped us and told us he would give us a round trip ride for $20 (all three of us) and he would give us a tour. He showed us his guide card and we negotiated more in Spanish and it was a deal.
Now I wouldn't recommend getting into a strangers car and if you don't speak Spanish and you're in the DR I wouldn't tell you to try it but for us it was the best decision ever! We spent 4 hours with the 2 guides and they took us to the market, souvenir shopping, drove us around through some nice neighbourhoods. They also took us to some pretty photo op spots, the malecon (ocean side walk) and to the ruins. We also went latin music shopping and went to a local restaurant to get us some local food. It was a great day!
Here are a few photos from our adventures.
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