Dominican Republic trip - # 1 - January 9, 2006 -Hotel and meals

Je

Thank you very much for your trip report and notes. It alerted me to
several things that I would maybe not have thought of as quickly by
myself. Particularly the two items below.

What astounded me was the amount of trash. The DR was badly served by
the introduction of plastic. No one seems to think twice about
tossing their trash along the side of the road, where it accumulates
in large piles in the gutters or against fences and walls.

In some places there is a lot of trash both in the street and
overflowing the trash barrels, but in 'tourist areas' and in the hotel
it seems to be relatively clean. The trash is even collected
sometimes - I have not seen them doing this, but the trash barrel was
full on Friday, and empty on Saturday so someone must have done.

What surprised me most was the general run down appearance of most of
the buildings with many buildings in ruins or incomplete. Lots of
concrete blocks with rebar sticking out or what appeared to be
crumbling buildings, deteriorated streets and sidewalks which I found
depressing.

I’d also heard, but didn’t believe, how many motoconchos (100cc
motorcycles) there were. Saw a few mid-60’s Honda 50s still looking
good and running well. But on the two lane road to La Romana, the
cloud of smoke from these bikes was astounding.

I particularly noticed what I thought of as unsafe riding conditions.
Mini-vans with the doors removed and a man hanging out the door weave
in and out of traffic. I am told that the man hanging out the door is
the person who gets the passengers and collects the fares.

In addition to the little motoconchos, many of which are ridden
double, and on the wrong side of the road or zipping between traffic
lanes, there were a lot of stake body trucks with men standing or
sitting in the back and hanging out the windows. There were also
various larger size buses or vans including even one triple
articulated bus that I saw in Santo Domingo. We asked about taking
the buses which we did without a problem in the Bahamas and were told
not to.

Residence Albatros itself was clean, well kept and nicely landscaped.
Our unit, a two-bedroom with fold down couch in the livingroom/
kitchen. was quite comfortable for 4. The master bedroom had two twin
beds, closet with safe, a balcony and separate A/C unit. The second
bedroom was just big enough for a double bed and small dresser with a
ceiling fan. Kitchen had a two burner propane stove top, no oven.
Microwave was available at the front desk.

We were in Hotel Acuarium, which is on the airport side of Santo
Domingo (from 20 minutes to a hour depending on traffic), a block off
the main waterfront street (no beach) on a road which is unpaved with
MANY potholes. The hotel is named for the National Aquarium and I
estimate it is a mile from it.

This is an RCI condo built originally by Italians and has Italian
upper management who appear to live on the premises. 90% of the hotel
is RCI, although non-RCI people can also stay here. The other 10% are
apartments owned by Italians. The rates posted on the bulletin
board were $70 for one person, $90 for two and $120 for four for a one
bedroom apartment (US$). The RCI rates were $60/night for the same
type of apartment (any number of people). They also had two bedroom
apartments which were more expensive. We were here as Space Available
for military or retired military (or "charity" as Gloria, the RCI
person, put it), and we paid a bit less than $38/night.

Our apartment was on the second floor overlooking the veranda over the
pool patio on one side and the courtyard/hot tub area on the other
side. The bedroom and the living room had windows looking out on both
sides, and the courtyard/hot tub side had a small balcony. It was
clean and nicely landscaped with coconut palms, huge travelers palms,
bamboo, huge coleus vines with leaves as big as a swim fin and other
tropical plants. We accessed the second floor (there was also a
third floor) by four short flights of steps - one of which winds up a
staircase on each of two corners of the pool courtyard.

The doors had an unusual knob - you didn't open the door by turning
the knob, it didn't turn. You depressed a thumb latch on the rim of
the knob. The locking mechanism was a bar on the middle of the knob
which could be turned to lock from inside, but from outside had to be
locked with a key. The windows had wooden hinged jalousie shutters
inside the room in addition to floor length curtains.

The floors of the patios and corridors were uneven flagstone, and the
entrance to the room had 3 narrow tile steps up (too short for my foot
by 1/3rd). On each side of the entrance was a double door (wood
doors) closet, one of which had a safe in it (which we didn't use).
The side opposite the door had the bathroom and a narrow kitchen. The
living room was on the kitchen side and the bedroom was on the
bathroom side. The floors throughout were of some artificial marble
material-tiles of about 20" on a side where the pattern repeated. The
maid swept or mopped the floor each day, made the bed and supplied
fresh towels.

The bedroom had a queen bed (no blankets), a dresser with mirror, two
night tables with table lamps and two wicker chairs with cushions.
One night table also had the phone. The AC unit was high up in the
wall and controlled with a remote. The living room had a TV which got
cable including some American channels (some with Spanish subtitles)
and some local or Spanish channels. There were two couches which I
think could be beds, a coffee table and an eating table with four
wooden chairs.

All the furniture and the doors and window frames were nicely made of
wood. Bob said he found a wood shop on the premises where they were
sanding, planing and making what appeared to be kitchen cabinets.

Both the bedroom and the living room had ceiling light/fan fixtures
and both had some missing or burnt out bulbs. There were both two
prong plugs for 220 and three prong for 110 electricity. There were
some electrical outages, but I think the hotel has its own generator
system because the outages were never for more than a few minutes. I
had a power strip which I plugged my computer into.

The bathroom was open to the outdoors through cement blocks with holes
in them at the top of the shower. There was a toilet with a seat
(more about that later, but a good gift for someone who lives in DR
apparently would be a toilet seat) which flushed, there were several
rolls of TP, there was a mirror and several wooden shelves. Bars of
hand soap were also supplied and Bob thought it was a bit aggressive -
he got some in his eyes and it made his eyes smart.

The shower was in an alcove and the head could be removed and held in
the hand. There was enough hot and cold water for a good shower. We
got two towels and a bathmat. No hand towels or washcloths. If you
wanted a beach towel you made a $10 deposit and if you lost the towel,
you paid $20 more. This towel was slate blue and much bigger and
thicker than the bath towels.

The kitchen had an under the counter refrigerator, a four burner gas
stove top (with no directions or matches) but no oven, a counter top
microwave, a stainless sink and drain board in a molded plastic
countertop, and various dishes and pots and pans. No dish towels, or
dish soap to clean the dishes with.

There was a night guard in the front lobby and a notice which said "No
Armas de Fuego" on one door, and on the other door it said that it was
an automatic door in 4 languages. It wasn't--unless you count that
someone would open the door for you if it was locked, as it was at
night. There was also a guard with a rifle sitting at the back
entrance behind the building on the other side of the hot tub
courtyard.

On the ground floor in addition to the pool in the middle with
loungers and tables and two apartments, there was also a TV area with
couches, a bar, and a restaurant between the pool and the other
courtyard. There were maps on the walls of Hispanola and the main
cities on the island..

The front desk area had four clocks - European time, DR time, Asian
time and US time. There was also a small seating area, a small
aquarium with goldfish, and the computer station (with a Spanish
keyboard - very difficult to type on - not only were there many
symbols where I expected to find other things but I couldn't find the
delete key, and the @ had to be accessed by an alt key code (alt 6, 4)
which the girl at the front desk wrote down for me.

We could get the 'meal plan' for $22/person a night, which we did
although Bob thought at first that we would go out some nights to eat.
He changed his mind though because there were no places to walk to
even if it had been comfortable or safe to do so and by the time we
got a taxi to and from, there would have been no savings.
Unfortunately they charged us in pesos instead of charging it in US$
which gave them extra money on the exchange rate each time. Bob says
the national coin of the realm is the $20 bill (US).

Prices that are in pesos are $RD. Prices in US are $U.

The lime green house next to the hotel in addition to a high wall with
barbed wire and a tower which looked like a guard tower on top, no
windows at all on the hotel side, had a large metal gate/door which I
only saw opened once, and when it was opened, there was a 'doorman' in
camo with a machine gun.

The meal plan was for breakfast and dinner. The food was good but it
was an Italian restaurant, run by Italians, so the food was Italian.

. Drinking water was supplied in 20
liter jugs, replaced minutes after setting it outside the door and
informing the desk. Service was usually prompt and quite courteous.

Our unit clearly was marked in several languages that it had
non-potable water, although they said it was OK for cooking and
washing. People at the front desk spoke very little English and the
ancillary personnel spoke none although they appeared willing to try
to understand what we wanted. .

We did not have water supplied. We could buy half liter and 1.5 liter
containers of water from the bar to put in the refrigerator and the
'grand agua' bottles cost 60.6 pesos plus a 9 peso "Itbis" and a 6
peso "10% Legal".

The manager told me that the service charge added to each bill it is
mandatory that they give to the staff, but that we need not tip the
hotel staff anything.

Early morning aerobics, volleyball game, Spanish lessons, and dance
class were daily events. Each evening, they had some sort of
entertainment. Pool was nice, with a jaccuzzi (without heat) to the
side and a bar. The small store on premises held more than we
expected...

We could walk to several small stores or take a cab to a big grocery
store - none on the premises. The only entertainment that I know of
in the hotel was something that sounded like band and singers on the
first night we were there which went on past midnight but it may not
have actually been in the hotel because....

...we could clearly hear the music from the bar in the next block, and
also on Friday night we could hear the preacher in the church behind
the bodega on the next street as if he was right in the room with us.
Bob said the noise was bringing down the ceiling of the church. The
preacher did stop about 11 pm. The other significant noise was from
roosters calling to each other - they crowed off and on from midnight
on until sometime in the daytime.

They did have various tours and a free bus to the beach at Boca Chica
each day. The bus left every morning at 10:30 and picked people up at
about 5 pm at the same place on the beach. This was too long a day
for me - I'm not that much of a beach person. The bus driver and his
family lived in the hotel and had a reserved table in the dining room.

I'm not sure whether the Jacuzzi had heat or not.

The hotel people apparently felt sorry for me going up and down the
stairs, so they offered us a ground floor room on Saturday, but we
were only going to be here two more nights, and it would be more
trouble to switch than just for me to go up and down stairs.

Food: the first night, we both ordered off the ala carte menu instead
of waiting for the buffet which didn't begin until 8 pm - we were
hungry because we missed lunch. The menu had categories for
appetizers, first course (pasta), main course, fish course, side
dishes and dessert. We were told on the meal plan we could order
something from each section except that the fish course (lobster,
shrimp, snapper etc) all had an extra charge over an above the meal
plan.

For appetizers we got Caprese Salad (190 pesos) which proved to be a
large plate of tomatoes and molded cheese. For first course, Bob got
Lasagna (240 pesos) and I got Linguine Acuarium Style (200 pesos)
which proved to be large tube pasta with a nice sauce. Both very big
helpings. For the main course, Bob got Fried chicken and I got
Chicken criolla style - both 240 pesos. Bob got a side dish of mashed
potatoes which he said were real potatoes and he also got a little
tree of brocolli, and I got tomatoes - both 65 pesos. My tomatoes
were cross sections around heap of lettuce with grated carrot in the
middle.

Desserts were 85 pesos, and Bob got chocolate cake which was more like
a brownie only pie shaped, and I asked for Jam cake, but they didn't
have any of that so they brought me pineapple ice cream (or maybe it
was ice milk) which was excellent and refreshing. This was almost
more food that we could eat even though we were hungry and added up to
840 pesos each which would be about $28. Plus of course, tax and
service charge.

None of the drinks were included in the meal. You have to buy them
extra. We asked for tea and got a couple of 3/4 full cups of luke
warm water and some tea bags for which we had to pay. We asked for
more 'hot' water and to the astonishment of the waiter, we reused the
tea bag. We bought a bottle of water and soon learned to buy a large
bottle of water and bring part of it (in a smaller bottle) down to the
table with us at dinner time to drink.

At breakfast (which was also included in the meal plan) there was
juice (3 kinds - pineapple, passion fruit and maybe orange or tropical
punch), coffee (2 kinds), milk, cold cereal, again luke warm water for
tea with tea bags, coffee cake, dinner type rolls, fresh fruit slices
(usually pineapple, passion fruit and melon), bread to toast, ham and
cheese slices, pats of butter, and various kinds of jam. You can also
get ham, bacon and two eggs - either fried or scrambled, and the
scrambled ones can have cheese in them. The first time I ordered eggs
they asked me if I wanted two, and I said yes, meaning two eggs. They
brought Bob eggs too - they were asking if I wanted two servings of
two eggs each.

The menu also says yogurt and chocolate but I never saw any, and
French toast.


grandma Rosalie
http://www12.virtualtourist.com/m/4a9c6/

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Rosalie B. wrote:

What surprised me most was the general run down appearance of most of
the buildings with many buildings in ruins or incomplete. Lots of
concrete blocks with rebar sticking out

My understanding, from someone in another Caribbean island, is these are
houses that are being built piecemeal, whenever the owner has some more
funds. They'll move in after the first floor is done, and it could be a
while before they can afford a second floor.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Don Wiss wrote:

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Rosalie B. wrote:

What surprised me most was the general run down appearance of most of
the buildings with many buildings in ruins or incomplete. Lots of
concrete blocks with rebar sticking out

My understanding, from someone in another Caribbean island, is these are
houses that are being built piecemeal, whenever the owner has some more
funds. They'll move in after the first floor is done, and it could be a
while before they can afford a second floor.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

I've heard that about the Virgin Islands, but I'm not sure that this
applies in this case. Because it isn't just people's houses, but
public monuments, and sidewalks too.

grandma Rosalie

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 20:25:36 -0500, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Rosalie B. wrote:

What surprised me most was the general run down appearance of most of
the buildings with many buildings in ruins or incomplete. Lots of
concrete blocks with rebar sticking out

My understanding, from someone in another Caribbean island, is these are
houses that are being built piecemeal, whenever the owner has some more
funds. They'll move in after the first floor is done, and it could be a
while before they can afford a second floor.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Yes, you see a lot of this in Belize. A very patient people.

wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 20:25:36 -0500, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Rosalie B. wrote:

What surprised me most was the general run down appearance of most of
the buildings with many buildings in ruins or incomplete. Lots of
concrete blocks with rebar sticking out

My understanding, from someone in another Caribbean island, is these are
houses that are being built piecemeal, whenever the owner has some more
funds. They'll move in after the first floor is done, and it could be a
while before they can afford a second floor.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Yes, you see a lot of this in Belize. A very patient people.

Yes, and not covered by insurance and no mortgage.

If someone is obviously working on something - that's OK

What made me uncomfortable was sidewalks that have been torn up and
not repaired, monuments that have holes in them and are in a general
state of disrepair, bridges with scaffolding on them and are obviously
being repaired but are still being used, iron bridges with peeling
paint, tunnels with tiles and lights in the interior missing,
interchanges for roads which have not been finished and require going
across a rutted track (in the city) to get from one section to
another, traffic lights that didn't work and buildings that obviously
have not been worked on in some time so that I'm not sure whether they
had been damaged and not repaired or if they had just been abandoned
halfway through the job.

I find the same thing in the US sometimes too, and I don't like it
there either. For instance at Fort Morgan in Alabama, the handrails
are twisted and rusted so that if anyone used them, they'd probably
get cut or would fall, and the brickwork is deteriorating and has
black stuff on it which I presume is mold and white stuff which I also
presume is efflorescence. This isn't hurricane damage - the lady at
the visitor's center said that the fort was flooded, but was soon
pumped out.

Also 4 out of the 5 ladies rooms I used and the Dominican Republic had
no toilet seats (the part that the men leave up), and some could not
be flushed. The flushing part may be a problem but I don't see why
they can't get or make seats.

Out of 8 lights in the ceiling fixtures in our hotel room, 3 were
missing and one was burnt out (two different fixtures).




grandma Rosalie