Chasing Summer –

December 4-7

Casa de Campo

The Odyssey started its 7-day Dominican Republic holiday in the wrong port. Originally, we were scheduled to tether at Punta Cana, but due to forecasted rough seas, the decision was made to move further south to Casa de Campo and tether there.

From the ship, we needed to take a tender into the marine. It takes about 5 minutes, and I was the only one on my boat.

This marina is definitely not used to cruise ships here. There is a yacht club and 5-star resorts in the area. All the beaches are private and cost at least $50 to use.

A walk through the accessible marina area takes about 20 minutes if I go slow. There are some high-end shops and a small mall with hardware and groceries. That’s it.

There is plenty of time to plan the rest of the holiday. Our ship is also at the end of provisions with plenty of cheese and pasta dishes last night and a salsa for lunch that was 90% onion. I hope they are restocking tomorrow.

The last time I was in the Dominican Republic was when my oldest brother, Chris, got married here over 20 years ago.

La Romana

By 5 a.m., the Odyssey was pulling into our port on the west dock in La Romana. A very short rain burst at breakfast gave us a brief rainbow of welcome.

A small group of us, Paul, JR, Rina, Jim, Scott, and I, decided to walk into town and explore. According to Google, we looked really close to the center of town.

As we walked away from the Odyssey, we passed several people returning who said they felt unsafe with the traffic and people loitering around, so they had come back.

I was a little concerned but knew that many of them were uncomfortable walking around Dakar too, and it was fine there. So, we continued through a nice residential neighborhood with government buildings, a hospital, and a fire station. I heard later that this is the sugarcane plant area, so there is money here.

In 10 minutes, we had reached the main street, and Mario, a local government-approved tour guide, was talking to Rina in Spanish. After a brief conversation, it was decided that Mario would lead us around town, and we would tip him whatever we chose.

We started our walk with Mario and a police officer stopping the traffic so that we could cross the busy Av. Libertad to the Parque del Obelisco. This is a small park that has a monument and several iron sculptures.

From Obelisco, we walked north and visited a cigar factory, Cornelio. Here, we went into the back to see workers’ hand-rolling cigars using local ingredients. Even the “glue” is water mixed with a tree sap.

After our smoky stop, we continued towards the Parque Central Duarte. Central Park is named after the founder of Dominican Independence and is the main square in town.

It is decorated with many Christmas decorations and lights. There are also more iron statues and a statue of Duarte.

Behind the park is Parroquia Santa Rosa de Lima, a Catholic church. Most of the Dominican Republic is Catholic.

From the church, we circled around back to see some local shops that were selling spices, produce, and meats. The lack of refrigeration with the meats caused some concerns among group members.

We also popped into a couple of airconditioned stores, and Paul bought an empanada from a vendor.

We finished our walk after a visit to close by Jumbo, where we had started with Mario. He was worth his weight in gold just for stopping traffic, and everyone else left us alone when they saw him with us.

There wasn’t much else to do in town, so we returned to the boat. Luckily, I have a catamaran trip booked for tomorrow, and on Saturday, I’ll see about heading to the caves for an outing.

On day two in La Romana, I was able to see Twilight before the next cruise ship pulled in and blocked the actual sunrise.

Eleven of us had booked a snorkel and beach tour to Catalina Island last night, and I had arranged for them to pick us up right outside the boat at 9:30 in the morning. It cost $107 Canadian or $ 76 USD for the day and was one of the cheaper options left from La Romana.

We were picked up and brought across the river. We could see the boats from our breakfast area on the Odyssey, but because of how the roads are blocked, it would have been a long walk to get there.

Our catamaran held about 40-50 passengers and played way too loud music on the way to the island a slow 40 minutes away. Our tour guides also gave no instructions about timing, but we were probably too deaf to hear them anyway.

The island is the number one tourist spot in the area, and there were dozens of boats filled with tourists bobbing in the water. The adverts promise clear waters, coral reefs, and fish. They don’t lie, but they failed to include the depressing amount of plastic and garbage floating down there, too.

The company does provide masks and snorkels but no flippers. I found getting out of the boat easy but struggled to get back on.

After a 30-40 minute snorkel time, we headed off around the island to the lunch area where lounge chairs and sunshades are also set up. Since this is an unhabitable area, all the food and drinks are brought out each morning, and when something runs out, it is done.

Lunch and unlimited drinks of pop, beer, and rum are included in our trip. There was also a spot if I wanted a massage and a little souvenir shop.

About 3 o’clock, the tenders came to get up to return us to the catamarans, and again, I struggled to get myself into the damn boat. I mistakenly listened to the man who said to step up onto the boat when I should have sat on the edge and twisted in. Live and learn.

We returned to the main island, and half of our ship, the Odyssey, was heading off to a baseball game that evening. I chose not to go and instead had a relaxing dinner and early evening in.

On day three of this port, I put out an all-call for anyone who wanted to visit the Caves of Wonder to meet at 10 am. 13 of us made our way to the caves in two taxis for $12 roundtrip each.

The caves cost 300 pesos to enter and are worth every penny. They are huge caves with petroglyphs in them. Explore Cueva de las Maravillas – the Cave of Wonders · Visit Dominican Republic

Outside the caves is an Iguana reserve with 25,000 iguanas calling it home.

At dinner, we left La Romana behind and headed towards our next port, Santo Domingo.