Dominican Republic! - The Beach!

We were lucky enough to hit the beach 3 times in 5 days!  It was awesome!  Had we realized we were going to stay longer we probably would have gone again, but after you spend a long time getting all the sand out of everything you really don't want to start over!  Plus Adam's dad had some work he needed to get done so we did some other fun activities instead.

Grandma bought Charlie and Adella buckets and shovels and they were ready to GO!


Our first excursion to the beach was in the Caribbean Sea!  Oh my it was soooo nice!  We even did some snorkeling and saw some fun fish!   Somehow in all our packing up the car we forgot the bag with Charlie and Adella's swimsuits.  Woops.  So we just let them play in their clothes.   Lame mom alert.

Adella was never really sure what to do.  She seemed pretty concerned about the sand on her hands and of course tried to eat it.  Which didn't turn out well, and then of course she couldn't use her hands to get it out of her mouth.   Charlie enjoyed digging though. 

Truth be told they weren't really big fans of the ocean, they hate swimming in our pool too but we thought it might be just because of the temperature, but the ocean was PERFECT and they still hated it.  I hope someday these kids will enjoy swimming!

Our next Beach Adventure was the Atlantic Ocean!

The water on this side of the Island was a little bit cooler, but still very nice.  This beach was super quiet and nice and sandy!  

And we remembered suits!

These two were still completely unsure about the whole thing

Charlie holding on to Grandpa for dear life

Poor Charlie got his hand stuck!

We didn't play too long here because it was pretty windy and Charlie was starting to shiver!

A few days later we went back to the first beach.  It was a beautiful afternoon!

Adam decided to bury Charlie in the sand.  He really didn't seem to mind!

Seeing these pictures makes me want to go jump back in!  

Dominican Republic! - Crazy Culture

There were some things that never ceased to amaze me and make me laugh the whole time we were there.  Driving being one of them.  It's a good thing we didn't have to drive, I think I would have had a heart attack.   It was INSANE.  I mean REALLY INSANE.   There are rules and laws, but since there are no real punishments they are ignored.  So that means if you want to turn left but are in the right lane, you just honk and do it anyway.  If you want to drive in the oncoming traffics lane, you just do it.  If you want to go through a red light, you just honk and do it.  If you want in, you just honk and do it.  And, there is no road rage.  If it was the US and you drove like that you would surely be beaten up within a few miles.  The traffic is horribly thick too, and most people don't even have cars.  I can't imagine if the could all afford them!   Many drive motos and those really have no rules!  Sidewalks are a favorite place to ride.

I was also amazed at the street vendors at every corner.  Tons of them would come out and walk through the cars trying to sell their goods, fruits, veggies, nuts, sunglasses, cd's and my favorite phone chargers!   Lots also tried to wash windows and would often spray your windshield and wash it even if you said no and then demand payment. 

You could also huck as many people into cars or the backs of trucks as you wanted.   Taxi's and buses would stuff people in. 

Although the grocery stores were very much like what we would see in America, including the same brands, there were also little open markets along the streets. 

Notice how the eggs are just out in the open?  They don't refrigerate them!  So odd!

I didn't get my camera out quick enough to get a picture of the 'butcher' shop as we drove by.  Basically they have a bunch of animals in a cage and you go pick it and they kill it right there for you.  It was pretty nasty and did not look at all sanitary! 

There are some parts of the Island that the houses are really cute and pretty nice and other places where you see hundreds and thousands of shanties just stacked on top of each other. I also missed getting some good pictures of those, but it was really amazing to actually see those. 

The people we would run into were very friendly and Charlie and Adella were like international superstars!  People LOVED them and were constantly commenting on them and even if they didn't they would smile and point.   We even had this large group of about 8-10 young girls hoard around them and all just want to look at them and touch them.  It was pretty funny, they were all just giggly and smiling.  A mom came up and literally 'kicked' them away (she didn't kick hard, it was more in jest and she was laughing and apologizing).