Wednesday, March 15
Amber Cove where we docked in the Dominican Republic (DR) is a dock and tourist complex built by the Carnival Corporation in 2015 for use by its ships on Caribbean cruises. They have done a great job building it in sympathy with the local colonial architecture as well as creating a lot of jobs for the locals.
Our group of 10 hired 2 taxis to take us on a 2-3 hour tour of Puerto Plata, with the highlights being a tour through the Amber museum (fantastic specimens), a walking tour of the downtown area, and a visit to a fort.
DR has a large supply of amber which they now mine in caves, and they also have a blue variety which only shows as blue in natural sunlight or under a UV lamp. The museum was excellent with some of the best specimens we have seen! The downtown walking tour took us to Parque Central, which was surrounded by colourful colonial buildings on 3 sides of the square and the Catholic Cathedral on the other side. In the middle was a rotunda and statues of their founding fathers, with lots of wrought iron seats and lamp posts, so it was very colonial in style.
From there we were taken to a cigar factory owned by a friend of the taxi drivers, and the smell of the fresh tobacco leaves was like smelling chocolate! We got to roll a cigar and keep it, but who knows if they will ever be smoked. Next was a friend's souvenir shop while we waited for the drivers to bring the taxis to us, and then it was a nice drive along the beach road to the 16th century Fort of San Felipe. This was a lot smaller than the ports we have seen in Europe but fascinating just the same.
On our way back to the ship we stopped at a rum factory, but no one wanted to do the tour so we bought a pineapple and rum icy pole - just what you need to cool you down on a hot day! Our impression of DR was that it wasn't as "third world" as we thought, although still a poor country. We certainly appreciate how blessed we are to live where we do.
Amber Cove where we docked in the Dominican Republic (DR) is a dock and tourist complex built by the Carnival Corporation in 2015 for use by its ships on Caribbean cruises. They have done a great job building it in sympathy with the local colonial architecture as well as creating a lot of jobs for the locals.
Our group of 10 hired 2 taxis to take us on a 2-3 hour tour of Puerto Plata, with the highlights being a tour through the Amber museum (fantastic specimens), a walking tour of the downtown area, and a visit to a fort.
DR has a large supply of amber which they now mine in caves, and they also have a blue variety which only shows as blue in natural sunlight or under a UV lamp. The museum was excellent with some of the best specimens we have seen! The downtown walking tour took us to Parque Central, which was surrounded by colourful colonial buildings on 3 sides of the square and the Catholic Cathedral on the other side. In the middle was a rotunda and statues of their founding fathers, with lots of wrought iron seats and lamp posts, so it was very colonial in style.
From there we were taken to a cigar factory owned by a friend of the taxi drivers, and the smell of the fresh tobacco leaves was like smelling chocolate! We got to roll a cigar and keep it, but who knows if they will ever be smoked. Next was a friend's souvenir shop while we waited for the drivers to bring the taxis to us, and then it was a nice drive along the beach road to the 16th century Fort of San Felipe. This was a lot smaller than the ports we have seen in Europe but fascinating just the same.
On our way back to the ship we stopped at a rum factory, but no one wanted to do the tour so we bought a pineapple and rum icy pole - just what you need to cool you down on a hot day! Our impression of DR was that it wasn't as "third world" as we thought, although still a poor country. We certainly appreciate how blessed we are to live where we do.
