As we mentioned in our previous post, we went to La Romana as our last place in DR. After 5 nights, we noticed that we should've listened to Chantal and went to Bayahibe instead. We had thought that La Romana would have more to offer and that Bayahibe's attractions would be only through resort bookings. Well, La Romana was not really a nice city to stay in. The city was dirty and it looked like it would be falling apart. People in the city looked grumpy and behaved like they would not have any interests in the world. We don't know how it really is, but we heard that it's very difficult to form relationships with the local people and that they are often very lazy. :/
We stayed a bit further away from the city, because the cheaper places in the city had not received very good reviews. We stayed at Villa la Isla guesthouse which is kept by a Belgian guy, Frank. The place had received good reviews and it had a sea view so we booked that. The place itself was a bit difficult to find since a) the taxi driver didn't know where it was and he didn't know how to read a map (we learned later on that most of the taxi drivers don't know how to read a map!!) and b) it was next to some buildings that looked like abandoned houses and we missed the guesthouse first. But when we found it, Frank welcomed us with a welcome drink and we got to choose from two rooms. We took the one that was on the roof terrace and had a sea view if you opened the door. :) That was nice. We stayed there for 5 nights. The idea was to take it easy, do some sightseeing and visit Bayahibe.
The guesthouse is located in a neighborhood of just local people. We noticed this quite soon because we got a lot of staring when we walked around :p Also, we used 'gua-guas' (local mini-buses) when we went to the city and back. Those are minivans that have seats usually for 9 people, but you can easily fit 15 or more into such in DR, because people literally sit on each other there too :p Especially children were rather interested in us and looked at us from head to toe for the entire ride (20 min). :p
Well, our first day was sunny and we just relaxed and Markus did some snorkeling in the nearby bay. There was not that many fish, but some trash, though... During our days we saw many locals fishing in front of the house and many of them left with many fish, so a bit further away must be more fish :D We also walked on the sea front, which was old coral. There were some interesting fossils formed into the corals, too!
We visited 'Cueva de las Maravillas' during our stay, because they are not far away from La Romana. The caves are big, but rather commercial in our opinion. First of all, there is a lighted cement path in the caves that we walked on and secondly, we were not supposed to take pictures because the place wants people to come and see the caves for themselves. But there are already a lot of pictures online, so that reasoning does not really work anymore. We took some pictures secretly ;) The guide didn't seem very interested in giving the tour either. After the caves we ate delicious ice cream at Cinco, in the center of La Romana. The Snickers ice cream was really tasty :D
But then came the third storm during our stay in DR... :o It was in the North, but affected us in the South/South-East as well. The areas where we had stayed previously (Cabarete for example) received warnings for flooding and land slides. In La Romana there was only A LOT OF RAIN. Our two last days in DR it rained almost non-stop. We did manage to go to a grocery store to buy food, but other than that we couldn't go anywhere, because the weather was so bad. :( We had to put towels on the floor because the rain came inside under the door and from the windows! Apparently there are often some construction issues in DR.
So, our stay in La Romana was not very eventful, but it is always good to see how people really live in different parts of the world.
Interesting-looking buildings in La Romana
We stayed a bit further away from the city, because the cheaper places in the city had not received very good reviews. We stayed at Villa la Isla guesthouse which is kept by a Belgian guy, Frank. The place had received good reviews and it had a sea view so we booked that. The place itself was a bit difficult to find since a) the taxi driver didn't know where it was and he didn't know how to read a map (we learned later on that most of the taxi drivers don't know how to read a map!!) and b) it was next to some buildings that looked like abandoned houses and we missed the guesthouse first. But when we found it, Frank welcomed us with a welcome drink and we got to choose from two rooms. We took the one that was on the roof terrace and had a sea view if you opened the door. :) That was nice. We stayed there for 5 nights. The idea was to take it easy, do some sightseeing and visit Bayahibe.
Villa la Isla is behind the white walls on the left
Villa la Isla
We had a nice view from our room when we opened the door!
Frank welcomed us in a nice way :D
Well, our first day was sunny and we just relaxed and Markus did some snorkeling in the nearby bay. There was not that many fish, but some trash, though... During our days we saw many locals fishing in front of the house and many of them left with many fish, so a bit further away must be more fish :D We also walked on the sea front, which was old coral. There were some interesting fossils formed into the corals, too!
Locals fishing
Fossils
Having fun in the caves :D
Yammyyyy :D :D
Third storm in DR...
The storm brought some souvenirs...
So, our stay in La Romana was not very eventful, but it is always good to see how people really live in different parts of the world.
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