This post will have the most pictures because we did SO much our first full day in the DR. We had to be out front of the hotel by 8:10 so we ordered our breakfast in the room. We had a great patio that overlooked the pool and the ocean in the distance. It was so relaxing to eat out there early in the morning as the sun was just rising and no one was out yet. Breakfast was so-so. Hey it was breakfast with this gorgeous view though.

We quickly scarfed down our food and headed out to catch our ride. The ride for the day were these open air old WW2 vehicles. I thought they were pretty cool but our butts were definitely sore by the end of the day. Of course we had left our voucher in the room so just had to run back to get it. An hour later and many pickups later, we were starting out on our journey.

Our guide was apparently the multilingual guide. He spoke 5 languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese). He had to speak all but Italian with our group. The last couple to get on was French and got quite upset with the tour operators. Apparently they had told her they had to wait for the "french bus" and they were very disappointed when they got on and discovered none of us spoke French. They asked the guide what language the tour would be in and he just shooed her away. Someone else asked in Spanish and again he shooed them away. It was weird. He ended up speaking in all 4 languages which was good and bad. It was nice everyone could understand but you only got to understand things for 1/4 of the trip. He could have at least answered her question.

Our first stop was a sugarcane farm. The sugarcane portion was pretty cool. They showed us how the cane is cut apart. With a machete. They taught us how to eat it. Make sure you use your molars. You suck the juice and then spit the meat out. Then they showed us how these bulls walk around in circles to do something. I'm still not sure what. Josh may have to help there. Then they put into into what I call a giant juicer. We got to drink some. It was really sweet.

Then they showed us what I believe was a makeshift distillery for the rum and and cigar rollers. What seemed odd was how they plopped these last two down on the sugarcane farm which appeared to be a working farm. They had some boards up about the history of DR and we learned all about the island with Haiti. It was just too touristy for our liking.

We then went to the next "station" where a man showed us how they rolled cigars. Whenever I asked him questions he would either (1) smile and pose for a picture or (2) point and say jefe (boss). I was trying to find out if he actually rolls for commercial purposes or just for tourists. He rolled a cigar for Josh and then these boys emerged to herd us into the cigar store. Again, weird. I went back outside and it was starting to rain. I covered up my camera and ran for the large covered facility that apparently housed the alcohol.

I now refer to this station as the "Mama Juana" station. Although they had rum, it was all about the Mama Juana which we warned about when we arrived. It is the oddest looking thing. Something between a hot sauce and potpourri. We learned that they take a bunch of roots and herbs and stuff them into a bottle. Then they cover it with water and it soaks it up for some time. Then you pour the water out and replace it with sweet red wine. After that has sit for some time they pour the wine out. Then you fill with 2 fingers high of honey, 3 fingers high of rum and 4 fingers high of red wine. I thought it was good. Almost like a sangria but much stronger. You just take tiny sips. Apparently, once you finish it you can refill again. We were so intrigued we bought a bottle. Plus my spanish name in school was always Juana. Mama Juana, we had to get.

We finished up here without buying any carved petrified wood or plastic looking parrots and headed on to the next stop - Casa Maria. This is supposedly "Maria's" house. I'm pretty sure it is because it was a mess with baby stuff everywhere. Maria was out back with a baby about Rory's age. I guess the point was to show us how locals live. Very messy with a lot of dangerous electrical sources was what I learned. I'm pretty sure we were in Higuey based on some signs, but the guide never mentioned this.

They then took us onto the grounds and showed us how they make coffee and chocolate and talked about spices. I didn't see a lot but then they let us taste a bunch of fruits and hot chocolate. They tried to convince us to buy stuff and I caved for a $5 bottle of coffee. I checked the label and it was definitely a local made label. We usually bring coffee back from our Central America trips so I was satisfied now. This portion of the day puzzled me a bit but we soon loaded the vehicle back up and headed further up the mountain. The mountain views were gorgeous. It was pretty overcast so it was hard to good vibrant shots of some of the colorful houses.

We arrived at a big open air restaurant with no name. I deduced that it was owned by the tour operator as the only people there were all coming off of the same WW2 vehicles. The guide told me they use it for weddings and business meetings too. The food was a local style buffet. One of the best meals of the week. The beans and sweet potatoes were great. This was much more of the type of food I enjoy on these trips.

After lunch we were told we were going back down the mountain to go horseback riding on the way to the beach. Josh claims I hid this from him. Not true. He just wasn't paying attention. Josh is petrified of horses and yet I seem to find a horseback riding portion of all our trips. Again, this was the strangest horseback riding I've ever been on. It was a trail ride around a set path that normally would take about an hour. With these horses, 15 minutes. There was no single file. They all herded together 6 across. It was like they were in a race to get back and eat. No one was strolling along. They were all walking or trotting quite briskly. The "guide" usually had a concerned look on his face but never said or did anything other than taking one ladies horse and holding her reins the whole time. Josh's horse was changed quickly once he got on and his horse starting bucking. Again, strange.

We were back on the vehicle about as quick as we had got off. Our next and last stop was Macao Beach. I knew this was probably where we would be going the last day for our surfing. We got there and were greeted by dozens of sand buggies, ATV's and other WW2 vehicles. People were everywhere. We were hassled by locals selling stuff as soon as our toes touched the beach. To say I wasn't thrilled that this was our location for our relaxing surf adventure was an understatement. I was too nervous to leave our stuff unattended so we just sat on the sand and people watched. The most entertaining were the Russian brides there for photoshoots. We later found out there was a whole business around Russian brides and Russian photographers at that beach. Seriously. No joke. I confirmed it many times with different locals.

By the time we loaded up and were getting dropped off at the hotel it was around 5. Our dinner reservation wasn't until 9 so we decided to change and take a walk to do photos after taking a dip in the pool. We arranged to have a bubble bath made with champagne and chocolate covered strawberries for when we returned. Hey, it's included why not. We were excited to come back and find pretty flowers and candles everywhere. However, no champagne or food. We were now quite hungry as it was 7:30.

I politely called the room service and told them our food and champagne hadn't come. They said something I didn't really understand but said it would be up soon. 8:15 still nothing. I called again and again they were confused. At 8:45 (15 minutes before we were to be at dinner) it arrived. Needless to say that was a waste.

We headed out to our late dinner at the Hibachi place. Josh loves Hibachi so he was stoked. We arrive and they sit us at a table with a family of four, not with our group. Again, strange. The family didn't say a word the whole night. Our Hibachi cook didn't say a word. No tricks. Around us everyone was laughing and having fun with their tables and cooks. Ours, not so much. Silence. We ate as quickly as we could and headed to bed. We were trying to avoid seeing others so we could sneak to our room. We wanted a drink but were too scared to stop at the bar. We passed a concierge on the way and asked if we could place a drink order. He said "sure what do you want". We said "2 rum punches". Oh you will have to call room service for that he told us. What?

So we call room service and are told 10 minutes. An hour later I gave up and turned out the lights. No drinks came....

So, Josh and I are headed to the Dominican Republic. This trip will be a little bitter sweet. Bitter because we are going with a big somewhat work group and we don't get a lot of control over the trip. Sweet because it's 5 days in the DR at a 5 star resort, all expenses paid. As most know, we just aren't the all-inclusive resort types. We'd rather be exploring and meeting locals than sipping pina coladas in a pool.

So the first day was pretty uneventful. Our flight left at 10am so we were at the airport and eating some breakfast by 8am. Josh was working non-stop until the wheels took off. People were already ponied up to the bar at the airport so I knew it was gonna be a crazy trip.

Josh and I were the ever exciting younger couple on the trip (there were some folks around our age bust most couples had a good 15 to 20 years on us) that spent 3 of the 3.5 hour plane ride playing scrabble on our iPad. I'm starting to get better at giving Josh a run for his money.

We landed in Punta Cana and the aiport was small as usual. I thought the thatched roofs were pretty cool. We laughed at the folks getting off the enormous Belgium plane and taking pictures. Now, I wish I had done it so that I had something to post on this day.

Getting through the airport seemed to take forever. It was pretty hot and the airport is mainly open aired. They had a band playing that played the same song over and over and over. It was a bit like herding cattle as we went through one line to the next. Once we got through we then had play the group luggage game. I had learned from the last trip to make sure I had a bathing suit in my back pack because it took them 3 hours to bring our bags. I had to make a trip to the little girls room and then quickly fished out a suit to throw in my pack. There was a baggage guy standing over me that kept trying to take our bags. I wasn't sure if he was supposed to or not. He just started walking (very briskly) with our bags so I darted after him. Still unsure of who he was.

He took us to the VIP booth. No, we weren't special. The name of our tour operators with the group. The people pointed him back outside. He had gone to the wrong place. After a few confused conversations it appeared we were the last to arrive at the buses. How was that possible? We were pretty quick. Our bags were tagged with what we discovered was our room number and we loaded onto the bus. By now we had been here almost 2 hours and I was ready to get there.

The bus ride took about half an hour. While I appreciate having the tour guide folks on the bus. I'm not sure what the point was. They made us cheer for the two guides whenever they got up. They didn't speak great english and made corny remarks like "Hasta Lavista Baby! See ya later alligator!...." The most useful information I got from them was to by no means drink any water except out of a bottle and not to drink too much Mama Juana.

We arrived at the hotel, were handed a drink and then escorted to a big room with tables set up. As usual Josh and I were the last to figure out what was going on. We were also the second bus to arrive. We got our room keys and then started signing up for dinner reservations. When you travel in a group you have to eat with others. We made reservations for what we hoped would be the safest bets at the beach, surf n turf and japanese. (I mean there is a lot of fish....)

We then tried to figure out how to sign up for the Bavaro Runners trip for the next day, our only free day. We were bummed. I had found this awesome tour guide who was a local. I had heard he does this great day trip to the actual cigar factories (not the tourist stops) to a local shipping village, on a boat through the river, etc. The catch was it was a minimum of four people and even though we offered to pay for ANYONE to come with us, no one would. The next best thing was to do one of the tours offered by the tour company. We pretty much never go that route but we sucked it up. After our travel agent hunted down the VIP chic we signed up four the next day.

Now I was really exhausted. We were happy to see that our bags had beaten us to the room. We threw on our suits and headed down to the pull to get a little sun time since it was already 4 and we heard the sun sets at around 6.

We found the pool bar to be pretty quiet so we grabbed two of the seats at the swim up bar and got some sort of fruity tropical drinks. Rum Punch I think they said it was. No clue what is in it but they were yummy. A bit stronger than we realized. It was pretty quiet out by now so we decided to explore the beach some. The sun started getting lower so we headed up to get changed as we had a welcome reception that night.

Dinner was pretty normal. It was pretty dark and none of us had a clue what we were eating. We tended to get in a group around the buffet and whoever figured out what was in the next dish would let everyone know. When the band started playing American Wedding cover songs Josh and I snuck back upstairs to go to bed.

Whenever anyone talks about Dubrovnik, I always hear about 2 day trips: Mostar and the Bay of Kotor. The night before when we met our new British friend (who never showed for dinner) he raved about Montenegro. He said he liked it much better than Bosnia. I had loved the Bosnia day so I had high hopes. That is always the curse of death, right?

Before discussing the day I think a few things should be remembered. First, it was very overcast. It actually rained up in Croatia while we were gone so we didn't have glorious weather. Also, I think we were comparing our day to Bosnia where we had a guide. I'd be interested to see if we felt differently about the day if we had Zoran to this trip for us. (He does Montenegro, too) Okay, on to the day.

We started the day by getting our rental car. This was a bit of an ordeal. I had booked with Economy Car Rentals. I got a great rate that included them dropping off the car to my "hotel" and then me returning to the airport when we flew out. The problem was that no one had contacted me to set up details for drop off and I had no email. Only a local number. I stopped by the car rental desk at the airport and the office manager gave me his card. I emailed him with the details (apparently it can only be at a hotel?) but didn't hear back. We went to the Post Office and bought a phone card so we could use the public phone but just then got an email back. Of course.


After the big ordeal of having to find a nearby hotel to pick up our car (there are none within the walls) we were able to get the company to pick us up right by the gate. We were thrown off because (1) the guy showed up 10 minutes late and (2) he showed up in an Audi. I rented a Renault. Much much different. The guy told us to jump in the car and that we had to go somewhere else to do the paperwork. We drove up the hill a bit to a pull off and were soon on our way. Much easier than finding a random hotel or paying $30 to have a taxi take us to the aiport to pick it up. I had read good things about ECR. They use local agencies but cover all the insurance needs.

We had moved the drop off time up to 8am so that we could get on the road earlier. We needed to be back by 4 to get our tickets for the water polo game. More to come later... We were on the road by 8:30 am and headed South to the Montenegro border. If anyone else is doing this drive on their own, I'd recommend Rick Steve's self-guided tour. I tried to find it online but with no luck. We had a copy of the book and I'm glad we had it.

The drive is very easy. You basically head straight down the road from Dubrovnik. No turns. We went through some small towns on the way down the Croatian coast. Back past the airport and within 45 minutes we were at the border. There was a bit of a wait at the border control. This was the first time we really had to wait at a border. Maybe 15 minutes? It wasn't bad and Americans always seem to get shuffled right through. I was happy to get my Montenegro stamp, though!

We continued to follow Rick Steve's directions and I read the history to Josh as he drove. We were going to first stop at Perast but they wanted to charge us for parking. We didn't have anything other than kuna (although we didn't realize that was a problem) and didn't feel like paying anything. Lazy I know. I just wanted to see the village, but I was starting to get hungry. We decided to pass on the town and headed towards our restaurant, Konoba Catovica Mlini.

The restaurant wasn't supposed to open until 11am but we got there at 10:30. We heard the grounds were pretty so we decided to walk around before they opened up. We were the first to get there and saw large parking spots, so I'd assume they get tour buses. We strolled through the grounds, which were in fact gorgeous. I felt like I was someplace else entirely. Ponds, ducks, cute bridges and the most gorgeous old house that housed the interior restaurant. We peeked in as we left even though we ate outside. The waiter said we could come eat whenever we wanted and didn't have to wait until 11. We took our time taking photos and just enjoying the area.

When we went to sit down, we were told to choose wherever we wanted to sit. Outside on the terrace by the wines? By the pond? By the waterfall? On the terrace covered by grape vines? Oh the choices. Josh chose the grape covered hemisphere shaped structure. Partly because I think he viewed it as another backyard challenge. He kept asking if I thought we could grow grapes in North Carolina.

Lunch was good. Much more gourmet than our previous food, except Sesame. We were still the only people at the place until we were about to pay the bill and a small family came. Now I know why they told me I didn't need reservations at this time of year! My only complaint was that they were cutting the grass on the property while we were there and I could  have done without the noise. Not loud, but I would have enjoyed the serenity of the quietness. The strange thing was that they used weedwackers to cut the grass. Quite time-consuming I would think.

Like most restaurants we came across, when we paid with credit card, there was no place to put a tip on. I had read my book and although tips aren't expected, they are always appreciated. We always got a good response when we tipped. We tried to not overtip to be "those Americans" but polite. We found 10-15% seemed appropriate. More than that seemed absurd from what we learned. When we were in Bosnia, we could use our Croatian kuna. Since we were not far from the border, we assumed the same held true here. We actually never even thought about it and left our tip for our waiter in kuna.

After lunch we headed back on our road and made our way through some more small villages. We didn't stop because we didn't want to tempt fate and really wanted to make it to Kotor Town before the rain. The drive was a bit surreal though. I'm not sure I was able to fully take in what was around us. Massive mountains that came into the water. The bay narrowed and wove around. We snaked all the way around it and you couldn't see Kotor Town for most of the way. It was hidden behind a tip of the land that jutted out into the bay. The prettiest part was probably the small island in the middle of the bay with the church on it. You could take a boat out there I believe, but for us the beauty was seeing it out in the middle of the water just engulfed by the terrain around it.


We shortly got to Kotor Town and after missing the parking lot, made our way back to it. For the record, the easier one to park in was the one on the left BEFORE the moat at the walls. If you pass it you can park in the more expensive one 100 yards up on the right. However, if it is full, it's hard to turn around and get back. We did, but I was a bit scared for our little Audi. We parked and walked across the bridge to enter the town.

Now, I'm not sure what I expected of Kotor, but it just wasn't this. I actually wonder if we missed something. Josh and I both said later that we felt a bit like we were at Epcot Center in the Montenegro exhibit. I know Dubrovnik is touristy but this just felt different to us. We got it and headed up some stairs to get a view from up top. Rick Steves' guide just told us to try and get lost in the maze-like streets. We tried. We got bored. It was pretty, but we had seen a lot of pretty little town by now.


We spent most of our time in Kotor ducking into churches or looking down alleys. There were a few churches that were quite pretty inside and had great lighting. Also, if you caught some of the buildings just right you could see them up against the backdrop of the mountains which was pretty spectacular. I experimented with my camera a bit and Josh tried to show me how to shoot candles. There is so much to this photography thing! I think I'm slowly getting better but there is a lot to remember. I was also happy to finally see some color. Although Dubrovnik and Mostar had been pretty, there was very little color on the buildings. That was one my favorite parts of Greece. The colored doors and shutters against the white and grey buildings. We saw a hint of that here in Montenegro but still nothing like Greece.

I think that was the problem. We were done with our history and wanted to see something new. We spent a while (maybe an hour and a half or 2?) and then headed for the car. We had been worried that we couldn't get back in time but this would work well.

Luckily, our guidebook suggested a shortcut to get back. If we went through the tunnel on the other side of Kotor Town it would take us down to the bay from the other side and we could catch a car ferry across that would cut off a bit of the drive. It claimed it would save us 30 minutes, but I doubt that. It was still some driving but it was a different route so we were happy with it. The ferry was cheap but would only take Euro! We had no Euro! We found a bank and were horrified when we realized we had given our waiter money he couldn't use. Oops.

We got across the ferry which was probably 4 minutes and were back on our way towards the border. The timing was perfect because it started raining while we drove. We heard later there was a short downpour in Dubrovnik and it had been a washout further North. We really lucked out with our schedule.

Getting through border control this time was quite interesting. We were moving well until everything stopped. We saw a young couple having to empty the belongings of fall their luggage on the side. We saw lots of cigarettes and a very frustrated female. Not sure what that was all about. We got through and quickly found ourselves approaching Dubrovnik.

All we knew was that we needed to go across from the water polo stadium. Easy. We had no idea where that was other than the fact that Zoran had pointed it out in the horizon when we were driving to Bosnia. I took it to be that it was across the peninsula and on the sea. Josh took that to mean it was on the close side by the port. We passed the one road that took you from the upper highway down to Old Town, thinking there would be a closer road to where we needed to go. Nope. We ended up across a bridge headed back to Bosnia. We spun around and headed down our normal path and then started making up a route towards where we thought we needed to go. It's a miracle that Josh and I were still married after that drive. 45 minutes later we had driven in circles around downtown Dubrovnik. Gotten in a traffic jam. Ended up in some residential street that our car would barely fit down and then found ourselves parked in a bus parking lot. We still didn't know where Goran (Zoran's twin brother) and his bar were. I sent Josh out to search while I stayed in the car to keep it from getting towed. I saw Josh circle around several times. Not a good sign. Then I saw him talk to a bus driver and shaking of heads. That couldn't be good either.

He came back to the car and said he got the tickets but thought we should move the car. No one could tell him if we were allowed to park there. We decided better safe than sorry and found some meter parking on the other side of the building. This was getting exhausting. Even more exhausting, we didn't have enough change. Josh went to the shops right there and after a couple tries got enough change to get us paid up for what we thought had to be plenty of time to watch the match. How long does a water polo match take? Three hours seemed enough.

The match was to start at 6pm and it was now around 5. We headed back to Goran's bar as we thought it would be nice to give them our business since we got free tickets. We were well outside of Old Town and all its tourist. We were obviously the only non-Croatians around. Businessmen were joining the tables on the patio around us for a Happy Hour. Josh ordered his normal beer and I tried to figure out what to get. I saw something with Orange, Lemon or another fruit. I asked the waiter if it was good and he said sure. He pointed at a lady's drink in a tall glass next to me and I ordered it. A few minutes later and my sophisticated drink came. A glass water and an envelope of the Croatian equivalent of Tang. Yes, I ordered tang. I hate Tang. I didn't want to be rude so I drank it. Nasty. Josh thought it was hilarious. He ran to the bathroom and came back saying he had found Goran. What? How did he know who Goran was. (He hadn't been there when he had picked up the tickets before) Well, he looks identical to Zoran... At 6, Josh led me over to the far table and introduced me to Goran. Goran said he would go over with us to the match.

While the drive to Montenegro hadn't been everything I had wanted, the water polo match made up for it. Dubrovnik used to be the undefeated champions every year. In the past few years this had changed a bit and they found themselves in a 1-1 series for the championship now. The locals were very mad the team had lost the Saturday before after having been up 9-6. If they had one, tonight's match would have been for the championship. Bummer. That would have been cool.

Goran, led us into the aquatic center that used to be open aired. He explained all the rules, history and led us to his normal seats. Throughout the night he greeted all his friends and it was becoming obvious that people were asking "who are these Americans?".

The match itself was extremely fun. I had never seen the sport before but it was action packed. People were cheering. Some local high school kids brought drums and led the cheers and fight chants. It was a bit like hockey, lots of nasty blows under water, crossed with soccer or lacrosse I guess. I learned all about the players. Who was on the national team. How Dubrovnik players actually GREW up in Dubrovnik while the other teams brought in players from other countries to attend "school". We learned that the City actually pays the players' wages which is the equivalent of $20,000 a year. Barely enough to rent an apartment. Number 10, the captain, was rumored to be considering leaving at the end of the season. Lots of drama.



It was a close match. A bit too close for the locals until the goalie was replaced. The starting goalie had been out for a month with a shoulder injury. He must have decided it was now or never and came back in. He was pretty amazing to watch and quickly Dubrovnik started pulling ahead. In the end they won by a couple goals. I don't remember how many but it was comfortable. At 7:10 the matched ended just like Goran had promised. I thought we were headed home but Josh said Goran had invited us back to his bar for drinks. Okay.

This time we went down into the bar which was a floor underground. Not much of a bar. Linoleum floor. Not really a bar. Just a tap. Strange. It was us, Goran, his best friend/co-owner, and a family of locals. We sat around and had a drink. I had one of the notorious mini wine bottles and Josh his normal beer. We weren't there that long but Goran's best friend came over and introduced himself to us. He immediately looked at me and asked me the name of the name of the biggest newspaper in the US. The most popular. Ummm... The USA Today I asked? Is this a quiz? Great! USA Today he exclaimed. That will be perfect. This sounds bad very bad. Goran and his buddy then told us that one of their friends would be stopping by in a minute and we should stay to say hi. He is the captain of the Dubrovnik team. Now this was just crazy to Josh and I. Water Polo is a huge sport over there. And this guy, number 10, was the main player on the main team in the country. And he was just going to walk over to the bar across the street after cleaning up after the match. That would never happen in the US!

Sure enough a few minutes later, the biggest guy I have ever seen walked through the basement door. He must have been 6'8" and 275 pounds. Not fat, just really big and muscular. He came in and introduced himself. The guys started talking quickly in Croatian and all I heard was "USA Today". Immediately Number 10 grins and says photo? He looks at Josh who gets my camera out and takes a picture. I came up to the guys armpit. And to top it off.... my camera card wasn't working, so we have no proof of it! I was devastated. I was also mortified that this pour guy thought I was a reporter. We finished our drinks and hid some money under Goran's glass (he wouldn't take our money) and said our goodbyes. We headed back home as we had a lot of packing to do for the morning.

For the second time in one day it was a miracle we were still married. We had to find somewhere to park the car. We checked all the spaces by the walls. Nothing. After circling a few times we headed back up the hill and found the garage. $30 for overnight! Crazy. We had no other choice so we parked and started climbing down the very steep steps for a long walk home. This would not be fun in the  morning...