Day 7 - Domincian Republic

In the morning the Cocoa Boutique Hotel had free breakfast for us. They served us a large platter of fresh fruit; pineapple, bananas, papaya, watermelon, cantaloupe, and pomelo, a basket of fresh bread; cinnamon bagels, wheat toast, seeded baguettes, white rolls and mini croissants, cheese and meat platter, orange juice and cocoa with hot milk. It was one of the best free breakfastes I have had at a hotel.

After breakfast we toured around Zona Colonial. We saw the first church built in the New World, the first fort wall/military fort, Christopher Columbus' house, Cortez's house, Museums with old maps, money, and objects from the Spanish explorers, and of course the Amber museum.

Christopher's house

As you may or may not know, Dominican Republic is famous for their amber. They are the only place that has 7 different colors of amber, very rare. They also have inclusions in their amber; bugs, leaves, flowers and organic materials. The more inclusions the more money it is. They had some pieces that were thousands of dollars.

We learned how to detect real amber from fake plastic amber. If you put the piece of amber under a UV light real amber will turn a bluish green fluorescent color. If it is fake, the light will go right through it. There are a few other tricks. We spent the afternoon deciding between two beautiful pieces of amber, both with lots of inclusions. After a difficult decision I opted for a dark orange brownish color piece that can be worn around my neck. I was a little nervous, but I feel really good about my decision now - I love it! I will post a picture of it soon.

After a day of shopping and seeing all the historical sites in Zona Colonial we decided to walk down the main strip "The Conde" for some dinner. The sun was down and there weren't too many people on the street since it was a week night. There were few options as far as food goes, a bunch of fast food places some local and some from the U.S. We ended up at Pollo Rey or Chicken King in English. It was actually pretty good. I had fried chicken and fries and Rick had chicken empanadas, tostones (fried plantains) and one other thing but I can't remember what it was called.

After dinner we headed to Centro Santo Doming (yes we are crazy) to where we were staying our last night. We stayed our last night at the temple. In most other countries, the temples have housing for the patrons who are there to visit and go to the temple. It cost us $3 a night per person.

Of course you are on the temple grounds so it feels clean, comforting, peaceful and most of all SAFE. Our room was very American like. We had carpet, tile in the bathroom, marble countertops for the sink and real MTC like bedding with air con.