If you are planning a trip to the DR and plan on flying in you likely have a few questions. I’ll try to cover some of the more common ones here. First it’s good to note that the airport personal are friendly here and will try to help you out if you need help however few speak another language besides Spanish, so it does help to already have some of the basic phrases at least written down in case you need them.

Once you get into the more tourist oriented areas you will find plenty of people that speak multiple languages English and French (often more of a Creole) being the first on the list after Spanish.

Entry Fee: Once you get off the plane you will need to find the place where you buy your entry fee card. (more…)

Here in the Dominican Republic there are many things that you aren’t always used to. One of these things that we are not always used to is the fruit stands.

Now, there are some fruit stands in the U.S. and probably in other places too, but I doubt that they are like the fruit stands in the Dominican Republic. To start off, a quick description of the stands here, they are made of anything that you could think of, a lot of them being on the side of a house or in a house. But to make it even more different, (more…)

In most of the smaller towns of the Dominican Republic like Fantino and others the people are very friendly, laid back, and social. When walking down the street it is expected to greet everyone that you pass by, that includes the many people sitting out in front of their houses in small groups talking.

Common Greetings
Greetings very somewhat. The standard of course being “Hola” or hello. As you walk passed, it is also common to use “Adios” or goodbye as a greeting. Some will continue with “Como Esta Usted” or “how are you”. Often though you will get another greeting, it’s not uncommon for people to know just a little English and they love to practice it. So don’t be surprised to many of the standard English greetings.

While they see foreigners fairly often, we are still a bit novel to them. You will very often hear people mutter (or even shout) Americano as you walk passed, often you will hear it repeatedly from the group. Don’t take offence, for the most part people here like Americans and other foreigners, this seems to be more of a form of entertainment not in any way an insult.

O Yah, there are a couple more greetings you should expect to hear. First if you are white you will hear Rubio (male) or Rubia (Female). This is really a term meaning a person with blond hair. However, it’s applied to most people with light skin, you will hear them even call their lighter skinned Dominican friends that. The other you will hear gives the impression you just stepped on a snake. (more…)

When you get to the Dominican Republic it won’t take too long to figure out how much Dominicans love music. You start walking down the street and you will here some great sound systems. That is one thing that Dominicans know how definitely know how to do right, sounds systems. You can go through areas and it seems like all the bars and stores in the area are competing to see who is the loudest and it is a pretty good battle, and they are usually crystal clear. It shows what they love. Music

You will probably be hearing music the whole time you are here from about 10:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night. That being said you probably want to know what you will be listening to the whole time you are here. In the last entry on music I talked a little about the type of music they have here. Mostly Bachata and Merengue, but also such music as Reggaeton and salsa. (more…)