Once again Cholera is spreading on the island of Hispaniola. This time we are seeing more in the Dominican Republic. Depending on the report you read there have been either 15 or 23 deaths due to the disease. While this probably still isn’t a sufficient reason to avoid coming to the DR it’s good to review the precautions you should take.

There are several main areas that you should be cautious about; the water, fresh fruit and vegetables food from street venders, food from other restaurants, food from resort restaurants. While you can never be guaranteed to never have a problem, being careful will greatly reduce the chances of you having problems. If though you find you are having heavy diarrhea or vomiting when you are visiting any country it is good to get yourself checked out quickly, waiting can make it take longer to clear up.

If you do think you got something (stomach pains, diarrhea, vomiting) try finding a private clinic or hospital. (more…)

The recent storms seem to have eased the recent drought in the DR. While the continual sunshine is good for the tourist sector, it has caused some problems for farmers which rely on the rain for their crops.

The increase of rain shouldn’t affect your plans to visit the DR. In most cases rain storms here only last a short while before being replaced by sunshine. Usually if you are on the beach a passing rain shower is a good time to head out into the water for a while (you’re going to be getting wet anyway). Of course that advice doesn’t apply for thunderstorms or major storms, for those it’s best to take cover for a while, perhaps to find a restaurant to get something to eat while you wait out the passing storm.
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Jet Blue is adding two more flights from New York to La Romana, Dominican Republic stating Nov 16 2011. This makes jetblue only nonstop flight between the Dominican Republic’s third largest city La Romana and New York. La Romana built its international airport in 2008 to increase traffic to the nearby tourist destinations and golf resorts.

The proposed schedule is for Wednesday and Saturday with a flight leaving JFK at 8:36 in the morning and arriving at LRM at 1:31 in the afternoon and starting its return flight at 2:26 in the afternoon and arriving back at JFK at 5:26. JetBlue expect to be able to offer the flights on an introductory sale for as low as $99 for a one way flight.

This new addition will be JetBlues 5th destination city in the Dominican Republic, something that is good news to me. I personally prefer to travel with JetBlue due to the additional legroom offered in their planes. Other features like the personal TV for each passenger, better in-flight service and smaller lines are just icing on the cake! JetBlue is also very competitive with the other airlines and are very frequently the lowest priced.

If you plan on living in the DR for a while you’re going to need furniture. Furniture stores are actually pretty easy to find in almost any of the smaller towns and in the larger towns you will be able to find high quality items. First step is to decide what you want to spend. If you are only going to be here a few months to a year, some of the cheaper furniture might fit your needs otherwise choose the higher quality furniture, cheap stuff will start falling apart quickly.

Plastic Furniture

Plastic chairs, and tables are extremely common in the DR. Most people have a stack of them somewhere so they have places for visitors to sit. While these are about the same price or at times even more expensive then wood furniture, they also last longer and can be easily stacked to get out of the way.

Wood Dining Sets

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