It’s party time again in La Vega Dominican Republic. While it always kind of seams like there is a party going on, the month of February brings it to new heights. Each weekend during the month of February there will be parties going on throughout most of the Dominican Republic but the most famous area is Carnival Vegano in Le Vega.

The carnival is known for its costumes and in particular the masks. Groups of people spend month creating elaborate costumes called “diablos cojuelos” , or Devils with the competition centering around who can create the most grotesque masks.

Part of the celebration include “vejigas”. Originally dried cow bladder but now can be made out of almost anything similar. These are used to whip people in the streets. (more…)

Good and bad news for Dominican Republic iPhone users! The Good News? Apple has announced that it will be making the new iPhone 4S available in the Dominican Republic as an “unlocked” version. Bad News? As expected not all features will be available in the DR. While both Orange and Claro will have the unlocked version available to their customers they will both have different features available.

According to Apple, for Claro the 4S iPhone will be locked to the carrier, have access to MMS and Claro hotspots in the Dominican Republic but will not offer authorized unlocking or visual voicemail. Orange includes the feature of having authorized unlocking but likewise will not offer the “Visual Voicemail” service.

Some of the more interesting features of the new iPhone 4S includes: (more…)

American Airlines affiliate American Eagle announced it will be resuming it’s flights to La Romana-Casa de Campo International Airport (LRM) from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan (SJU).

The flights are set for Friday and Sunday with the flight from San Juan Puerto Rico to La Romana leaving at 12:25 pm and arriving in La Romana at 1:25 pm and the flight from La Romana leaving at 2:00 pm and arriving in San Juan Puerto Rico at 3:00 pm.

This flight works out well if you would like to spend a weekend out of your DR vacation in Puerto Rico. You can Leave the DR on Friday and come back the following Sunday.

San Juan is known as “La Ciudad Amurallada” or “the walled city”. It’s on the Northern Coastline of Puerto Rico. Likely your visit would include some of the major points of interest like “Old San Juan” with its numerous plazas, parks and forts. One of the more interesting forts is “El Morro” an awesome looking 6 level fortress. There are also many museums of interest as well as other historical buildings. Many of these buildings were constructed in the 1500’s to the 1800’s.

Then of course there is the food. You will find food from all over the world here with great restaurants serving French, Italian, Asian, Greek, Spanish and German food.

The Las Colinas Mall is a multi-story mall located on Ave 27 de Febrero in Santiago. They have both escalators and an elevator to get between the different levels.

Jumbo Super Market

The Jumbo Supermarket in the Las Colinas Mall is kind of like a Wal-Mart in the US. You find just about everything there. Food, liquor, clothes, household items etc. They also have a good bakery and a cafeteria style food area.

Their bakery is very good. We tried a couple different styles of fresh baked bread as well as several pastries. One of our favorite pastries was a custard cone with about a cup of very good flavored vanilla custard in a flaky pastry cone. They also had some very good fruit pastries. This will likely be one of the locations we will stop by regularly in the future.

Las Colinas Food Court

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Dominican Republic beauty pageant contestants – Miss DR
The new Miss Dominican republic will be crowned tonight from a group or 36 candidates.
A large number of Dominican Republic provinces are represented including: (more…)

Dancing is more of an institution that a past time here in the DR. Walk down the streets in the evening (if it is safe in your area) and you will hear music coming from dozens of different sources. While often the night club music (there will be at least a couple in every town) dominates the night air, much of the music will be coming from houses lining the streets.

As you pass by even the 2 year olds are learning to shake their booties to the music. Parties and gatherings are usually dominated by dancing. You pretty much see it everywhere.

So it is no surprise to see the First International Bachata Festival being held in Santo Domiingo February 24 – 27 2011. (more…)

Antony Santos is coming to Fantino December 10^th 2010. Who is Antony Santos and where in the world is Fantino.

Well let’s start off with who is Antony Santos. He is one most famous Bachateros in the history of the Genre. His career started off in the early 90’s with the now famous Bachatero Luis Vargas. He is widely viewed as responsible for changing Bachata from the once poor people’s only music to the present day popular music that is listened too around the world.

This is rather important seeing Bachata is not only a genre of music, but also a popular dance style. If you have been to the Dominican Republic you have definitely see the influence Bachata has had in everyday life. (more…)

Located along the North Coast’s route 5, only 20 minutes from the Puerto Plata International airport, Cabarete Beach is the perfect place for a laid back, and inexpensive, vacation. Restaurants line the beach, shops run along the main street, there is kite surfing, and several inexpensive hotels.

Restaurants
There are many restaurants to choose from along the beach. They generally have indoor, and outdoor, seating, and several are very good. Here are a few favorites:
If you’ve gotten tired of the traditional beans and rice dishes of the region, and just want a good beer and burger, Jose O’Shay’s Irish Pub is the place for you. There is also the option of pizza, cottage pie, steaks, and a few other tasty dishes. The dishes run from $10-20 dollars U.S.

My personal favorite place to eat is Casanova because it is inexpensive (happy hour runs from 4pm-7pm and gives you everything half off), and the ambiance is lovely. The most popular things on the menu are the pizzas and pasta dishes. During happy hour, a meal with a couple of beers will cost around $13 dollars.

On the main road, across from Ocean Dream Plaza is Bayerischer Hof. This restaurant offers savory pork fillets with mushroom and onion sauce, with the option of sautéed or mashed potatoes, or noodles. There is also a good Hungarian stew, Schnitzel, steaks, and other dishes. The prices run from $11-20 dollars.
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The Botanical Gardens located in Santo Domingo are likely one of the “Must Sees” if you are in the area during your visit. The price to get into the park varies depending if you are a local or a foreigner. Dominicans get in for $50 pesos (about $1.45 USD) anyone else pays ($5.00 USD). If you come in a large group you can haggle for a lower price. My family was with a large group of Dominicans and we all got in for $25 pesos.

The park is huge, so to get much out of it you should plan on spending most of the day and walking a lot. How much you walk will be determined by how many other people are there. In our case the park was mostly empty so only one of the three trains was running. They took us around the park, only stopping at one of the individual gardens, the Japanese Garden. The Japanese garden was pretty big and they only gave us 10 minutes to look around before the train took off again.

When there are not many people you take the chance of there not being another train for a long while so if you don’t get on the same one you may be stuck there for an hour or so, or have to walk back. It turns out that walking back would have only been about a quarter mile or so which would have been worthwhile. We really needed more time in this section.
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When most people think of the Dominican Republic, they think of a tropical island with a 1,000 miles of white sand beaches. Many of which are picture perfect with picturesque palm trees hanging over the beach, beautiful crystal clear water. You know the type of thing you see in the post cards.

While this is what makes up much of the Dominican Republic many people don’t think of what Dominicans have done within the USA. There are approximately 1.2 million Dominican residents in the US.

They are primarily on the East Coast. You will find a large population in New York, New Jersey, Florida and other eastern states. While you don’t find to many Dominicans among the general population on the west coast, it is interesting to see how many people with Dominican heritage make up Hollywood.

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