Dominicans seem to have a heavy infatuation for the American culture. This can be seen in the style of clothes, hair styles and choices of products they buy. Head into any small town and you are bound to see at least one if not multiple “Colmado Americano” or basically American Store, it doesn’t really matter if they actually sell anything American or not. Unfortunately, one trend that is becoming very popular in the US is also starting to become more popular here, that’s Sexting.

What is Sexting?

Sexting combines two other words, sex and texting. It describes sending sexual text messages from one phone to another, often accompanied with suggestive or more explicit images.

In the Dominican Republic technology is rather new. Many people don’t understand how it works and how permanent those pictures become. (more…)

Whether you are visiting the DR on a vacation or you are on an extended Staycation it’s nice to head out on excursions! You can find almost anything in the DR to entertain the family. Some of the most popular are Whale Watching Excursions, Jeep Safari Excursions, City Tours, big game fishing, catamarans, Horseback riding into the mountains or on a beach, even Zip lining.

We recently took a horseback riding excursion to the La Limon Waterfalls. We had our own transportation to get us to the starting point for the excursion, but if you are staying in Las Terrenas most of the tours include travel from Las Terrenas to the trail head.

Your Horse and Tour Guide

Once at the trail head you are given a helmet if you like and then helped on to your horse. The saddles are well padded, which is nice for those of us that aren’t too used to riding. Also, in most cases you will be given your own personal guide that will steady and guide your horse as needed or will just act as your personal tour guide if you like. If you go during mango season they will generally hunt down some mangos for you.

These are all done on a volunteer basis and are not paid by the tour operator. They make all their money off the tips they are given. Some people tip as high as 1000 pesos but the majority tips between 200 and 500 pesos. Your guide will be with you for the whole trip and pretty much takes out his whole day in the hope to make a little money so it is nice to be generous here.

The horses are gentle and easy to ride. If the guide feels you are not secure with the horse he will keep it slow and steady, if you seem a little more secure he’s likely to put the horse into a trot or run a couple times to give you a little more of a ride.

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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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It gets hot in the DR and well, you’re not always near a beach to cool off. One of the great ways to get around that minor problem is the Kaskada Water Park (Kaskada Aqua Park) in  Santiago.

Pools: There are two main swimming pools, one in front of the grandstand and the other attached to one of the bars. Both are good for lounging around and taking a swim. One of them had a low and a high platform to dive from.

Water Slides: There were 6 water slides. Three that required tubes and three that did not. (more…)

Dominican Republic is know by Canadians, American, European and more as a great destination that being the second largest country in the Caribbean is the main destination in this zone. There are several reasons why beaches is the foremost attraction of tourists that come –millions of them each year- to its beaches and take even some weeks in all-inclusive hotels and resorts. I would like to share with some of the reasons why you should visit the Dominican Republic in your next holidays. Discover the richness of this country and why its beaches are the best option for you during your next vacations in the Caribbean.

-Exotic place: I personally think that Caribbean is one of the most exotic places of the world and everybody like visit exotic places such as beaches, hotels and resorts of the Dominican Republic. This is the perfect place for your honeymoon or even if you are attempting to have a second or third romantic holiday it is also a great place for you. There are places –all inclusive hotels and resorts- in the Dominican Republic that are specially prepared for single people. (more…)