Day 1, July 8: Arriving in Puerto Plata

City sign welcoming people to Sosua, Dominican Republic

We arose before the crack of dawn in Atlanta -- 4:30am to be precise -- to complete our final packing and preparations to fly out of town. Our flight left Hartsfield-Jackson Airport at 7am bound for Puerto Plata Airport in the Dominican Republic, with a very brief layover in Miami.

After making our way to the American Airlines desk, then the T13 gate, we boarded the plane, and the flight left on time. We arrived on time in Miami; the flight was smooth. Having a brief, less than an hour, layover, we went to a nearby shop to order breakfast. The takeout took forever, after we ordered through a computer, then we ate our eggs and assorted items at the gate while awaiting the boarding process, The breakfast was not particularly tasty, and so I did not finish mine at all. Patrise made it through most of hers. The boarding in Miami happened on time, however we sat on the tarmac for a bit before taking off.

No problems. We landed in the Domincan Republic slightly ahead of schedule, taxied to the gate and disembarked. The customs process was simple, although it it appeared a bit loosey-goosey. Upon exiting the airport building with our luggage, we were a bit dismayed to discover our driver had not arrived. Mind you, we had spoken with him the day before and had sent him all of our flight information, but he was not there. After about ten minutes and turning down other transportation offers, we were able to contact him -- Felix Castillo. Then waited about 15-20 minutes before Felix arrived. Here are some photos I took from the plane on our approach and then from the outside of the airport, as we waited for Felix to arrive.

Once Felix arrived, we loaded up and began our drive to Sosua Ocean Village, where we would be staying for the next five days, with our dear friend Deborah Richardson and her beau, Barry Meriash. On the drive through Sosua to the resort, I tried to take photos of the street scenes. These were all through a moving car window and further challenged by the light rain that was falling part of the time. Nevertheless, here are some scenes of the streets, buildings and people of Sosua.

As we were rambling through the town -- with all of the traffic of cars, and motorcycles darting in and about, "rambling" was a good description for our top speed -- I asked Felix what were some typical Domincan dishes. Our communication being flawed, he pointed to a restaurant coming up shortly and asked if we wanted to stop. Patrise said "yes", and so he managed a quick u-turn and pulled into the front of a shop named Danny's. As it so happened, Danny had lived most of his adult life in New York City, had recently retired, returned three years ago to the town of his youth (Sosua) and opened a small restaurant. Communication with Danny was very easy and he was an affable senor with a big smile, and affable manner and a customer service mindset.

We ordered four meals to go for the two of us, Deborah and Barry, and we paid for a meal for Felix, for his courtesy in stopping so suddenly for us. We continued the trip and within 5-7 minutes we arrived at our destination. After Felix spoke with the guard at the gatehouse we were through and in less than two minutes, we were unloading at Barefoot Villa, the name of the unit Deborah and Barry are renting for most of July.

I failed to take pictures of the outside of the villa, however, I continued to get pictures of sites on the way to and inside of the resort. Here they are, along with some photos of our stop at Danny's.

After about an hour of greeting Debroah and Barry and eating the lunch we purchased at Danny's, Patrise and I went to our bedroom for a nap, which went on about an hour for her and two hours for me. After we awakened, we sat outside in the villa pool area reading books. I decided I wanted to walk around the resort a bit, find our way to the beach and take some photos along the way.

With some pointers from Barry, we walked the resort headed for the beach, but our gps and lack of a guest card prevented us from making it all the way there. Still it was a pleasant enough walk and gave us some much needed exercise. Here are those photos.

the four of use settled in for the evening, had a nice dinner and then Deborah, Barry and Patrise went to their respective rooms for the evening, while yours truly worked on today's blog entry,

Thursday we will have a tour of local sites, provided by Felix. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, so we will see how events unfold. But that is the point of this trip: to visit with friends, do a lot of nothing and simply unwind from the cares of home.

Good night!