Ocean World! The Sea World of the Dominican Republic

For the pictures that compliment the story, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnsonsailing/DominicanRepublic

The night sail transported us to what seemed like another world. As the sun rose, we were awed by the lush forested mountains jutting up into the clouds and descending down to a golden sand coastline with emerald green water. Bienvenido! We are in Hispaniola. The boat had to dodge tons of debris in the water which really concerned us. Two days of record rains and washed out roads and caused mud slides. We entered the brown debris ridden Ocean World Marina with LeoCat and pulled out the Spanish dictionary. Angie got us through the “departmente de narcotico” inspection and offered a Coke vs. the bride that was asked for. We were undaunted by the rain as we donned our foulies for dinner of Pollo con Curry y una cerveza Presidente. No more dry peas and rice, baked mac and cheese and greasy fried chicken of the Bahamas.
The Ocean World adventure park, like a mini sea world was “free” while at the marina. The kids and adults enjoyed dolphin shows, swimming in the tiger pool with glass separation, feeding the love birds, watching the silly sea lions (many times), and more. Eventually we’d just let them go on their own as they were regulars with the staff. The Ocean World highlight for Parker and Sabrina was the Dolphin Experience. They got to swim with, pet, ride, shake fins with, feed, and get kisses from the dolphins. To see the giddy smiles on their faces was so worth it!
What’s not to do in this beautiful place is what we started asking ourselves. There were real towns with real shops and streets that were abuzz with activity. Prices we SO much lower than in Bahamas or TC. The temperature rarely hits 90 and there is always a breeze. Hurricanes on the north side our rare. Poverty is an issue but the people were very friendly. We visited “kite beach”, dined in local restaurants, visited the city of Santiago, climbed waterfalls, raced go carts, toured the country side and towns and had a grand time despite the stalled low pressure system over our heads for over a week (aka rain).