Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic 2009

Nick and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic for 6 days at the beginning of the month. It was amazing. It was an experience neither of us will forget. The culture was very different from our own. The best part though was getting to spend time together and loving every minute of it. I'm so blessed to be married to my best friend.

This was taken in front of the fountain in our hotel's front lobby. We stayed at the Grand Oasis Marien. It was beautiful and the food was great. The only downsides were how difficult it was to call home and to get outside of the hotel without paying exaggerated prices. Other than that, it was amazing. We're not sure we'd do an all-inclusive again, but it was good for this trip.
Hotel lobby.
On our last day, Nick and I walked through town (4.5 miles) to this tram. We rode it to the top of the mountain, where there is a beautiful garden.
Statue of Christ at the top of the mountain.
We rode back to our hotel in this van with 20 other people. I snapped this as it drove off, so you can't see the missing side door (built in air conditioning), but yes, the window is broken out in back. Nick likes an adventure!The beach at our hotel.
Sosua Beach. If you ever want to hear the adventure story of arriving/leaving this beautiful beach, just ask. This is already a long post.
Snorkling at Sosua Beach.
A typical gift shop on Sosua Beach. We got a laugh out of the name.This fort was built in the 1500s to protect the bay from pirates. It was fascinating to explore.Another picture of the resort.Our room. The maid would leave us fresh flowers daily and usually make some fancy arrangement out of the towels, such as a swan.Nick on the Yasika Adventures zip line.My turn! We got to go on 8 runs. The view was fantastic, and the adrenaline rush wasn't too bad either.
View of the ocean at sunrise from our hotel balcony.View from the other direction.The most amazing thing we did was go to the 27 Waterfalls. You climb up the fall to turn around and jump or slide into them. Nick couldn't believe I actually jumped off the 20+ foot jump just to ask if we could do it again. I'm all about facing my fears. These are our amazing guides. The taught us all about the plants and animals in the area and even knocked passion fruit out of the trees for us to eat. They were great.The only downside was that we must have ruined our underwater camera as we tossed it down the falls to our guides to take pictures. This is the only photo we got.We had so much fun. It was an incredible trip. Thanks Kathy for watching the girls the entire time. We couldn't have gone without you!