Christmas at the Beach - Year 2

This year was my 2nd Christmas spent in the Dominican Republic, and my 2nd Christmas spent on the beach eating seafood while watching the sunset.  Since here the holiday is celebrated on the night of the 24th, the 25th is typically spent lounging around.  We had a very lazy day and made it to Neptuno's just before the sunset.  

Neptuno's is the neighboring restaurant of where we had dinner last Christmas.  Its located on a big wooden dock/terrace above the calm waters of Boca Chica.  It has plush lounge chairs and stairs on both sides so that you can also sunbathe and swim if you wish.

{These photos are taken with my iPhone - imagine how they would've turned out had I used a real camera!} 

We had cocolocos and beer.  We had crab stuffed shrimps and shrimp risotto.  We had a seafood stew with lobster, fish, and potatoes.  And we had the best dulce de leche ice cream I've ever tasted to finish it off.  

I hope your Christmas was merry and filled with just as much yummy food.

What did you eat on Christmas? 

A Super Date - Part 2 and a Day of Glass

So now that this post is a few weeks late, the truth is that I forgot what I was going to write about!

I can tell you that it was Santo Domingo's annual free museum night and that we went to la zona colonial.

A "nice" street in la zona colonial

The "Colonial city of Santo Domingo" always makes me feel a bit sad when I visit.  Few people know that it was here that Christopher Columbus first landed when discovering the Americas in 1492.  A handful of historical monuments still stand, but the majority of the area just looks run down and unsafe now.  Its a shame to me that this area, with so much important history of the New World, is left so unkept.

Anyway, we visited a few museums located inside original buildings {that, of course, we don't know the names of!} and we climbed to the top of Fortaleza Ozama, the first fortress ever built on this side of the world.  Its the oldest European military construction still standing today [thanks, Wikipedia]. 

At the top of the dark fortress, not my most flattering photo!

We visited the Telecommunications museum and saw electronics from past and present.  Probably the one thing I found most interesting that night was this video that we watched at the museum.  It shows how we might use glass electronics in the near future.  I loved it!

To finish off the night, I got pooped on by a bird.  I think birds like me.  Now if I can just have some of that good luck that they talk about..  That would be welcomed :)

A Super Date - Part 1

Lately we've been watching old How I Met Your Mother episodes (we're on Season 5!) and on Sunday night we saw the one where Barney plans a super date for the guest character played by Jennifer Lopez.  I looked at boyfriend and said "Iiiiiii want to go on a super date!" And he blurted, "And what was yesterday?!"  Oh, right, so I guess we did have our own little super date on Saturday!  Here is what we did:

We slept in and casually had breakfast on the couch.  After 30 minutes of unsuccessful Christmas shopping at a busy mall, we booked it for Juan Dolio beach.  I was so surprised by how few people were there!  It was nice to have the beach to ourselves.  

We settled in at La Playa de Agave, a new beachside restaurant owned by one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Santo Domingo.  What I love about meals at the beach here is that most restaurants have their own private beach area, so you can swim while you eat.  A standard one hour lunch turns into a relaxed three to four (to five or six) hour lunch while you swim throughout your stay.  

 

We ordered Presidente Lights which came to us nearly frozen (the best way to drink beer on a hot day).  Then I swam.  Then we had nachos.  Then I swam again {can you tell that A doesn't like to swim?!}.  Then we switched to coconut margaritas - these specific margaritas by El Agave are the best margaritas I've ever had!  They taste more like creamy, sweet, alcoholic coconut milk rather than sour mix and salt.  They still have that tang at the end, so you don't forget that its a margarita that you're probably downing a little too fast.

I had shrimp and conch soft tacos and boyfriend had fish enchiladas.  We finished our meal with a Nutella crepe and a final beer to enjoy while lounging on the beach chairs in the sand.  

 

We left just before sunset because we needed to get back for Part 2 of our day, but we still were able to catch it during our drive home.