The Dominican Republic

After the Disney Cruise we flew to the Dominican Republic for a week. My brother-in-law, Brian, served his mission there and so he planned this part of the trip for us. It was a really beautiful place and neat to see.

A few of the places that we got to see were: The Columbus Memorial Lighthouse, The Dominican Republic Temple, and The Colonial Zone (all located in Santo Domingo). We stayed in Boca Chica & Barahona at all inclusive resorts. We got to snorkel for a while in Barahona and that was fun!

I decided that the next time I go to a Spanish speaking country I want to learn to speak Spanish first! Brian is the only one who spoke Spanish in our group and sometimes that was hard because he was the only one who could communicate with the people there. And with 12 people in our group it would have been nice to have more people know Spanish!

The big story about this part of our trip is what happened the day before we came home. We stopped to eat lunch at a turn-off where there was some shade. It seemed like a great place to have lunch and it had a beautiful view of the ocean. We all enjoyed our food and afterward Brent, his brother Brian, their dad Loran and three of the kids started walking up the road a little bit to check out the view. In-between the main road and the turn-off road there were some trees and bushes and apparently that’s where two robbers had been hiding. One of them had a gun and they both had their faces and heads covered up with shirts. I looked up the road to see them come out after those guys and I couldn’t tell what was going on at first. I heard Brent saying, “That’s it! That’s all I have!” while holding his wallet. Then all of a sudden I see a gun to Brian’s head and I freaked out! I said, “We’re being ROBBED! Everybody get the kids, get in the van and lock the doors!” We were all in COMPLETE SHOCK and we didn’t know what to do. They ended up taking money, Brent’s Treo 680 cell phone, my in-laws digital camera, Brian & Jaimee’s digital camera (which had ALL of their pictures on it from the entire trip – even the cruise).
After the robbers ran off, the next people to drive by on the main road were two Dominican guys on a motorcycle. Brian stopped them and told them what had happened and to go get the police. Some other Dominican people stopped to help us look for the robbers, but they got away and we didn’t see them again. We drove into the next town and filed a report with the police. It was a horrible experience but I am glad to say that nobody got hurt and we are all home safe! Even though they got away with our stuff I am glad that everyone is okay. I have never been so happy to return to the good old USA! We are so blessed to live where we do. I know that sort of thing can happen anywhere, but being so far away from home where not many people speak English made it seem so much worse! Overall we had a good time in the D.R. and I am glad that we went, but I will be okay if we never go back again!