I'm 2.5 hours into my journey. My friend, Rhonda, is brave and nice enough to take me to O'Hare tomorrow for my 5:30 am flight. Yup, 5:30 am. I'm hoping to get three hours of sleep, if that. Tara is, or should be, in route to Miami. We will connect there tomorrow and then head to Puerto Plata.

But enough about that. I'm excited to head to the DR. The Dominican Republic is on the other side of Haiti, which is the eastern side of the island of Hispaniola. It's the second largest Caribbean nation and has about 10 million people. Santo Domingo is its largest city. Tainos (natives) once inhabited the area before Christopher Columbus strolled in and took the island on behalf of Spain in 1492. It became the first European settlement, with Santo Domingo becoming Spain's first capital in the New World. It's now independent after having been ruled by Spain, France and Haiti.  

More specifically, Puerto Plata is on the northern part of the Dominican Republic. It has about 140,000 people and 100,000 beds. Really, it has that many beds. Although I don't think I'll try counting all of them while there. Its main industry is agribusiness and tourism. The only aerial tramway in the Caribbean is in PP. The tram goes up to the
Pico Isabel de Torres, a 793 meter high mountain. There is also an old fort in PP, called Fortaleza San Felipe.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly tomorrow. I did not bring any Dominican pesos and actually heard they prefer American money. So my wallet is stuffed with $1 bills that will work well as tips.

Hasta manana!
Jamie