Dive Trip to the Dominican Republic
June 29 - July 4, 2015

Bayahibe, La Romana, Dominican Republic

Time for another solo adventure to go test out the new, and complete, set of dive gear... and get my Advanced Open Water cert while I was at it. So I took a quick jaunt down to the Dominican Republic.

I stayed at the Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus, an all-inclusive resort. This is my first time at an all-inclusive: it really was like a cruise ship on land. The resort was beautiful: the buildings, the grounds, the pool, the beach... but its got its share of wear-and-tear. (Supposedly they're rennovating the pools in the fall.) The food. Well frankly, the food was mediocre. I fully admit though I only ate at the buffet, so I wasn't expecting great things. I hear some of the other restaurants were better, but I couldn't be bothered to make reservations. One thing that weird is you can basically stay at the resort the entire time. Since I was there specifically to go diving, this didn't bother me, but if I had been there for longer, I would liked to have gone exploring.

I had two very memorable dives, you can check out my descriptions out on the scuba page.

 

Check out my YouTube channel at Mehve's Glide Path

Videos:
Dive video from Saona Island

Saona Island

 A short, one-minute walk to the beach and 360-panorama

Walk to the Beach

Some random pictures I took along the way:

The problem with owning your own scuba gear is carrying your own scuba gear. Not much left for clothes. Oh well... On my way... The verdant countryside of La Romana Going in the right direction! Unintended selfie. The resort was picturesque. Swans, ducks, flamingos, and even peacocks were all roaming around. My home for the next few days: The Dressel Divers staging area. You can't really see it in the photo, but it's a starfish, which is the resort's icon. Heading out to Saona Island. One of my dive buddies Jeff. A man surveying his domain. Dave (another dive buddy) and his son Conner (who was taking his certification dives). This was my group: Jeff, Phil (from Ireland), Nick (dive master), myself, and Dave. Got a bit ominous after our dives, even rained for a bit, but that's okay... sun came out in 15 minutes. I honestly don't know when I took this... A nice couple I ran into on the plane, then kept running into at the resort. Rick, Gayle (wife), and Shiloh. The (sad) flight home. You can see Catalina Island in the middle-left. Add another pin to the big board!

Some of my favorite screen caps from the Saona Island dive video (above):

Puffer fish Stingray Presidente Light! Tastes like water... with 4.2% alcohol. Teeny, tiny box fish. Can't really see them, but you can see all the antennae... a few cleaner shrimp. Dolphins!!! The double-fist-pump for the dolphins. Another, bigger, box fish. More dolphins... we only ran into them once, but somehow my screencaps got all out-of-order.