Dominican Republic . . .

There was quite an uproar among the natives on the ship concerning the stop at the Dominican Republic. For whatever reason . . . and I think safety . . . the only way to go to the mainland itself was on one of the ships tours. Otherwise, you were tendered to the island of Cayo Levantado. We opted to putter out to the little island and walk around. Like checking into a large hotel in Las Vegas where you can't get to registration without passing through the casino, here too, you could not reach the beach before running the gauntlet of doggedly determined stall vendors. Basically, you need to put your head down, muttering no no no no until the far side of the path had been reached.

Somewhere about midway, I faltered and stopped to look at the trays of goodies. I was immediately embroiled in a bidding war for something I was not even interested in. The fur between vendors escalated and the Spanish became louder and more vehement. Thankfully, the 9TS inserted one big paw into the fray and pulled me to safety. But darn, there was a cute necklace.

On to the beach and a quick see around. The grounds were gorgeous:

and oh so photographic:

but the hotel itself, was off limits to all but its guests:

that didn't phase the 9TS, we made friends with the locals:

and after rescuing me from here:

we headed back to the ship. Tomorrow I will tell the tale of my return to the fray.