I suppose the first time the DR's existence registered on my radar was in 1988 when I spent a few months in Venezuela - through the music of Juan Luis Guerra who was at the early stages of his international fame at the time. Later that year I was 'helping out'
at a restaurant in NYC and two of the staff were Dominican - they were by far the friendliest and funniest of all the Latinos working there. They had a lot of fun imitating my British accent. "Did you say 'tomaaaaaahhhhtoooooe'"?
Back in the UK a few years later I met several Dominicans through my work at an international development organisation, and finally got the chance to visit in January 1996 when I was sent to work in the organisation's Santo Domingo office for a couple of months. I was smitten, and on my third visit, two years later, I met Mr C, and as CB said, the rest is history.