Your First Time...

[NALs]

How did you became aware of the DR?

A) I was born in the country.
B) I have Dominican heritage (e.g., your parents are Dominican, etc).
C) On a leasure trip (e.g., all-inclusive vacation, cruise port of call, sailing, etc).
D) On a business trip.
E) On a humanitarian/missionary trip (e.g., Peace Corps, NGOs, etc)
F) Word of mouth (e.g., you met a Dominican in your home country, a friend told you about the DR, etc)
G) Through the media (e.g., the internet, newspaper, magazines, Dominican tourism advertisement, etc)
H) Other

-NALs

[Charlielyn]

Internet search of DR in general

[Chip00]

Originally Posted by NALs

How did you became aware of the DR?

A) I was born in the country.
B) I have Dominican heritage (e.g., your parents are Dominican, etc).
C) On a leasure trip (e.g., all-inclusive vacation, cruise port of call, sailing, etc).
D) On a business trip.
E) On a humanitarian/missionary trip (e.g., Peace Corps, NGOs, etc)
F) Word of mouth (e.g., you met a Dominican in your home country, a friend told you about the DR, etc)
G) Through the media (e.g., the internet, newspaper, magazines, Dominican tourism advertisement, etc)
H) Other

-NALs

I've finally realized why Nals likes polls so much - it's market research - BTW how much are they paying you??

Seriously, I was sent here against my will on a business trip in '99. I complained and complained that I had travelled all over and didn't want to anymore and they sent me anyway.

I knew so little about the DR at the time too. In fact the first time I ever remember learning about the DR is when I was in the Army in the 80's and had this black sergeant who had a beautiful wife like I had never seen before - I remember thinking - geez, I didn't even know they could make them like THAT!

After that it wasn't until the home run race with Sammy that I remember even being aware of the DR again.

[Musicqueen]

A travel agency planned a weekend get-away to promote on the air, and all the DJ's here took advantage of the trip...

We had a blast!!! Stayed at the Riu Bambu in Punta Cana the first time...

The rest is history!!!!

[drloca]

Was looking for a winter retreat that wasnt too far to travel...went on the advice of a work colleague...if only I knew then what I know now!!!

[jrzyguy]

I was actualy looking to book a trip to Puerto Rico. It was going to be my first "real" vacation etc. PR was becoming very expensive...at least $120 for a hotel...and we are talking a dump of a hotel. THats when a friend of mine told me about the DR. He hooked me up with mario at costalunga....and well..from then I was hooked!!! I am a big ole gringo..but with 1/2 mexican herritange. So i really enjoy trying to pick up the language (i do pretty well when i am there now), hanging out with my friend and his family in the campo, going to different beaches and stuff around the area, and always a night or two in the capital for taste of urban civilization and real night life.

I would never have thought that on my first trip that The DR would change my life. But it has. Not a day goes by when I dont yearn to be there and see my friends.

SALUD! DR!!!!!

[cobraboy]

I was like 14 when the Milwaukie Braves moved to Atlanta, and I became an instant fan. They had 3 players, Filipe Alou, Rico Carty and Chi-Chi Olivo from this strange, mysterious land called the Dominican Republic. I remember talk about the Winter League there.

In 1987, I have a friend who asked my and another friend to go with him to his family's time share in Sosua, in a place called El Mirador on the hill above Sosua. We went, and had an awesome time, drinking, dancing with the locals, beaching it, chasing and flirting with wimminzes.

I never forgot that experience.

I went back to Sosua in October '04. OMG! The place had totally changed! El Mirador was history. I wasn't all that crazy about the scene there, maybe I outgrew it, and ended up hanging in Santiago where I met Alida. The rest is history.

[Chirimoya]

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.

[Chichiguita]

Just want to say thank you to the people who have told thier stories. I always wonder..."what led them to the DR?" I love reading your stories. Thanks for sharing.

[Celt202]

My first memory of being aware of the DR was reading about Trujillo's assasination in the Boston newspapers when I was thirteen. I remember thinking "Who's this guy Trujillo? Somebody doesn't like him."

In May of 1965 I travelled to Washington D.C. with my brother and two of his classmates. One of his classmate's father was a friend of Lyndon Johnson so we got a private tour of the oval office and the cabinet room by George Reedy the president's press secretary.

Reedy let us attend a press conference he conducted in his office. He was in the middle of a firestorm caused by a remark from Robert McCloskey, the state department spokesman, which was causing the press to pressure the White House to define more clearly the American role in Vietnam. Well Reedy was dancing all over the place and at one point the door to the cabinet room opened and Reedy went over and leaned in. John Chancellor announced in a stage whisper "That's the president telling him what to say."

We didn't meet Landslide Lyndon because he was a bit preoccupied with the McCloskey business and his intervention in the Dominican Republic was drawing increasing criticism.

The other friend was from Honduras and was forcefully opposed to the intervention and I can remember listening to his arguments and realizing that he was not a whack job and that just maybe Lyndon was way out of line.

I realized that there was a lot in play in the DR situation that I was not aware of just from reading newspapers.

In recent years I had a number of Puerto Rican friends and acquaintances in Boston. One absolutely hated Dominicans, calling them "Dominici's."

In 1970 I met a couple in their 70's at Akaka Falls in Hilo, Hawaii. They were retired and travelled extensively and told me their central philosphy of travelling was if someone said about a place "Don't go there, there's nothing there" they would go there.

That stuck with me and I decided to take a vacation in the DR. If my acquaintance hated the place and the people so much I had to check it out for myself.

I first came on vacation in 1999. In 2002 I chucked the rat race (the rats won) and moved here on July 1.

Moral of the story

don't elect a psychotic president
don't believe something just because somebody said so