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Punta Cana: Our resort

A nice picture description of Iberostar Bavaro by http://airam73.blogspot.com.  The pictures came out very nice. Here is the article: We stayed at the Iberostar Bavaro in Punta Cana, and we were very pleased with it. The resort was beautiful, clean, well-kept, the staff courteous and our room spacious. How about some pics? I didn’t bring the Canon with me because I didn’t want to have to worry about it. The point and shoot did pretty well, though! Click HERE for more pictures Related articles by Zemanta Zoetry hotel…

2/3 of houses have no meters

Of the 2,730,285 houses counted in the country two years ago, 47% (1,117,789) did not have an electricity meter, while 33.3% (790,212) have a meter and 19.5% (462,284) pay a fixed rate. In other words, 66% of houses do not have meters. Image via Wikipedia Diario Libre reports that the data obtained from the National Survey of Income and Expenses in the Home 2007, carried out by the National Statistics Office (ONE), says that in individual houses (1,834,201) 574,426 have meters, and…

Music concert for Los Haitises

Image via Wikipedia More than 20 musical performers are coming together for a concert in support of the preservation of Los Haitises, the singular karst region in northeastern DR, considered the main source of water for the south and eastern regions. The event is scheduled for Sunday, 19 July starting at 4pm at Plaza de Espana, in Santo Domingo’s Colonial City. Several young composers are writing lyrics and music especially for the event. They join the grassroots movements campaigning to convince the…

DR defeats Brazil in volleyball

Image via Wikipedia The Dominican Republic women’s national volleyball team has defeated the Brazilian team to remain undefeated in Pool B in the tournament. Brazil is seeded number one in the world and was the gold medalist at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The DR is the defending champion at the tournament. The win earned the Dominican Republic a direct ticket to the semi final round of the competition, a qualifier for next year’s FIVB World Grand Prix. The tournament is part of…

DR and US to fight crime together

US Embassy Charge d’Affaires Roland Bullen and Interior & Police Minister Franklin Almeyda have signed a first agreement between the Dominican Republic and the United States that will apply the Merida Initiative to fight crime. The Merida Initiative is a multi-year effort that is aimed at fighting organized crime, gangs, and drug and arms trafficking in the region. The agreement, signed on June 26, will pour US$2.1 million in initial funding into the Dominican Republic, plus an additional US$345,000 in funds from…

Drug plane falls

Image via Wikipedia A small plane carrying bricks of cocaine has crashed off the Matanzas coast near the southwestern city of Bani, once again pushing the province’s drug problems back to the front page. Details are still being recovered, but the National Drug Control Department (DNCD) says the pilot was killed in the crash, which occurred at 2am on Tuesday morning. The body of a second person has yet to be recovered and only four large bricks of cocaine, totaling 120 kilos, have been…

Evictions for farmers in Los Haitises

Image by canonpowershotA85 via Flickr A military contingent has distributed eviction notices to a large numbers of residents of Gonzalo, in the province of Monte Plata, who have opposed the installation of a cement plant by the Dominican Mining Consortium on the edge of Los Haitises National Park. The reason is that the lands belong to the State Sugar Council (CEA) and the residents have been given 10 days to leave the lands. The cement company had obtained a Ministry of Environment permit…

Zoetry hotel to open in D.R. this fall

There is another resort opening soon in Punta Cana.  The region continues to  grow as investments keep on pouring in to take advantage of the growing number of visitors.  AMResorts will open the 53-suite Zoetry Agua Punta Cana this fall. It will be the first Zoetry hotel in the Dominican Republic.  Here is their press release: Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts Adds Two Resorts to Growing Brand Portfolio Brand Launches in Dominican Republic and Increases Presence in Mexico PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 2, 2009) – AMResorts,…

22 dominican baseball players are in steroids black list

Ladies and Gentlemen, not only A-Rod, Sammy or Manny did it, please read the complete 103 players who were positive using steroids during 2003…you will find more surprising dominican names… What a shame!! The complete list 1.Nomar Garciaparra 2.Manny Ramirez 3.Johnny Damon 4.Trot Nixon 5.David Ortiz 6.Shea Hillenbrand 7.Derek Lowe 8.Pedro Martinez 9.Brian Roberts 10.Jay Gibbons 11.Melvin Mora 12.Jerry Hairston 13.Jason Giambi 14.Alfonso Soriano 15.Raul Mondesi 16. Aaron Boone 17.Andy Pettitte 18.Jose Contreras 19.Roger Clemens 20.Carlos Delgado 21.Vernon Wells 22.Frank Catalanotto 23.Kenny Rogers 24.Magglio Ordonez 25.Sandy Alomar 26.Bartolo Colon 27.Brent Abernathy 28.Jose Lima 29.Milton Bradley 30.Casey Blake 31.Danys Baez 32.Craig Monroe 33.Dmitri Young 34.Alex Sanchez 35.Eric Chavez 36.Miguel Tejada 37.Eric Byrnes 38.Jose Guillen 39.Keith Foulke 40.Ricardo Rincon 41.Bret Boone 42.Mike Cameron 43.Randy Winn 44.Ryan Franklin 45.Freddy Garcia 46.Rafael…

New school of DR musicals

The Dominican Republic is becoming a leader in musical theatrical productions in Latin America. Alfonso Quinones makes a roundup in today’s Diario Libre pointing out that the Dominican versions have been so good that on several occasions they compete directly with the originals in Broadway. Nine musicals are to be staged in 2009. So far, among these have been “The Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cats” and “Hairspray“, and some upcoming are “The Miracle of Fatima (September, a Luis Marcel Ricart production), “Cinderella”…

Guillermo Moreno calls for opposition

Former presidential candidate and former attorney general Guillermo Moreno says that now is the time for a new political opposition to emerge, to displace politicians who have bought most of the leaders of the country’s larger political parties and who are now their “masters”. As reported in El Caribe, Moreno said that the agreements signed between President Leonel Fernandez and the PRD’s Miguel Vargas Maldonado, and another with PRSC president Federico Antun Batlle reveal “the understanding and the interests that…

Punta Cana? Trip Report?? Pics???

Image by wolfgang.wedenig - wuschL via Flickr This is a nice post from a Canadian who just recently went to Punta Cana: Ha ha ha ha. I’ve been totally missing! Again! Oh my gosh I just can’t keep up with all the blog, Facebook, Twitter, chat, email business anymore. I’m so behind in reading all of your blogs and can’t even keep my own up. I’m not sure if the appeal is wearing off or not but I just find it more difficult.…

Jackson wanted to wed on a plane flying over Dominican Republic

Michael Jackson via last.fm Santo Domingo.- When Michael Jackson was 35 and during the scandal of being accused of fondling a 13 year-old boy, he decided to marry Lisa Marie Presley in Dominican Republic’s central city La Vega. Judge Hugo Alvarez, who officiated the wedding, revealed that the pop legend wanted to marry aboard an airplane while flying over the country, which this nation’s laws didn’t sanction. A journalist from the magazine Time and National Enquirer had sufficient information to reveal the news, after which…

Dominican Republic: Against the Cement Factory in Los Haitises

By: Rocio Diaz at Globalvoiceonline.org For more than a month, Dominicans have been protesting against the proposed construction of a cement factory in the protected area of Los Haitises National Park, a chalky ecosystem with unique characteristics located in the northeastern part of the Dominican Republic. It has been declared Cultural Patrimony for its caves, which contains Taíno art. In addition, Los Haitises is one of the primary sources of water on the island, and it estimated that is importance will grow as a…

HAVE HAITIAN POGROMS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BEGUN?

Image by Billtacular via Flickr The treatment of Hatians in DR beyond comprehension:  Here is the article:   Written by Roger Leduc Thursday, 25 June 2009 Source: Haiti Liberte Recent incidents involving Haitian workers in the Dominican Republic should alert even the most jaded observers that an already very serious human rights problem is getting worse. A confluence of factors - a rapid succession of executions in the last few months, arrogance and defiance from Dominican government officials, institutions and citizenry vis-a-vis the plight…

Ten new routes that may make international travel easier

By Jessica Labrencis, SmarterTravel.com If you have the time, money, and inclination to travel this summer and fall, keep an open mind about where to go. Many airlines will soon be offering new routes to destinations you may have assumed would be too expensive or too inconvenient to visit in the past. Major airlines and low-cost-carriers alike have announced new routes to dozens of destinations, 10 of which are highlighted below. Dominican Republic Cheap flights to the Dominican Republic won’t be hard to…

Dominican Republic: judge blocks cement factory in victory for peasant ecologists

I am very happy to read this, however I am not 100% sure his is a confirmed fact.  This is a major victory for many of us who have been against this.  Here is the article I just read from http://www.ww4report.com:   “On June 19 Judge Sarah Enríquez Marín of the Administrative Litigation Court of the National District (Santo Domingo) ordered the Consorcio Minero Dominicano mining company to suspend construction of a cement factory it was building near the town of Gonzalo,…

Entrepreneurship is big here

This is the only way to get ahead and stop modern slavery not only here in DR but around the world.  I am so happy to see more Dominicans taking this route. Here is the article: According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, under the London School of Business and the Babson College report that entrepreneurship in the DR is at 20.4% in 2008, one of the highest in the GEM’s 43-country ranking. In 2007, the level was 16.8%. As reported in Listin Diario, a fifth…

Beaches to stay public

I hope this means all Dominicans can access the beautiful beaches in Bavaro “The Constitutional Revisory Assembly has passed Arts 9, 10, 11 and 56 related to the environment in a first reading. The new provisions are that protected areas can only be reduced by law, with the approval of two thirds of the members of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. They also declare of national interest hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation. The legislators also ruled that in the DR the rivers, lakes,…