Our Last Day in the Dominican

 February 5, 2018: Our last day in the Dominican Republic, Josh and I woke up super early and decided to drive to Altos de Chavon, in La Romana, which is about an hour and a half drive from Punta Cana.  We left the hotel at 7am and drove through the town of Higuey during their morning rush hour.  Traffic rules do not appear to be widely used in the Dominican.  They do have a few stop lights and stop signs, but we didn't see many in Higuey and everyone just seemed to drive wherever and how ever they please.  

Here's a montage of video clips from our drive through Higuey.  I'm very glad that Josh was driving and not me.

The driving was so chaotic in Higuey, I was glad when we finally made it out of the city.

Entering Altos de Chavon.

A 16th Century replica Mediterranean village situated on a cliffside overlooking the Chavon River.

 A panoramic view.

St. Stanislaus Church, consecrated the year I was born, in 1979. 

Josh found himself a band!

 A 5,000 seat amphitheater.

 Treasure found at sea, made into jewelry.

Altos de Chavon is full of beauty.  I wish we could have spent more time there, since we went early, many of the shops were not yet open for the day.  But definitely worth the drive!  Just be careful on the stones after it's been raining.  Right after this picture, it slipped on some mud and fell right on my knee...got mud all over my pants and a big bruise!
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After leaving La Romana, we drove back to our hotel.  Along the way, we stopped for gas and saw this fruit stand.

Josh with the giant Hard Rock sign right before we hurried and packed up for the airport.  Crystal and Matt decided at the last minute to extend their stay, so we were off for our flight without them.  We returned our rental car, went through security...

...and then another line for customs.  We had just enough time to grab some lunch before boarding our flight to JFK.  Once we landed in JFK, entering the US through Customs was time consuming, but definitely smoother than I imagined.  They had machines that could scan your passports and on-screen questions that you answered, then waiting in line to get your passport stamped by customs, picking up all your checked bags and rechecking them at the counter.  Then we took a train over to the concourse we were to depart from and out into the cold New York night to walk over to the next building, where we went back through security again.  Re-entering the United States is quite the process.  We made it to our gate just in time to grab a slice of pizza and board our flight to Salt Lake.  By the time we arrived in Salt Lake and had our bags, we had been traveling in and out of airports for over 12 hours.  We stayed in a hotel near the airport and then back to catch our flight to Portland at 6am on February 6th.  We finally arrived back home around 9:30am.  Travel time to the Dominican Republic is long.
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We had a fantastic time! But we were glad to get home.
Thanks so much Mom and Dad for watching our boys while we were away!  It was a relief knowing they were in good hands.