The Dominican Republic and Haiti share an island. The first one mentioned is politically stable, the second one is chaos. So we decided to visit the first one, Puerto Plata, officially known as San Felipe de Puerto Plata is a trading port and the third largest city in the Dominican Republic.

It is hot and humid, 30 degrees Celsius and almost 90% humidity. We are drenching and Timo dreams of drinking coconut water out of a coconut. With a straw. But I recommend doing this not at the local market place, but at the tourist area near the port. because the market is filthy (a little girl picking lice out of her moms hair while selling fruit), smelly (all those butcher stalls wave a cloud of under refrigerated meats at us) and dirty (lots of garbage piles everywhere that makes me regret wearing open toe sandals very quickly). People here are poor, the drive mopeds, whole families and their daily shopping on one 50 ccm Honda, the little kids sandwiched between the parents. The local people are all friendly, never too pushy and the police regulates the traffic, always stopping the moped invasion when people want to cross the streets. One observation is that we did not see any beggars or even homeless people, despite being so poor. The little they have they share. The social scissors are very narrow, meaning that the difference between the poorest and the richest people is not very big. The poorest people have just the bare minimum, but it is enough to keep them off the streets.

The big church in town is basic with beautiful stained glass windows.

Puerto Plata is known for two streets. One is the pink street, which is as the name suggests, pink. The street itself, the buildings, the decorations, everything is pink!

And the other famous street is the umbrella street, which is self explanatory.

And of course there are lots of tourist. Unfortunately the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship is in port with us, that means an extra 5k people swarming the town. But I shouldn’t complain, the Royal Caribbean’s might have the same thought about us: darn, those Norwegians are everywhere!

After a few hours of floating around town, we decided to walk back to the ship and relax. Timo gets his coconut, Ted gets his nap and everybody is happy!

What is a Martini? A classic Gin Martini, like a James Bond kinda drink, is a mix between Gin and Vermouth, in the ratio 2.75:0.25. The drier you like it, the less Vermouth it has. Classically you’ll get 3 olives with it, because you should drink it in 3 sips, not ex-and-hop, but also not mingle over it for an hour. Each sip should be accompanied by one olive. It is stirred, not shaken – James Bond did have class, you know! – because stirring it doesn’t release too much water from the ice cubes that would water down the taste too much.

A Cosmopolitan is actually not a Martini🍸, because it has more than 2-3 ingredients, originally it is not drunk out of a Martini glass and it doesn’t have Gin or Vermouth in it either. Sex in the City changed this cocktail 🍹 into a Martini, by those BFFs ordering it in a Martini glass, which makes it so much more elegant to drink, because you hold on to the stem of a Martini glass 🍸 instead of the wet, frozen glass of a cocktail 🍹. Similar to beer vs wine glasses 🍺🍷.

An Apple Martini is very fruity and delicious! 3 ingredients, Vodka, Apple 🍏 Parker and lemon juice, in the ratio 2:1:1. Simple and tasty! This was my favorite so far, but little did I know…

The French Raspberry Martini was another surprise:

Vodka, Chambord, Pineapple juice. Ratio 2:1:1 If you have a drink package on the ship (which we don’t have), chambord is not included. But if you order a French Raspberry Martini, it’s included. Go figure 😵‍💫

We also got an Espresso Martini, which had another interesting story: a young woman walked into a bar in NYC at 2am and asked for a drink that keeps her awake for an early departure flight. The bartender whipped up something and called it an Espresso Martini. Well, by now I couldn’t remember the story really, because I was pretty much wasted. Never in my life did I have 5 drinks in ~ 30 min, never in my life did I have to memorize a story after that alcohol intake 😳 But I can tell you that an Espresso Martini has Vodka, Kahlua Liqueur and Espresso in it, same ratio as before: 2:1:1

And finally, my favorite: the Lavender Patch Martini. Invented by a Norwegian, the story went inside my brain and was immediately dissolved by alcohol. Sorry about that! But it tasted like heaven! And it is made with vodka, lavender, lemon and pineapple juice. A surprising taste, more on the herbal side, fragrant and delicious. My tastebuds were very happy!

Lavender Patch Martini:

Vodka 2.5 oz +

Lavender Syrup 0.75oz +

lemon juice 1oz +

pineapple juice 1oz