The First 'Market Visit'

I'm going on my 5th week at 'the job' and I finally made it out to see the market! Last wseek consisted of visits to the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and St Thomas. Here are some pics and a few details describing the joys of too much travel crammed into one week!!!

Sunday - head from DFW to Miami....following a 7 hour delay last week, didn't think it could get worse. But, 2 hour delay getting out of Dallas, putting me into Miami at 1am! Not bad, except I had an 8am flight to the Bahamas.

Monday - 1st flight cancelled....go to Admiral's Club and work....2nd flight cancelled....realize we would be in Bahamas for 1 hour before returning flight from Bahamas to the DR via Miami. So, make executive decision to bag Bahamas altogether in fear of missing connecting flight somehow. With final boarding being announced and new gate 3 miles away, we decide to get on earlier flight to the Dominican. We make it!!!

The Dominican Repulic - we flew into the capitol, Santo Domingo. 3 million people strong. Lowest GDP in all of the Caribbean. And, all spanish speaking. Thank goodness for my traveling companions!! The people there are hands down the craziest drivers I have ever come across in my life (and if you know me, I'm a bad driver, so that's saying A LOT!!). It's a near-accident every 2 minutes...no exaggeration. A red light just means that you slow down in the intersection. There are NO rules. There are also these convience store-turned-sports-watching-dive bar things on every corner.

This is the 'dive' one.

Above is the 'nice' one. We stayed here and had a beer. They give it to you sooooo cold that it's wrapped in a paper bag with a napkin on the lip. If you touch it within 5 minutes, you'll turn into the kid from 'A Christmas Story' and your lips will be stuck to a beer bottle the rest your life.

Our 3rd flight cancellation occured in San Juan. Missed our connection to St Thomas as a result. But, we got to have dinner in Old San Juan and see the sights a bit. And, with the 20 min flight, we still landed by 9am the next day and all was good.....that is until we got to the rental car counter and discovered that you drive on the left hand side of the road. So, the bad driver - me! - got nominated to drive. Wasn't as bad as I expected and no near-collisions, so can't complain.

Some meat 'a la carte' option at the colmado (spanish word for what these bars are).

Lunch in St Thomas....they have a giant 3-legged iguana as a pet that roams around.

The view from where we ate dinner in St Thomas.


Hotel view in St Thomas before the rain came in (above)!