Our Domincan Penthouse
Our penthouse is spacious and recently built, it has beautiful high ceilings. In particular the ceiling structure of the living room is very pleasing. To match the modern and fresh look of the apartment we furnished it with design items brought from Italy, where we live most of the year. We have also put original art works on the walls, among them some abstract oils by the recognized Italian artist Alberto Parres
The gated and tranquil Guavaberry Resort and Golf Club, where the compound of our penthouse is located, is just twenty minutes drive from Santo Domingo’s international airport and nearby a beautiful, white sand beach. The 18 hole golf course is designed by Gary Player and is both challenging and beautiful. Our large terrace opens up to its undulating lawns. You may visit the Club's website at: http://guavaberrygolf.com/
The resort area is cozy and peaceful. Except the golf course it contains a stable where horses may be rented, a club house with a swimming pool and a restaurant, tennis courts, a polo field and various lakes with huge flocks of white herons.
The 335 square metres apartment is part of a small, friendly compound with a swimming pool and jacuzzi area. Our penthouse is very light. It has three large bedrooms with private bath rooms. Two of the bedrooms have walk-in closets and one has a terrace. There is also a small guest room and a fully equipped laundry area. The apartment is fully furnished, including cable and plasma TV. It is air-conditioned and has ceiling fans in all rooms, a large terrace with dining area and a sun deck with a Jacuzzi for 8 persons.
The kitchen is complete with refrigerator, ice maker, micro wave, coffee maker, toaster, blender, cutlery, china, pots and pans, all brand new. Cleaning services are provided by the Club and a full time maid is also available. Access is granted to the golf course, as well as a beach club with restaurant and private beach area.
Guavaberry is situated a few kilometres from the village of Juan Dolio, with excellent restaurants and a good medical clinic with full-time English speaking medical doctors. It is open for 24 hours, tel. 526-2044.
PICTURES FROM OUR HOUSE IN BJÄRNUM, SWEDEN
A kilometre from our house you’ll find other strange imprints called “svärjogroparna”, the cursing holes. Small holes in the ground that can never be filled up with earth. We have tried to do it several times, but the next day the holes are there again.The holes are said to be footprints left by a peasant who promised the Devil might take him to Hell if he was proved to be a liar. After uttering those worlds the peasant disappeared , leaving behind the ten deep footprints.
Our Swedish house and its surroundings
Our wooden house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, the one by the master bedroom has a jacuzzi. The living room has a piano and an open fire place and close to it is a library with a writing desk and a collection of books in Swedish, Spanish, German and English.
The kitchen is equipped with coffee maker, dish washer, refrigerator, and micro wave. By the the kitchen is a small dining room. In one of the bathrooms there is a washing machine and a dryer.
The house has a glass veranda with a dining area and an open fire place. On the grounds is a separate guest house that sleeps two, it has a wash basin and is heated to be comfortable also in winter time.
Below our house is a beautiful lake where we have a jetty and a rowing boat. The water is clean and you can bathe in the lake in summer. If you are lucky you may catch a fish – pike, perch and bream.
The house is surrounded by forest with both pine and beech trees. Even if it is in the countryside, the village of Bjärnum is just a twenty minutes walk away and there you find a well equipped supermarket, a bank and a post office, restaurants, a communal indoor swimming pool and a library with internet service and foreign books.
15 kilometres from Bjärnum is the town of Hässleholm, which is a very good shopping town with a busy railway station with excellent connections to Malmö and Copenhagen, as well as with the rest of the country.
BELOW WE OFFER SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT JUAN DOLIO. IF YOU SCROLL DOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YOU WILL FIND A MAP OF THE BEACH AREA AND SEE HOW YOU MAY COME THERE FROM GUAVABERRY.
We keep bicycles in our penthouse and it is very easy to walk, or ride bicycles, within the Guvaberry Resort area. Furthermore, it is not particularly complicated to take a bicycle ride down to the beach.
WHAT JUAN DOLIO HAS TO OFFER
In Guavaberry, you are less than an hour's drive from the culture, shopping, fine dining and nightlife of Santo Domingo and at an almost equal distance from the great beaches, scuba diving and other attractions in La Romana. The small town of Juan Dolio stretches along the shoreline. It has a boulevard and a main street where most hotels and restaurants are located. You can walk, jog or cycle in safety. The beach road is quiet and does not have much traffic. Hotels can help you get a taxi. Rates are usually posted near the entrance of the hotel. The more adventureous may choose public buses, or guaguas, which travel east and west on the highway, passing every few minutes. All you have to do is stand by the roadside, hold out your arm and the buses will stop to pick you up.
Guided tours are offered by various travel agents, as well as by the bigger hotels in Juan Dolio and major travel agents in San Pedro de Macorís. These are often an excellent way to experience the region, since there are relatively few attractions within walking or busing distance.
Some available excursions are: Santo Domingo city by day and night, visits to the Altos De Chavon's "artists' village" (a fake Spanish colonial town constructed by a spectacular river valley, often hosting great concerts with international artists), river boat rides including travelling along a seven-kilometre long under-ground river, visits to the national park of Los Haitises with its' vast mangrove swamps, or boat rides to the beautiful island of Saona.
Instead of participating in organised adventures you may prefer to make discoveries on your own. There is an assortment of international car-rentals at the air ports and an Avis rent-a-car in Juan Dolio, as well as other, cheaper options. The Cueva de las Maravillas with its pre-Columbian cave art and spectacularly lighted stalagmites and stalactites is well worth a visit and so is a tropical plantation on the Hato Mayor-Sabana de la Mar road due north of Juan Dolio. This flower farm has a lush botanical garden and a green jungle with a labyrinth of paths.
Those seeking action in Juan Dolio can head for the area's casinos, discos, 18-hole golf courses, or participate in water sports programmes offered by the many large all-inclusive complexes. You may ask to access the all-inclusive programmes. For example, at the Coral Costa Caribe Hilton the price is US$ 40 for a day, including food, drinks, enjoyment of the pools and shows, a package that often is appreciated by children.
There is a go-kart racetrack on the highway to San Pedro where go-karts can be rented for a fast spin around the track.
Guavaberry has an Equestrian Center for trail rides, horseback riding lessons for the entire family and you may also watch occassional polo matches. Rancho Cumayasa on the way to La Romana offers combined horse-riding, river trekking and Catalina island visiting days.
Nearly every large hotel has a dive shop that offers PADI certification courses and open water dives. If you enjoy snorkeling, you may do so along the long reef breaking the waves just off shore. It creates a home for the fish and keeps strong waves off the beach.
Juan Dolio is about an hour away from some of the country's best diving off Catalina Island. Dives to visit the Tanya V sunken wreck can be booked with the dive shops. Fishing trips can be arranged at area hotels, the sea hosts marlin, dorado, barracuda and other interesting and tasty species.
A reputation for excellent cuisine has taken hold in Juan Dolio and neighboring Guayacanes. You can choose from a variety of fine restaurants ranging from informal to casually elegant. A few restaurants even have noteworthy wine cellars. Italian restaurants. steak- and seafood places abound.
Since most restaurants cater to domestic vacationers coming in from Santo Domingo, prices in Juan Dolio are attractive all year round. Our favourite place is the imaginative Aura Restaurant.
The winter baseball season at the Tetelo Vargas Stadium in San Pedro de Macorís runs from October through the end of January.
The legendary hitter and right fielder Sammy Sosa (with 588 career home runs) owns a disco in the town. Other big leaguers like Jose Lima and Bartolo Colon come home during the off season to play for the ‘folks’ back home.
Directions: If you arrive from the Santo Domingo’s airport Las Americas (officially denominated Francisco Peña Gomez) you turn right in direction of the Las Americas Highway, which leads you to the town of Boca Chica (around 10 kilometres from the airport). When you have passed the town, keep straight and drive under a bridge. Around 20 kilometres from Boca Chica, the Highway turns left, away from the coast, passing under a bridge. After a few kilometres you approach the first connecting road on the right, enter it. In the roundabout you turn left and pass under the Highway. In the roundabout on the other side of the tunnel you turn right and follow the highway. The entrance to Guavaberry is located by a cascade on the left hand. A few hundred metres after the entrance you encounter the guarded check point of the resort.
You reach the village of Juan Dolio by following a narrow road (indicated on the map), which runs along the wall of the Metro Resort and Golf Club, which is situated in front of the Guavaberry Resort. As mentioned above, you find several restaurants in Juan Dolio, as well as small grocery shops (colmados). For bigger purchases there are excellent supermarkets in San Pedro de Macorís, 15 minutes drive to the east.
1 comment:
Very informative. I learned new things both about the DR and Sweden. Congratulations!
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