Howdy everyone.
I promised more details in my last update and here they are.
First... Casa de Campo: This is a world renowned vacation playground of the rich and famous. It covers several hundred acres of land on the south coast of the Dominican Republic just east of La Ramana which is an industrial city. Thousands of Dominicans work ar the resort which has a village at the Marina that houses shopping and services for the entire resort. Throughout the grounds are thinly scattered large vacation villas. Each villa owned by somebody that has more money than they know what to do with. There is a canal system off the marina so that the condo owners can tie up right at the front door.
At the marina are docking facilities for about 150 yachts and they can accommodate draughts of up to 30+feet easily. I may conservative on that estimate, Marco told me all this during our conversations but my memory is only that I could not picture the pleasure cruiser that would require such a deep draught. The yachts that were in the 2 days I went are, according to Marco, docked there pretty much year-round. The owners just buy them to show off how big a boat they can afford but when they come ashore, they stay in a villa, condo or other accommodation on the grounds of the resort and only take the boat out to sea for about 2 or 3 weeks a year. Marco and I agreed that it seemed like a wasteful excess... why own a boat if you don't like boats???? Like myself, Marco leans towards sailing and has his own sailboat.
The shops in the marina complex are likewise excessive. Much of what they have is not terribly attractive... a lot of glitter and flash without a lot of style and class. Of course there were shops with some nice pieces and I was tempted by a few things but the prices were way over the top. I know I could get the same stuff back home for much less. The other thing is that you could drive back into La Ramana just 15 minutes down the road and buy much of the same stuff there for 1/100th the price. I got the impression that the people vacationing at Casa de Campo never leave the grounds of the resort and do not realize how cheap it in the Dominican Republic. This is good for the resort but I guarantee that the workers at the resort never benefit with higher wages.
I will finish this later. Right now I have a pedicure appointment to get to.
Love to all.