After the Easter holiday — Semana Santa. The most important holiday in the Dominican Republic.

I think it was Easter 2007 or 2008 an American friend of mine Anthony visited me in the DR and we decided spontaneously to drive to Las Terrenas from Santo Domingo for the Easter holiday. It was before they had a proper road up there.

I drove through the old hilly road and it was getting dark. When we arrived at the village, the parties were on. I hadn’t learned yet how busy the small tourist areas get at the holidays, especially at Easter. We of course joined in the celebrations.

Then we couldn’t find a hotel with vacant rooms. We waited later on in a lobby of a hotel halfway sleeping on sofas until a room with two single beds was ready early in the morning. I haven’t been since, around Easter in Las Terrenas before now. Several times I have been here for new years and in recent years that has become quite busy too. It just gets more and more busy. A sign of a growing economy and more tourism.

Some say the parties at Easter are too much. Now they also have large concerts. With big sponsors like the brewery Presidente. The authorities moved the main concert to a beach outside of town at the last minute. A bit late in my opinion. A good idea to not have it at the beach right in town but many involved on the business side of it had to change plans. And more difficult to get there for the concert goers which they could have planned better.

It’s impossible to prohibit these festivities. People and especially young people should be allowed to celebrate as they please. It’s a beautiful thing. Now I stayed mostly inside the 3–4 days it lasted. Walked down to the road a few times but walked back when I saw how busy and noisy it was.

Dominicans have the right to enjoy their own country and their beaches. What I see is a free people who can do mostly what they want. It gets a bit wild and chaotic but it is peaceful. The main negative is the traffic accidents but they seem to have avoided some of that. A lot of police were out in the streets and on the beaches.