Thanks, John and Vicky.
It will be interesting to find out that it's possible to do shelling in the Caribbean and not either spend a fortune for accommodations, stay at an industrial tourist resort, or lodge at a place where it's quite risky security-wise. When I was a teen, my parents took me to places like Anguilla or British Virgin Islands and we stayed for a modest amount in comfortable settings. Back in 1969, it must have been something like $45 for the 3 of us to stay at the Rendevouz Bay Hotel in Anguilla. Now I see the Rendevouz Bay is between $110 and $1260 for double occupancy plus assorted taxes and fees.
My Spanish is passable enough to make myself understood. But I had not considered DR much because I had the impression that the choices were polarized between the walled-off, raked-clean resort compounds and the poor areas where gringos would be likely targets for robbery. Not to be misunderstood, I've felt comfortable in poor areas of Tobago, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Thailand, India, etc. And maybe I've been overly influenced by rumors about how bad things are off the tourist reservations in Jamaica, DR, etc.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised when I stayed at a tourist compound on Grand Bahama for a couple of nights and found an absolutely gorgeous Chicoreus florifer in 3 feet of water and a nice, crabbed Strombus raninus. This was in just 10 minutes of snorkeling; it was in front of empty beachfront NEXT to the resort. (Maybe the marine habitat was destroyed after the lot got sold.) Was it Abbott who said, "Shells are where you find them"?
David
"Life...is a minestrone."--Father Guido Scarducci
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