DOMINICAN REPUBLIC CASA DE CAMPO RESORT & VILLAS
Want to wed where Bey and Jay rang in the new year?
This 7,000-acre resort in La Romana just launched the Casa de Campo Vacation Experience, which is more than just nonstop eating and drinking: Try unlimited tennis, horseback riding and nonmotorized watersports.
Host nuptials in the property’s St. Stanislaus Church or Grecianstyle amphitheater, followed by traditional music and dance on the terrace at La Piazzetta, which mimics an Italian village.
Rooms from $159, plus $206 per person per night for all-inclusive plan; weddings from $805.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC CASA DE CAMPO RESORT & VILLAS Photo Gallery
I pointed out that their office was not open on a Sunday and that I had reported my find first thing on Monday morning, but that did not satisfy the person I spoke to. He still insisted that it was to be confiscated. A number of heated arguments followed before I threatened to put the bell back where I had found it at the Farne Islands and let them look for it themselves. More arguments followed, with numerous phone calls from the Customs Office, and then finally somebody in authority informed me that I had taken the right course of action. I was told that the bell could stay with me and that they would make inquiries to try and locate the owners. After that, HM Customs were extremely helpful and informed me that the vessel’s owners were unknown and the ship was not of any historical interest. Unfortunately, the bell had started to develop the dreaded bronze disease’, which was beginning to eat into its surface and also meant that it would crumble into a powder when it dried out. I had to keep it in a drum of fresh water for several weeks until I found out how to preserve it. Eventually, after lots of letters and numerous phone calls around the country, I received advice from Bob Williams at Aquascan, a company which makes magnetometers and related equipment. I first had to have a fibreglass bell-shaped housing made, which was done by Reiver Boats of Stanley, County Durham, and I then had to apply to HM Customs and Excise for a permit to acquire some special chemicals, which were very costly and difficult to get hold of.
