A crew of more than 300 is working feverishly to put the finishing touches on the mahogany-and-marble palace.  The hotel has its own private island, accessible by boat.

In downtown Samana, construction is moving ahead briskly on a new commercial plaza as well as added infrastructure to handle the more than 100,000 cruise ship passengers expected next year.  If each passenger spends the industry-standard $100 per day when off the boat, the little town can expect a $10 million boost to its economy.  Royal Caribbean is expected to add Samana to its destination list in 2007. The New York and Baltimore markets are expected to be prime embarkation points for many of those passengers.

For the first-time visitor to the Dominican Republic, the country is determined to put its best foot forward to make it a memorable trip.  And for those who have been here before, the Dominican Republic has about 500 million new reasons to love it.

Dominican Notebook

Q: How many Dominicans can fit onto one motorbike?

A: More than you can possibly imagine.

Motorbikes. They’re everywhere in the Dominican Republic. Used as taxis, work trucks, grocery carts, substitute oxen, and quite possibly as furniture. I think they are part of the DR national flag. If not, they should be.

The national sport may be baseball, but the national game is seeing how many Dominicans you can fit onto one small, smoke-belching bike. Guys take their girlfriends for Sunday drives. Whole families jam onto one bike for a ride to the supermarket. The weekly trip to church is made astride a bike.

In city and town, on paved road and muddy side path, bikes rule both the road and the economy.

I swear, I saw a full construction crew with enough lumber, cement, plywood, hammers and nails to build a small house – all loaded onto one Yamaha on the road from the airport to downtown Puerto Plata.

With gasoline twice the price of fuel in the USA, Dominicans are looking for an economical way to get around their beautiful Caribbean country.  Or maybe it’s not thrift that makes them defy the laws of nature and common sense. Perhaps it’s the rum.

Brugal is a world-class rum crafted in Puerto Plata from the lush sugar cane that lines both sides of the road from the airport.  The company says it caps 480,000 bottles a day; with 80 percent of it going to domestic consumption.  The company would not confirm reports that most of the domestic consumption is earmarked for motorbike drivers and passengers.

The government has also changed the building code for the North Shore. Previously, a building could be a maximum of three stories high – about the height of a palm tree, the general measuring stick for much Caribbean development. Now, the government has approved buildings of seven stories in height. Of course, upper-floor units sell for much more money; so presumably a 7th-floor penthouse would fetch a lot more than a 3rd-floor penthouse.

Punta Cana (on the East Shore) is currently the No. 1 tourist destination in the Dominican Republic; La Romana (on the South Shore) is currently the nation’s No. 1 cruise ship destination.

Columbus set foot on the North Shore of the DR on his first trip to the New World in 1492. The little town of Monte Cristi is near the western border with Haiti. Modern-day tourists have moved Eastward, along the North Shore to Cabarete (site of the world kitesurfing championships), Puerto Plata (home of the quaint Amber Museum) and Samana (where government and private interests are building what they hope will be a new cruise ship and airline destination along the sparkling blue waters of the Atlantic).

It was Columbus who named the little town Puerto Plata (“Silver Port”), but not because of New World riches. He sailed into the harbor late in the evening, when the water was calm and the setting sun cast a silver glow over the water. Today, the entire North Shore has the glow of a US$500 million investment in everything from a new international airport to the arrival of a quartet of four-star hotels.

Most visitors to the North Shore currently wind up in one of the 15 hotels comprising the Playa Dorado area. All but one of the hotels shares common facilities including pools and, restaurants.

The Grand Flamengo, part of the outstanding Occidental chain, has a section called the “Club Royal” which features a small private pool and a pool-side restaurant. Guests still have access to the amenities shared by the other hotels. It comes highly recommended

For those looking to invest in North Shore real estate, here’s one statistic provided byan insider with the Ministry of Tourism. A German firm is building waterfront condos on Long Beach, the sparkling new waterfront of Puerto Plata.

Fully furnished, they are expected to sell for about $1800 per square meter. That’s about $180 per square foot, or about $180,000 for first-class, ocean-front, new construction.

Of course, you can spend more or you can spend less; construction is booming. My source speculates that about 80% of these new condos will be put into a rental pool while the remaining 20 percent will be second homes or primary residences.

Another developer is selling 500 sq. ft., one-bedroom apartments (in a gated community, but not ocean-front) for $62,000; a 2-bedroom, 1000 sq. ft. condo in the same development is $132,000.

Here’s a quick insight into cruise ship economics, supplied by one cruise exec who preferred not to be named. The industry average for cruise ship passengers is $100 a day spent when they are off the boat. The DR is well below this average, for a variety of reasons. “We just have to educate ourselves,” said my source.. “For example, let’s say our average is $40 per day per passenger, and we are able to increase that to $60 a day – by having better taxi service, by having more upscale shops, by offering more and better eco-tours. For the 100,000 passengers we expect in Samara this year, that is a difference of $US2 million.

Dominicans love to party, with the action in the capital, Santo Domingo, starting after midnight in most clubs. The national dance is the meringue, played by a three-piece band consisting of a melodeon (accordion-like instrument), a guira (a cheese grater-looking instrument that is scraped) and a tambora (double-headed drum).

Local lore says it happened this way: A cargo ship, full of accordions, was in port for repairs. The captain could not pay for repairs, so over time the captain bartered the musical instruments for food for the crew. Locals added the accordion to existing instruments, and a passion was born.

Imagine how history would have changed had that ship been carrying kazoos.