Punta Cana, Dominican Republic April, 2009
For our one year anniversary, my husband and I decided to take a trip to the Dominican Republic. We thought that since it would probably be our last opportunity to take a vacation for a while, since we’re buying a house and starting a family, we should do something really nice. We booked a room at the Excellence Punta Cana from April 25th to April 30th.
We didn’t bother going to sleep the night of the 24th. At 3:00AM my mom came and picked us up to go to the airport. Sometime around 6:30AM we hopped on our flight to Atlanta which took around two hours. From Atlanta, it was about a three hour flight to the Dominican. One thing no one tells you about going to the Dominican, you need to pay a tax of $10 American to get in. After finding our way out of the Dominican airport (which is really cute, it looks like a big hut), we hopped in a bus to go to our resort. Let me tell you, the drivers in the Dominican are the worst. They drive way too fast on roads that look like they can’t fit two vehicles on them, and they zip in and out and around each other so quickly that it’ll make your head spin. I think I saw my life flash before my eyes. It took us about an hour to get to our resort from the airport. Once we made it to our room, which was very nice, we ordered lunch from room service. I soaked in the jacuzzi tub reading for a couple of hours while my husband watched tv, and then we went to dinner. After dinner we were so tired we just went to bed.
Sunday was our anniversary. We met with the guy that books the tours and excursions and booked a trip to the Marinarium. We went to the gym on the resort for an hour, and then explored. The rest of the day we relaxed on the beach.
Monday we played tennis for a while, and hung out by the pool. We also stopped by one of the shops on the resort and I bought a couple cute skirts.
Tuesday was the day we were scheduled to go to the Marinarium for the Reef Explorer package. We had to take another bus (this time we almost hit a guy on a dirt bike), and it took us about an hour to get there. A boat took us (and a large group of people) out to this floating thing. It had a little juice stand, an area for massages, and a lot of beach chairs on it. We were given pretty much the whole day to do whatever we wanted. First we grabbed some snorkelsand fins and went out into the coral to look at the fish. I love fish, have always had an aquarium in my room, so it was amazing to me to see all the little tropical fish swarming (schooling?) around the coral. They were so pretty. We spent a couple of hours out there, and then decided to move on. They had two underwater pens set up to the side of the floating thing (for lack of a better word… I mean what do you call something like that?). One had sting rays in it (the barbs were removed), and the other had grey nurse sharks in it (which we were told were completely harmless). I have a picture of Jason and I holding a sting ray. They feel weird, not what you’d expect. They’re kid of leathery. When we got into the pen with the sharks it was pretty obvious that they were more scared of us than we were of them. They pretty much hung out in one corner. One swam under Jason once though. After that we got out of the water and had some of the sandwiches that were available at the Juice bar. We took some of the bread with us back out into the water to feed the fish. It was beautiful, watching them swim around me. Very peaceful. I think it was the best day of our trip. We took another bus back (almost hit some pedestrians), grabbed some dinner, and then went to the casino for a bit. We were doing pretty good at the roulette table, but then lost all our winnings at black jack D:.
Wednesday we just took it easy. We played tennis for a bit, then lounged around by the pool. I took another hour long jacuzzi bath with my book, and we went out to dinner. After dinner we went back to the casino, and lost everything at the roulette table (apparently we aren’t very good at gambling). Then we watched a Michael Jackson show. The guy they had impersonating him was really good.
Thursday was spent traveling. We left our resort at 10:45 and didn’t get back to our apartment until 1:00AM. It was a long day. When we got home, my mom and grandma had the top of our wedding cake set out with some candles and some napkins from our reception. They also had champagne in the refrigerator. It looked really nice, but we were too tired to eat it. We had it a couple of nights later. FYI: year old freezer burnt wedding cake tastes like crap. Do yourself a favor, throw the old superstition out the window and eat it that night, or the day after. Whenever you open your wedding presents. It will taste so much better.
So the vacation was wonderful. I wish I was still there on the beach!
All the Pieces Fit 