The honeymoon
Pics to come later.
We got up at 5am on Sunday, after cleaning everything up after the wedding, bringing it all in the house, etc. etc. and going to sleep around 1am. Needless to say, we were exhausted.
We arrived in Punta Cana in the afternoon. The airport was crazy... thatched roof and stuff, and walls that didn't enclose it completely. VERY different from what we were used to. It felt strange to not speak the language fluently and to have to figure things out pretty much on our own.
We arrived at the resort and it was SPECTACULAR. Beautiful, clean, etc. We were greeted with some sort of small tropical drink and checked into our room. It was awesome, with "towel art" and robes and slippers and a hot tub. Yesss.
The next day we did water aerobics which was fun and of course went to teh beacch and pool. We made resservations to do snorkeling the next day (but it ended up being cancelled because the water was too rough). We worked out in the gym and had dinner. The food was decent, but it was the presentation that made it. We took pics of our food too so you'll be able to see how pretty it was! haha.
That night they had "Dominican Night" where vendors were invited to the hotel to have their things on display and barter if people wanted to. We bought some coffee but that was it. We weren't sure what anything else was supposed to be priced, but we had seen the coffee in the gift shop so we paid less for it than it was priced there. Funny, the guy who was selling it to us tried to tell us in the gift shop it cost $12/bag... but we had been there the day before and it was $7. LOL. We paid $5.
Tue I did yoga and tai chi, and I didn't like tai chi at all. Has anyone on here ever done that? Too slow for my liking. We got our pictures taken with parrots on this day and it was awesome! The colors are so great and the parrots were so well behaved. It was awesome. This night we ate at a restaurant called "Passions" and it was by far my favorite. They had really good food and it was pretty inside, and the people treated you SO WELL there.
On Wed we got massages and neither of us had ever had one, so that was great. They let us hang out in the spa/jacuzzi//sauna/etc. for the day whenever we wanted, so that was nice. But this day JD got really freaking drunk and ended up puking all night (oops... pool bars aren't always a great idea) so we had to order in and no more spa for us that day. :(
Thu we took a bike riding excursion through a close-by golf course. It was wonderful. We also took a walk down the beach off of the resort and I bought an anklet for myself. We didn't really barter with her because we feel bad. These people are poor. Well, she seemed to be doing pretty well, but she was also VERY nice and not pushy at all (unlike the others) and so that's probably why she got a lot of business from Americans. We're just not used to their way of life.
Fri we went horseback riding and I'll be fine if I never do it again. My horse was very feisty. Everyone else's horses were standing still, but mine kept moving, turning in circles, running into other horses, etc. JD got bit on the leg by someone else's horse and has a bruise from it! And this other lady fell off of her horse because her saddle wasn't tight enough. It was pretty crazy.
So...
I spoke a lot of Spanish there. Every day was a bit better than the day before, and it really did come back to me even though it's been years since I've taken any classes or had a chance to practice it at all.
I got to know a lot of the staff there... about their families, their work life, etc. It's fascinating and I just have this urge to make a documentary.
One day we forgot to lock our safe and I had counted $100 in the morning, but later $20 was missing. On one hand I get that it's not ok to steal, but on the other hand I think that I can't blame someone who is probably very poor, walks in and sees a careless American with 5- $20 bills and thinks, "I could use this." We did tell the management and they said they would get back to us, but they never did. It was the only flaw they had the entire time. Everyone was very nice, helpful, etc. And it was a lesson learned for me to keep my safe locked like I'm supposed to.
It was an amazing trip and we plan to continue to go back. We met a lot of cool people who said they've travelled all over the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Mexico, etc. and said that nothing compares to the resort where we were... so I feel very lucky.
And lastly, I have to thank ahead06 because she's the one who TOLD me about Punta Cana and that she heard it was the most romantic place in the world, and I had never heard of it until she mentioned it. So we owe some of the wonderfulness of the honeymoon to her. Thanks, babe.
We got up at 5am on Sunday, after cleaning everything up after the wedding, bringing it all in the house, etc. etc. and going to sleep around 1am. Needless to say, we were exhausted.
We arrived in Punta Cana in the afternoon. The airport was crazy... thatched roof and stuff, and walls that didn't enclose it completely. VERY different from what we were used to. It felt strange to not speak the language fluently and to have to figure things out pretty much on our own.
We arrived at the resort and it was SPECTACULAR. Beautiful, clean, etc. We were greeted with some sort of small tropical drink and checked into our room. It was awesome, with "towel art" and robes and slippers and a hot tub. Yesss.
The next day we did water aerobics which was fun and of course went to teh beacch and pool. We made resservations to do snorkeling the next day (but it ended up being cancelled because the water was too rough). We worked out in the gym and had dinner. The food was decent, but it was the presentation that made it. We took pics of our food too so you'll be able to see how pretty it was! haha.
That night they had "Dominican Night" where vendors were invited to the hotel to have their things on display and barter if people wanted to. We bought some coffee but that was it. We weren't sure what anything else was supposed to be priced, but we had seen the coffee in the gift shop so we paid less for it than it was priced there. Funny, the guy who was selling it to us tried to tell us in the gift shop it cost $12/bag... but we had been there the day before and it was $7. LOL. We paid $5.
Tue I did yoga and tai chi, and I didn't like tai chi at all. Has anyone on here ever done that? Too slow for my liking. We got our pictures taken with parrots on this day and it was awesome! The colors are so great and the parrots were so well behaved. It was awesome. This night we ate at a restaurant called "Passions" and it was by far my favorite. They had really good food and it was pretty inside, and the people treated you SO WELL there.
On Wed we got massages and neither of us had ever had one, so that was great. They let us hang out in the spa/jacuzzi//sauna/etc. for the day whenever we wanted, so that was nice. But this day JD got really freaking drunk and ended up puking all night (oops... pool bars aren't always a great idea) so we had to order in and no more spa for us that day. :(
Thu we took a bike riding excursion through a close-by golf course. It was wonderful. We also took a walk down the beach off of the resort and I bought an anklet for myself. We didn't really barter with her because we feel bad. These people are poor. Well, she seemed to be doing pretty well, but she was also VERY nice and not pushy at all (unlike the others) and so that's probably why she got a lot of business from Americans. We're just not used to their way of life.
Fri we went horseback riding and I'll be fine if I never do it again. My horse was very feisty. Everyone else's horses were standing still, but mine kept moving, turning in circles, running into other horses, etc. JD got bit on the leg by someone else's horse and has a bruise from it! And this other lady fell off of her horse because her saddle wasn't tight enough. It was pretty crazy.
So...
I spoke a lot of Spanish there. Every day was a bit better than the day before, and it really did come back to me even though it's been years since I've taken any classes or had a chance to practice it at all.
I got to know a lot of the staff there... about their families, their work life, etc. It's fascinating and I just have this urge to make a documentary.
One day we forgot to lock our safe and I had counted $100 in the morning, but later $20 was missing. On one hand I get that it's not ok to steal, but on the other hand I think that I can't blame someone who is probably very poor, walks in and sees a careless American with 5- $20 bills and thinks, "I could use this." We did tell the management and they said they would get back to us, but they never did. It was the only flaw they had the entire time. Everyone was very nice, helpful, etc. And it was a lesson learned for me to keep my safe locked like I'm supposed to.
It was an amazing trip and we plan to continue to go back. We met a lot of cool people who said they've travelled all over the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Mexico, etc. and said that nothing compares to the resort where we were... so I feel very lucky.
And lastly, I have to thank ahead06 because she's the one who TOLD me about Punta Cana and that she heard it was the most romantic place in the world, and I had never heard of it until she mentioned it. So we owe some of the wonderfulness of the honeymoon to her. Thanks, babe.