Exactly one week ago today, I was in Dominican Republic with six other people, enjoying lunch, the sun, and luscious 80+ degree weather. When I look out the window now, there’s about 5 inches of snow on the ground and the snow is still falling. It’s quite beautiful to look at but I prefer the sun and heat.
We went to Catalonia Bavaro resort in Punta Cana. It was all-inclusive so we dined, wined, and swam for free. I ended up spending a little under $200 in gifts and casino losses but was well worth it.
Day 1 Wednesday
Arrived around 4:00pm Dominican time. Very tired from not sleeping at all the night before and the 6 hours total sleep from the last two nights. Got hotel room but we couldn’t get in as our door keys didn’t work. The bellboy who drove us to our villa couldn’t get in either with his cards and subsequently called on security, and the maids. The maids were able to get us in. He took our cards, drove back to reception, got them fixed, and came back. The hospitality and service there is beyond anything I’ve seen in America. We had 24 hour room service (free food by the way), security always on guard outside, and all the workers say hello or smile as you pass by. We took a shower and went to dinner at Thalassa 7pm. I almost fell asleep at dinner. Andres did fall asleep and stayed asleep at dinner. The waitress poked fun at him. The chef sent out a sample of their mangu and ham, which was a piece of fried prosciutto on a creamy bland base made from plantains. The ham was good but the rest was not for our palettes. For appetizer, I got the eggplant/pepper/onion dish. That was pretty bland as well. For dinner, Pargo (fish). It was salty and the only thing I’ve eaten with flavor, which made it delicious. After dinner, the wait staff gave us another treat - pistachio ice cream with vodka. It was tasty and seems easy to make that I’m going experiment on my own. After dinner, I walked back to the room and passed the hell out.
Our hotel room.
The room’s hot tub, used only once.
Flower from the bushes outside. The hotel maids would leave them in all around the room after they have serviced it.
The pistachio vodka drink.
Day 2 Thursday
Had planned to wake up early with JAG to go to the beach before our 1pm lunch date with the family. We failed and didn’t wake up until 1pm. When we got to the restaurant 20 minutes later, everyone was there waiting except for Manuel, who was happily boozing up in the bar across the hall. He came back with two drinks in hand and brought them with him into the restaurant, where he then got a glass of wine. For lunch, I got the squid soup which tasted like Campbell’s tomato soup except with pieces of squid floating around. For dessert, milk and rice pudding. Yummy! We finally made it to the beach as the sun was going down. There wasn’t much sun to soak up, so we decided to walk around the beach with Manuel and Kai. We walked by some beach sports, a game involving metal ball throwing and a volleyball game complete with referee and whistle. There was a superman dancing crazily around a smiley little kid as we got towards the resort’s larger outside pool. He stopped after seeing us and decided that the two boys in our group had to join them in their game. So he took them by the arm, leaving Kai and I to film the hilarious event. The game’s host was did a little dance and sang along with the music being blasted by the DJ, and when he wanted to stop the music, he would say “DJ. DJ, zuu.” The funny part was whenever he said ‘zuu’, he would do it while holding both his arms up at head level and thrusting out his pelvis. The game involved two teams, “MamaJuana” and “CocoLoco” (drink names, by the way). The host would throw silverware into the pool and one person from each team would dive in and see how many they can pick up without coming up for air. After the game ended, several people made a run for it. It, too, seems they were hijacked for the games.
For dinner that night, we went to the ‘American’ restaurant. Their take on American was western/cowboy style. There were saddles, spokes and wheels, ropes strung from the ceiling. I ordered the “Rodeo Steak” which was sirloin beef and tasted really good. For dessert, we ordered one of everything (6 dishes) and shared. It was a much better dinner than from the night before. There wasn’t much to do at night besides hitting the bar, casino, or live theatre. So, we went to the casino. I got lucky that night and won $100 US from the slots. Not wanted to lose all of it in one night, JAG and I decided to head back to our room when we ran into three geese. One was definitely male as he held himself erectly while waddling towards us and the female in front of him was pecking here and there on the wooden floorboards. We gave her some bread and the male just watched. She had a feather sticking out awkwardly, and I wanted to either pluck it off or fix it but didn’t dare do it in front of the male. A couple walked up from behind us and the male goose ran towards them and started to attack the man’s feet. The man was wearing sandals and leapt back just in time. They made a beeline around the geese and ran for it. Talk about protective instincts. Another female waddled towards us and we gave her some bread. The male then herded them to the waterside and we left.
JAG and Manuel with other contestants.
The three geese, one male, two female.
Squid soup that tasted like tomato soup.
Tasty rice pudding.
Day 3 Friday
We made sure to get up early enough to get breakfast (over at 10:30am) and then to the beach. It was such a beautiful, perfect day. Blue sky, no clouds, mid 80’s with little wind. The water was a bit on the cool side but once you were in it you could see to the bottom. It was not as salty as other beaches I’ve been to. The tide was low so I could go pretty far out and the water would still only reach my waistline. There were some concrete barriers a little ways out that act as artificial reefs. There were plenty of small fishes swimming in and out of reef. JAG’s mom was there with her underwater camera and I got to take some pictures of the fish. Hopefully they didn’t turn out too blurry as I really could not hold still underwater. After we had a good few hours of baking, JAG and I set off to find food. We came upon an outdoor grill area (JAG’s mouth automatically watering) which was next to a tented buffet area, which also had a grill! So we went to the buffet. There were lots of food, but I stuck to the ones I know. Fried chicken, hot dogs and fries. There were lots of flies but that’s what happens when there aren’t any doors to keep them out. We went back to the hotel room, washed up, and headed out again to roam the resort. We went to the resort’s gift shop and got some trinkets for my poor, poor family stuck in the cold and snow. Nearby was a flea market setting up. Apparently on Friday afternoons, the locals get to bring in their items for haggling. I didn’t do so well with haggling but got some nice animal carvings from petrified wood and necklaces.
Our door cards stopped working again and neither security nor the maids could open it again. We walked to reception to get them fixed but were only given one card back. For dinner, we at the Mexican restaurant. I ordered some sort of chicken appetizer, which came in three thick round shells with sour cream and lettuce. The shells were too hard to eat so I just ate the chicken. For the main course, a chicken burrito, slightly spicy. It was very good. Afterward, we went back to the flea market where Manuel helped me haggle some cigars down from 35 to 11 US dollars. And then we hit the casino again and I lost $20.
There were many of the coconut trees.
Wooden gifts to bring home.
Couldn’t get enough of the trees and sky.
Day 4 Saturday
This was our last full day here and I was already feeling the disappointment of having to leave the next day. We got in some more sun and were supposed to go sailing, but the yellow flag was up at the beach. This meant the wind was too strong for beginner’s sailing, so no boat for us. We brought the family to the same buffet area we had yesterday. JAG and I ate just fine but the rest of them decided to try the squids/dry pork/pasta salads that didn’t taste very good and wanted to leave for the Thalassa restaurant instead. It was not to my liking that we wasted a lot of food there, but considering it was a pre-paid all-inclusive it didn’t really matter to them. I was somewhat full already but got a light salad before heading to the bar side pool. JAG and I got a BananaMama drink, which consisted of banana, rum, coconut milk, and some other ingredients I can’t remember. We tried out the sauna and steam room. The sauna was so hot when I first stepped in and it didn’t help that Manuel kept throwing more water on the hot rocks. It was kind of nice to be in there for all of five minutes before trying the steam room. Damn! that place was three times as hot and I couldn’t sit down as the tiles burned my butt. I stood there for a bit breathing in the eucalyptus mint steam, clearing my sinuses. I left after a few minutes because my feet were starting to burn. We went to the jacuzzi next, which had lukewarm water. Manuel and Emma got the pool boy to turn up the heat but it never got hot enough for our jacuzzi standards.
For dinner that night we went to La Toscana, the Italian restaurant. This one had the best food by far. For appetizer, I got the Beef Carpaccio, which I didn’t realize was raw beef until it came out. To my surprise, it tasted really good and the dish was gone in minutes. For dinner, I got the salmon. It was deliciously good, not overcooked, juicy, and with a bit of lime juice. For dessert, tiramisu! We fed the fish bread after leaving the restaurant. Most of the area connecting the restaurants to the casino is surrounded by freshwater and fishes. There is a plank walkway leading from one area to another. We went to the casino where I lost another $20 on the slots. We went back to the hotel room later on and guess what, the door keys stopped working again. We walked to reception, where they got maintenance to come back with us. They drove us to the room where we then realized none of us had the door cards as we gave ours to the reception person and they didn’t give it to him. He tried the maids’ cards but none worked. So off they went again back to reception, came back, rescanned our card with some device and we were back in.
The sailing that we did not get to do.
Plenty of fish in the lagoon like bread.
Beef Carpaccio (raw).
Day 5 Sunday
JAG’s mom and dad were going to watch the sunrise from the beach. They said the sun comes right out of the water. I misheard the time and thought he said 8am. I thought it was a little late for sunrise but went anyway. The sun had already come up at 6:30am. The early morning sun gave out a muted, depressing light which echoed my sentiments of leaving. JAG and I wandered near the edge of the resort where there was a sign saying that the resort wasn’t responsible for anything that happens to us beyond this point. We saw some people and straw-topped buildings nearby, got scared, and went back to the resort for breakfast instead. We met up with the family again at the beach and was told that the buildings on the outskirts of the resort were gift shops. So we all went together. The shops were selling the same items from the flea market on Friday and many things I would have liked to bring back but decided not to. There were some stray puppies roaming the area. I felt really bad for them but knew that if I tried to feed them, they would follow me back and I wouldn’t have the heart to shoo them away.
We checked out around noontime and had a nice lunch at Thalassa before we left. We almost hit a free roaming cow on the way to the airport. We saw familiar faces of people that were on the same flight into Punta Cana. Back in the US, we stopped at Miami for customs. The train that normally shuffles people to the customs center was broken down both ways so there was a large crowd of people waiting for the buses. A half hour later, while we were still waiting, the train started working again so they stopped sending the buses…except that there were still a good 80 or so people waiting. Instead of turning us around and telling us to find the trains, the TSA security guy was very helpful and radioed in for more buses. They bus ride gave us a short tour of the life outside the gates. We saw parked airplanes, baggage handlers driving around, and finally got through visa and customs check an hour after we arrived. We didn’t get back to Boston until after 1am. The temperature was in the mid-20s and it had snowed that morning. Many of us were still in summer gear in the snow as we tried to live out our last few minutes of vacation. I’ll never get tired of the heat and the sun. My next vacation (hopefully there will be one) will definitely be somewhere hot again.
Morning light hits the beach chairs.
Gift shops on the outskirts of the resort.
Last day at the resort.
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