La Altagracia....

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Located on the eastern shores of the province "La Altagracia", Punta Cana is the most booked and visited vacation spot. Its bright clear blue beaches, and its beautifully diverse population makes the trip a memorable one. Unfortunatly their democracy and lack of decent wages, makes the foreigner really appreciate their hard work. They are the working class. They are the people that make your vacation a plesant experiance. Here is a little something about my vacation...

We landed around 5pm eastern time. It was hot! I was amazed at how carribean it felt at the airport. The airport was a replaca of any resort out there. Their roofs were covered in palm fronds. Amazing! As entering the international airport of Punta Cana, DR, my company and I were greeted by 2 gorgeous women who were dressed in traditional costumes. They were accompanied by a photographer who took pictures as you entered into the line to pay for your visa. The picture would then wait for us at the airport on our departure date.

Once the $10 visa was paid for, we would go and pick up our luggage and proceed to the nearest exit. Changing dollars for pesos were not in our best interest because we didnt know how much we money we would spend. Any pesos unspent were not changed back into dollars. American dollars are just as good as pesos in the shops, in my opinion, even better.

twenty min later, we were in Dreams Palm Beach, Punta Cana. After changing our vacation from mexico to Dominican Republic with all the commotion stired in Mexico, it was a relief to have arrived in our resort.

It was beautiful, open, airy, tranquil. We were greeted by a waitress with a delicious "Mimosa", thats a mixture of champagne with orange juice. The champagne is dry and the orange juice is sweet, together its an explosive drink... something i couldnt lay off of the whole week we were there.

We got to our rooms. It was clean, it was newly renovated, it was fresh, and it was different. We were in a standard studio room with a balcony and a bathroom. However, our bathroom was a little deformed (in a pretty way)... our sink was in our room and the bathroom and shower were separated by a glass door. I loved it!

The pools were refreshing and the drinks were endless. The activities a blast, and a scene as tranquil as can be. The beach as clear as crystal itself and the customer service and staff looked out for you ever moment of the day. The beach had a neat trampalene on the water. You had to swim to it, get on it (not easy at all), and then jump on it... (not easy too) but it sure is fun! For unexperianced swimmers and divers a little scary, but I did it! I swam, I got on, I jumped, and I dived... feet first with my nose squeezed with thumb and middle finger as hard as I could. I did it and I loved it!!!

Anyone seen a Segway? Tried it? We did.... we took it through the beaches of Punta Cana, DR... we took it through the jungle... and was it fun? Yaaa!!! We were segwaying away. One of the members of our trip is a great haggler. He runs a flea market business and knows the tricks of the trade. The segway tour was available through a person on the hotel's property associated with the segway tours. Now the hotel tour guide did mention that it is a safety issue to travel with guides that are not approved or associated with the hotel. What they didnt mention is that it is also a lot cheaper. With us not taking the segway tour with the hotel, and my friend the haggler, we were able to get the segway tour half price, thats twenty dollars per person. Great deal!

The resort had a great reacreation room which is a little airconditioned house... AIRCONDITIONED!!!!! Thats where we cooled off. You can easily get a heat stroke!

Near the recreation room we had a bicycle tour that was included in the resorts price. We took this tour to see the neety gritty areas, the sites that are the real Punta Cana, DR. The tour was for an hour, we left the resort, and were bicycling on unfinished two way roads. We went through the mini villages, where homes looked like they were made from card board boxes. Every pedal that i rotated I came closer to understand more and more about the village. Until it really broke my heart. We stopped at a beach, and there were two little boys playing in the sand. One must of been 3 or 4 and the other 5 or 6. I asked my boyfriend if he could give me two dollars, I felt like I needed to give these kids some money. Two dollars is the cost of bread and butter that can feed the whole family there. I gave the children the money. While handing them over the money, I took a peak at their sand buckets, only to notice that they were playing with crabs. CRABS! 3 year old children and CRABS dont mix!

At the same beach where we stopped to go to the bodegas, we were greeted with sand bees. ... hundreds of them! To have entered a bodega, we had to pass through these bees, all of this while wearing short shorts. Scary but true.

With the store owners trying to sell, and the children playing with crabs, I was ready to go to our room and stay there. What else have we not seen?

Punta Cana, DR... a great vacation spot to go to, not the best place to live.

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