Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

We rolled out of bed, pulled open the curtains on our patio doors and WHAT A VIEW! Our home for the next week and the view was beautiful. We had room 3134, the 3000 unit, first floor, number 34 . The unit was U shaped with only twelve end rooms directly over looking the beach. Six on each end, 3 on the first floor and 3 on the second floor. Rob and Rhonda's room was right next door. They had the same incredible view. The remaining rooms all had beach views but were set back further.

	The top two pictures to the left were taken from the hallway leading in to our rooms. The green building was the other side of the 3000 unit that we were staying in. The grounds in the resort area were beautiful. The grounds were very well maintained and clean. There were security walking around the resort areas at all times. They were dressed casually and after a day or so you didn't even notice them most times. It was nice knowing they were there though. The third picture is our rooms from the beach. Because you were right next to the beach you didn't have to take stuff for the entire day. If you were on the beach and wanted a book or towel it was a 30 second walk to the room. The last picture is the inside of the room. The rooms were clean but fairly basic. The stories I read about hard mattresses were true but after a day on the beach it didn't really matter what I slept on. There was a free minibar with 2 pop, 2 beer and 2 large bottles of water. It was refilled each day and if you wanted extra of anything, a short note in broken Spanish, a dollar or two and it was usually taken care of. We did it for large bottles of water so we would have them for our excursion on Wednesday. There was also a safe in the room. It was quite large, we stored our tickets, tourist cards, money and cameras in the safe and there was still some room left. We hardly spent anytime in the rooms. You would sleep in them and then be gone for most of the day, then come back to get ready to go out for the evening and be gone for most of the evening. The television had quite a few channels, from news, sports, american networks, even the Playboy channel one night but then we couldn't get it back. Oh well, paradise can't be perfect either.

After cleaning up and taking in the view, we were off to breakfast at the Buffet, the Ambar restaurant. It is located in the main building at the Beach resort, with the lobby and entertainment area. This is the main restaurant for the Beach resort.

The tickets were only used to track where people were eating and how often. It really wasn't a problem because we would go get a couple tickets each day and have them for when ever we wanted to go eat at one of the other resorts. I believe the tickets were dated, so you can get some each morning while at breakfast, if you don't use them you can throw them out. But its worth having them, because if you are on the beach and want to go eat at a beach grill at the Garden resort its nice just wandering over and not having to go back to the lobby. Below are pictures of the entrance, the lobby and the pool area. The pool area has an activities area where employees dressed in blue and yellow clothing keep the fun happening all day. There is a list in the lobby of the daily activities. They range from darts, water polo, beach volleyball to dance lessons. If you are looking to relax they will leave you alone, however they are very entertaining to watch.

After the meeting it was off to the beach for sight-seeing, snorkeling and sunning. The beach at Punta Cana has to be one of the most beautiful in the world. The sand is snow white and powdery soft. The water is clear and very warm. There is a reef about 800 yards off shore so the waves from the ocean break over the reef and the water from the reef to the shore is very calm.

If you are a beer drinker you won't be disappointed by the local beer, El Presidente, it is very good. As we were all beer drinkers it worked out great. We brought insulated mugs but never used them, the beer was served in small glasses or mugs so that it wouldn't have time to warm up, either that or we drink too fast! We tried a few mixed drinks including the Chechee Kapapuka that we had read about on the internet a few times. It's supposed to taste like an orange creamsicle, ugh, it wasn't like any creamsicle I had ever eaten. None of us even finished it before we were ordering more cerveza's. The Strawberry Daiquiri's however were fairly good, I spent Thursday afternoon with many of those, but more on that later.

After lunch it was back to the beach for some rest, swimming and snorkeling. When we had arrived Saturday we had a bottle of rum (Ron Barcelo Imperial), and a fruit tray in our room but Rob and Rhonda did not. When we returned to our rooms Sunday afternoon for a rest and to get cleaned up for supper we had another bottle of Ron Barcelo Imperial and fruit tray in our room. Again Rob and Rhonda had nothing, when we asked Lynn later that day why they had not received one, she said she would take care of it. Sure enough the following day(Monday) Rob and Rhonda had a bottle of rum and a fruit tray in their room. Pretty good service. We weren't expecting anything so that was a very nice touch. We kept those bottles of rum to take home but did try some on Wednesday when we went on the Bavaro Runners Jeep excursion. It is very good rum, even at 9am!

Most of the money spent was on tips and some shopping at the beach flea market. If you are a tight tipper and not a shopper you could go without any money and be fine, but not suggested. You can change travellers cheques at the front desk but only in to Peso's. I was told, however, that if you go to the Casino and change your traveller cheques there they will give you American dollars.

After supper we went to the Carey bar in the Beach resort and watched some of the entertainment, had a few drinks and then off to bed to rest for the next day of.........

	We ate most of our breakfasts here, a few lunches and even a supper or two. It had a great variety of food depending on the meal. Breakfast offered an entire bread and roll area, an omellette bar where they made what ever you wanted while you waited. The main buffet had everything from cereal, eggs, pancakes, fish, juice, fruit, and more than I can remember. The main buffet is about 25 feet long and double sided, so even when the restaurant is busy you could usually get food fairly quickly. After a much needed breakfast we had a meeting with Lynn the WOV representative in the Carey bar in the same building. It is a bar by the lobby and beside it is a large stage and seats where entertainment takes place each evening. There were some very good shows throughout the week. Some excellent music, dancing and audience participation games. It was a lot more then we expected for on site entertainment and a lot of fun. Don't miss your meet and greet meeting with your representative. In our case Lynn provided some very useful information. She told us about the resorts and the area around us. Information on excursions, which she recommended and her reasons why. This is where we found out how to use the other resorts restaurants and bars. The bars at the other 3 resorts were used the same way, you walked up and said "Cuatro cervesa por favor"! What a phrase, it made me happy everytime I used it. The restaurants however were a little different. Before you left to go to one you had to get a ticket at the lobby desk.

	There are seaweed patches in the water along the shoreline, so each day some of the seaweed washes up on shore, but the resort has employees who go along and rake it up each morning. On our last day we got up to video the sunrise and the staff were out at daybreak raking up the seaweed, very impressive. The seaweed patches make for good snorkeling right from the shore, all kinds of fish to follow around and the odd starfish amongst the seaweed. For the men reading this, YES there are topless women on the beach, quite frequently actually. However, they come in all ages and sizes. Sunning and snorkeling builds up a hunger. We grabbed our towels and walked down the beach for lunch at the beach grill for the Golf resort, La Uva. We had picked up our tickets earlier at the front desk for an occasion just like this. This grill has you sitting right in the sand under thatched roofs a few feet from the water. It seemed like the perfect place for cerveza's and pizza, so that's what we had. The pizza was very good, and El Presidente was perfect as usual.

	For supper we went to Don Simon, a Mexican restaurant. It is part of the Beach resort, located behind the main buffet (the Ambar). Again we put on our dress shorts and had no problems getting in(pictures to the left), however many were there with long pants and even ties. But it was very festive and we never felt out of place wearing our shorts here or anywhere else all week. When we entered the restaurant we were greeted with a shot of Tequila, can't start a meal too many ways better than that. It's a combination of buffet and a la carte. We ordered a main dish and while we waited there was a Mexican buffet with salads, tortillas, tacos and a desert bar for afterwards. The Margarita glasses were continually being topped up and cerveza's were readily available. The meal was excellent and the staff very friendly and helpful. We tried to take turns tipping throughout the week, so we weren't double tipping the same people. The staff really appreciated tips and we had no problem providing them when good service was given, which was most of the time. Each couple had taken about 80 US dollars for tipping all in $1. By the end of the trip we only had a few $1 bills left. I had also taken about $120 in 20's and $200 in American traveller cheques. We paid for our excursion on Wednesday by Mastercard and returned home with all the traveller cheques and about $60 dollars.