Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Tuesday's weather turned out to be similar to Monday's, hot, humid but mainly cloudy. After breakfast and some Tylenol, we decided to take the Bavaro Express train around the Bavaro Complex. It is far from Express but its a nice way to sit back and get a tour of the complex. If you are in a hurry to go from one resort to the next or to the disco, walk its much faster. If you stayed on the Express for the entire tour it would probably take about 30 minutes to go around. There is more then one going around so we would get off and then catch the next one when it came around. We got on at our resort, went to the Palace, which we had already seen the day before while going to the market. We went back past the Beach resort, past the Disco, past the Plaza to the Golf resort. We got off at the Golf resort to see it. The Golf resort is much smaller than the rest with a small check-in area with a pool and a bar, the Bambu. The buffet restaurant, Las Canas, is at the Plaza Dominica for the Golf resort and the beach grill, La Uva, is a few minutes walk down to the beach. It it set up like villas overlooking the Golf course, along the tenth hole. If I was coming to play golf I would stay at the Casino as it is actually more central to the course and pro shop.

After a drink at the Bambu, again touring builds up a big thirst in the heat, we went across the road to the golf course. There is a lake with peddle boats, we thought it would be a nice relaxing ride around the golf course and a chance for some nice pictures. As we approached the young man working the peddle boats he started to walk off, so with some broken Spanish we were able to understand he was going on break and would be back in a few minutes. Now this was a perfect example of things happening on Domincan time. You would think he would wait, get us ready, send us off on a boat and then take a break. But it was break time and he was off. You have to accept and get use to this kind of thing, we thought it was quite hilarious. Beside the peddle boats, overlooking the lake is the church, Virgen de San Salvador. We went over for some pictures and were taken away with its beauty and uniqueness. The entire area behind the Altar is open overlooking the lake and the golf course, it is a very beautiful view. After having a snack and taking some pictures, 20-25 minutes had passed and the young man still wasn't back. So we decided to move on to the golf area and the Casino resort. We are not sure if the young man returned from break that day or not.

I had my picture taken on the tenth tee and sat in a golf cart, that was as close as I got to playing golf. I love golf but with only a week I didn't want to tie up the better part of a day and it isn't cheap. Our WOV package included a round of golf per day per person, pretty good deal. But, before 2pm you have to rent a cart, approximately $50 US and rent clubs(if you don't have your own) which was approximately $40 US. So for me to have gone would have been $65 US, if I had split a cart. I'd rather go snorkelling. Lynn heard that the free Green fee per day was not going to exist in the future. If you think you will save money by not renting a cart and waiting till after 2pm, good luck it is hot and humid! We walked through the Casino resort again, in daylight this time. The pool area has a nice tropical view of the golf course and surrounding area. We took some pictures of the flamingos and headed back home on the Express train.

We had lunch at the beach grill the El Coral, of all the places to eat this was my favorite. It sits on the beach, feet from the water, with an open view of the beach and water. After a great lunch of lobster and beer we headed for the pool area to take in some of the activities. It stayed cloudy most of the day but there was lots to do, watch or just relax and rest. The pictures below were taken in the pool area of the Beach resort, they are in sequence as I turned to my right and went in a full circle.

After an afternoon of pool activities, we had supper at the Ambar buffet, watched an excellent show on the resort stage and then turned in early for our Excursion the following day.