Taking a Break from Winter

Kyle and I headed to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic to celebrate President's Day, Kyle's birthday, hang with Kyle's parents, and just take a break from dreary, cold D.C.  Diane and Bill, after visiting the area one year before, decided to head down to the Dominican for an entire month.  (Retired folk can do this sort of thing.)  So, we happily used their second bedroom in the condo they rented, that was just a ten minute walk from the beach. 

The good life in the Dominican:

• The weather was perfect.  Although there were a couple of short rain storms, it was mostly 82 degrees, sunny, with a light, island breeze.  I cannot think of better weather.
• The beaches were near perfect.  I like a sandy beach, without a lot of rocks and shells, and the beaches outside of Punta Cana delivered.  There was a lot of sand, even in high tide, and plenty of room for lounging, volleyball, burying your in-laws in sand, whatever.
• The water was near perfect.  The water was nice and warm and not once did I have to worry about jellyfish, sharks, or the undertow.  It was also pretty clear and has that  beautiful Caribbean color I had only seen in pictures.
• The food was really good.  I do not do seafood or fish, so I was a bit worried about my eating options.  However, I was always able to find something delicious off the mostly Spanish menus.

The not so good life in the Dominican:

• Getting around was not as easy as I had expected.  We used a really nice cab driver to and from the airport, and everything we needed was within walking distance.  However, I like to explore a bit more and it was not that easy to just drive to the other side of the island.  Websites discourage visitors from renting cars and the only public transportation seemed to be a bus system, but I could not figure out where bus stops actually were.  We could have called our cab driver to take us around, but I would have felt tied to his schedule and cabs are not as cheap as I would have thought.  There are also motorcycle taxis called motoconchos, but I was told over and over again, do not ride! 
• It is really hard to get money!  We did not bring that many Dominican Pesos with us, since the airport exchange rates are never that great.  However, we did not realize that it would be so hard to get more.  Specific banks will exchange money for you, and specific ATM machines will as well, but we had a hard time finding those.
• Hamburgers do not taste like hamburgers.  I do not know why, but the beef tasted weird.
• The trash.  Oh, the trash.  I guess everything has just grown so fast that the Dominican are still catching up on waste management, which means piles and piles of trash.  And sadly, the piles extended out onto the beaches and in some cases into the water.  In no way did I ever feel that I needed a bath in sanitizer, and I actually got used to it after a couple of days, but it is an ugly site in a beautiful country.

The interesting life in the Dominican:

• The Dominicans are concerned with the color of their skin, and the lighter, the better.  I do not really understand why.  It could be because of the tension between them and the Haitians, but we had one gentleman tell us not to worry about him because he had chocolaty skin.  Fine by me!  So, while I was trying to (safely) get a tan, they use lightening cream.

For more pictures, click here.