Punta Cana, part 1!

With so many awesome things on our trip to Punta Cana, I’ve decided to write a couple posts about it.  And here’s part 1!

Punta Cana is on the island of the Dominican Republic.  This is information I learned just prior to our trip 🙂  Spanish speaking, and quite tropical.  We had a super duper early flight and finally got to our hotel, the Iberostar Bavaro around 3pm.  I was pretty much a zombie for that day, so it consisted of room check in, food, sleep.

The rest of the days were filled with fun, sun, and even some run(ning)! (oh, and “rum” which also rhymes!)

Running at 6am was the start to almost every day.  We could see the sun rise, and greet the 3 or 4 other crazy people who were also out running on their vacation.  We ran between 4 miles and 8 miles each day, which only made a little dent in the calories that I inhaled each day.  Dessert after breakfast, lunch, AND dinner.  I have no willpower!

We got to stop at the “adults only” hotel next to us since our kids weren’t with us on the morning runs.  And of course we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do our own Titanic scene (so cheesy!!).

Our pool was really awesome.  It was right next to a kids play area, so it was pretty mellow with other families, and not a lot of loud party people.   Don’t get me wrong, we still got our drink on, and busted out some loud tunes when the water aerobics came on, but it was pretty much PG-13 at our pool.  Just the way I like it!

We did get to see a fair share of butts on this trip.  Europeans, and other countries, are far more relaxed and free in their choice of bikini bottoms and the hineys were hanging out of a lot of Brazilian cut suits.  No problem.  We were all pretty used to it after the first day!  We even had a couple of topless women strolling on our beach.  Now that’s something you sure don’t see in Ohio!

Breakfast consisted of a wonderful assortment of every food that you could think of under the sun.  Our breakfast restaurant was right next to fish, flamingos, and other birds that loved to be fed.  I’m pretty sure the only reason they put the saltine crackers at the buffet was for the kids to feed the animals.

One afternoon the kids wanted to do the free scuba dive in the pool.  We had done that last year in Mexico too, but this year the equipment fit my son much better and they both did very well.  We almost did a resort dive course for them so we could dive in the ocean together, but decided to hold off and get them certified in Ohio so we didn’t take up our vacation time.

Each day a photographer brought around an exotic animal for pictures.  We chose the parrots but on other days there were huge iguanas, and a monkey.  I’m surprised I didn’t totally freak out because my nose got bit last year by a toucan in Mexico!  I did keep a watchful eye on them though….

The kids had a blast building sand castles on the beach and named each one they created “Fort Safe” or “Fort Safer”  or “Fort Super Safe”.  Sadly, they were no match for the high tide each night and were wiped out.

Our resort was covered with palm trees and coconuts.  The workers would cut the coconuts down and cut off the tops and share with the guests.  We were disappointed to find out that we did not like coconut water one bit!  Bleech!!  But it did make a nice prop for pictures, and we enjoyed flaking the yummy white coconut meat out from the inside of it. (btw, that lady in the background of my picture was pregnant and even she was sporting a Brazilian cut bikini!!)

I’m having a lot of fun browsing through our million pictures finding some to share with you!  But for now, I’ll leave you with this and there are more to come!

*************************************************************

Q:  I must know, are there a lot of Brazilian cut suits where you are from?? (is that the correct term even?)

Q: Give the choice, do you hang out at the pool or the beach?

The choice was too hard, so we did both!!