Random Thoughts by Jewels*: Punta Cana

Hola!!!

Just thought I'd blog about our vacation so everyone could read about our adventures in Punta Cana, Domincan Republic. We had a blast!!!

We decided to take a trip out of the country because we haven't gone on a big vacation since our honeymoon 7 years ago in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We loved Mexico but with everything happening there we wanted to go somewhere a bit safer. We booked our trip through Expedia and got a great deal! We ended up choosing the Excellence Punta Cana and it was so worth the money. It was an All Inclusive resort at the far end of the island. We (the resort) basically had a private beach which was super nice!

I won't go into all the details but Garrett went deep sea fishing twice! He won quite a bit of money at the casino and apparently thought he needed to spend it all while still in the DR. haha. Oh well - that's what vacation is for. He reeled in a 50 lb mahi mahi and it jumped off the line about 30 feet from the boat. Here is the video if you care to see. The only "action" happens about 3:45 in. I love hearing the exciting boat captain in the background! He was disappointed so he went again the next day with a nice guy he met from Maine. He caught two fish that day which was better than nothing.

While Garrett was on his fishing trip I went to the spa and had a LONG massage... it was soooo great. I'm laying there relaxing and all of a sudden I realized I left my ring in the room. I am a pretty trusting person but we had already been warned to use the room safe because DR is a third world country and people steal whatever they can. So I had to leave in the middle of my massage to go to my room and get my ring! And I was so glad for my 2 years of Spanish in high school - I was able to communicate with the Spanish speaking masseuse that I would be back in 5 minutes.

We didn't spend as much time at the ocean and the resort pools as we would have liked but we still had a blast! We went on a snorkeling excursion which was so much fun! I have never been snorkeling before and it was way worth it. We also went swimming with stingrays and nurse sharks!!! I was a little scared but they cut the stinger off the stingray (made out of same type of material as our fingernails so it doesn't hurt them) and the nurse sharks don't have teeth - some comfort right? We got in the water with the stingrays and the guy had us line up (execution style I might add) and said, "Now he give you massage..." what?!?! So he did and it was the slimiest massage I've ever had - made me wish I was wearing a wet suit. Ugh! It was pretty cool though! The guys on the boat on the way back put on a show doing some native dances and it was really fun! They got us all involved and made us dance with them - just glad the open bar was there to loosen us up a little first! haha.

There is a local drink in Domincan Republic called manauana! It is POTENT!!! The joke is that it makes you have babies. They kept telling Garrett if he drank it I would be pregnant with twins the next day... needless to say he stopped drinking it after they told him that! HA!

Garrett cracked me up because he kept speaking in broken sentences to the people there since a lot of them don't speak much English. He was seriously entertaining to watch. You know what I mean... like if he wanted to ask the cab driver if there were a lot of accidents he would say "There lot of crash here???" HAHAHA! But the best part was when he started talking to ME like that cuz he was so used to it. "Me no want to go there." I would just look at him and say, "Really, Garrett?!" I loved going to the casino though because it gave me a chance to talk to the dealers and learn some more Spanish. Everyone was super friendly!

Oh and I got attached by a parrot. We just walked by them and were not touching them or anything. One of the parrots slid down the rail and we were saying, "Oh how cute, did you see that?" and then next thing I know he was waddling over to me and straight up attacked my foot. Not even kidding. I was trying to shake him off and he was on there glue! The guy that worked there was kind of just standing there. Garrett was trying to pull me away and while I'm not usually scared I was pretty much screaming for my life. Then AFTER the damn bird gets off the guy said, "Ohhhh he no like senoritas!" Thanks for telling me that now amigo! Geez... Oh well... nothing like a battle wound to prove you had a fun vacation, right?

I am SO excited to see my Garrison today. We pick him and my mother in law up from the airport at 4:30. They went to Utah to see my brother in law, his wife, my nephew, and Garrett's grandma. I'm sure they had a great time and I CANNOT wait to see him!!!!!

Leaving you all with some pictures... wish I would have taken more... doesn't everyone say that after vacation? You can see the rest on Facebook...

The ocean from our breakfast table every morning... sigh...