REASONS TO SMILE: Honeymoon

After the wedding on Saturday and then all of the loading, packing and moving we did on Sunday, we were looking forward to the honeymoon. We left Mike's parents early in the morning and they dropped us off at Logan Airport. By 8:15 we were in the air and headed to the Dominican Republic.

The airport in Punta Cana was all open and looked like a bunch of huts grouped together. It didn't take very long to find our luggage, but just as soon as we had it in our hands there were workers there to grab the bags and whiz around the airport looking for our transportation. We just tried to keep up with the guy, as he wheeled our stuff to a bus that would take us to the resort.

Our room was not available upon arrival, so we tested out the buffet and lounged around for a few hours. It was of course very HOT, which I enjoyed (Mike not so much). That night, once it had cooled down, we walked around the resort a bit, tested out the train system, viewed the casino and then watched a magician show. When we got back, Mike tried to fix the alarm clock and accidentally tripped the power. We had some difficulty communicating that to the staff at the front desk - that we needed lights, they thought we needed towels. Unfortunately, they did not show up to fix the problem until the morning, so we spent the first night without AC.

Tuesday we enjoyed our first cocktail, while waiting for our meeting with the transportation Co. They gave us info about the resort, the activities and of course the excursions available. We decided to book the ATV/Buggy experience. Later in the afternoon we headed to the beach for the first time. Mike of course spent time under the shade of the palm trees, while I soaked up the sun and the water was pretty warm.

On Wednesday was the excursion. We were the first to be picked up, so we spent about an hour on the back of a pick-up truck, with not very comfortable seats. When we got there they explained the safety guidelines and agenda for the day. Unfortunately, we only had $5 with us, so we could not afford to buy the bandannas needed to cover our faces. So, we resorted to using our t-shirts! Our buggy was not very good and we ended up stalling 3 times. The scariest part was when it happened, but the rest of the group kept driving. Once we were started again, we had to try and catch up to them, while driving on the side of the road, with regular Dominican traffic whizzing by.

On the buggies and ATV's we visited the beautiful Macao Beach and a cave with a swimming hole. Then we returned to the ranch and had the opportunity to go horse back riding. Mike of course ended up with the smallest horse and it refused to go anywhere. One of the guides had to keep hitting the horse to get it to catch up with the rest of the group. I thought my horse was going to be stubborn as well. But, once the guides started going, my horse took off and at least stayed with the group. It was quite the experience!

For the rest of the honeymoon we spent time at the beach and in the pools. Again I spent my time in the sun, while Mike relaxed in the shade. We of course took full advantage of the swim up bar. We also experienced the flea market, which was quite stressful. The people would follow us around waiting for us to buy something. However, we did not see anything we liked, so we bought all of our souvenirs at the local mall. It did actually rain the very last night we were there, but it only lasted about 10 minutes.

The food was the most difficult part of the whole trip. Each night we had to call and make reservations at one of the restaurants. The first few times Mike thought the staff had hung up on him, after finally getting through. We realized later that he was just put on hold, so that they could get someone who could speak english to take our call. We tried the Thai, International, French, American Grill, and the Italian restaurants. We were certainly full each night, because of all of the different courses, but the food was not very impressive. We would rather stick to the breakfast & lunch buffets. Oh well.