PR for the DR

 Although I am not a travel blogger, I am most definitely a traveler.  My husband and I strive to save up and take regular vacations each year.  We believe in the importance of seeing the world and enjoying our life, rather than working all the time and waiting until our later years to travel.  Life is short- enjoy it now.  This month, we went to the Dominican Republic and had a great time.  We stayed at the Secrets Royal Beach Resort in Punta Cana.  The trip was an adventure from the moment we woke up at 3 a.m. on our travel day to catch our flight.  We awoke to a text message from the airline stating the flight had been cancelled and that we were to fly out the next day, instead.  A great- and at times- annoying character trait of my husband’s is that he will not quickly accept changes, especially if he dislikes them or if they have caused problems for him.  He was unwilling to accept that we would fly out the next day, so his first thought was that we would do everything possible to try to get on a different flight that morning.  We ended up rushing to leave the house (within about 15 minutes!) and headed to Raleigh, where we noticed online that there was a flight heading to Punta Cana that would be leaving within the next few hours.  On our way to RDU, we called Delta and ended up booking the four of us on that flight, which was all finalized as we were walking into the airport. 

Upon arriving at Secrets, we were greeted with a warm welcome and long-stemmed glasses of champagne.  Our assigned butler for the week, Alfredo, helped us check in, then gave us a tour of the resort.  It was simply gorgeous, with a large variety of colorful tropical flowers and plants throughout, and tons of palm trees. After all, Punta Cana essentially means “tip of the palm tree.”  The resort has a main pool, a lazy river, and several other large pools to choose from, with several swim up bars, as well as a beautiful infinity pool overlooking the crystal clear Caribbean Ocean.  The guest rooms have a natural design esthetic, decorated with ivory, caramel and olive green tones. They were very clean and comfortable.  We chose a room that had a private soaking pool, which was directly off the back deck.  We experienced absolute luxury!

At the resort, we enjoyed trying out the variety of restaurants, all of which had incredible and tasty dining options, to include a Hibachi grill, gourmet buffet, American styled grill, Italian restaurant, Latin/Dominican, and French cuisine.  The food overall was amazing, as we did not have one meal that we disliked.  One of the restaurants even had a giant, 3-pound hamburger that was meant for 4 people to share. They sing a special song when a group of servers bring it out.  Our friend tried unsuccessfully to eat most of it on his own. 

This resort was so beautiful that, of course, people want to get married there.  We were excited to be able to see a wedding while we were there.  The bride’s gown was stunning- I will never forget the way it sparkled on the beach.  The bridal party came down the isle to an electric violin playing a variety of romantic hits.  There were 10 bridesmaids and 5 groomsmen, so each man had two ladies on either side of him as he walked down the aisle.  I wonder if that was a disagreement that they had that she won… How many people they each would have in their bridal party.  The first of many that the wife would win.  As she came down the aisle, my girlfriend and I stood up in reverence- in our bikinis- beside our resort beach chairs.  It was funny, beautiful, and amazing all at once.

During the trip, we took two excursions.  One of which was to the gorgeous Saona island.  We took two different buses to get to the dock where we boarded our first boat.  I would say there were about 50 of us on the trip.  They first took us out to a sandbar in the middle of the ocean where we could stand up in the translucent, turquoise water, that was about 3 feet high all around us.  A floating bar tender served us drinks and snacks right there in the middle of the ocean. About 6 boats were out there with us, so each group of people were standing in the water and partying. It was so much fun!  After spending about 30 minutes at the sandbar, we went back onboard the boat, and we headed to the island.  Once on the island, they gave us glasses of champagne and had a tasty buffet lunch comprised of fresh fish, rice, a variety of different types of salad, and fresh fruit waiting for us.  After we ate, we went swimming. The four of us in our group stayed in the water the entire rest of the time at the island, which was about two hours.  The Caribbean water felt and looked amazing.  We also enjoyed drinks served in pineapples while swimming. The whole day was heavenly.  After we boarded back on the boat, we took a catamaran party boat back to the original docking location. We danced, watched the beautiful ocean waves, and enjoyed the slow trip back.

We also took a dune buggy excursion, where we took a guided dune buggy tour through the city streets and countryside of Punta Cana.  It had rained that week, so we went through several mud puddles, which my husband gladly, purposefully did not avoid.  We were covered in mud from head to toe, and we loved every second of it.  For part of the trip, I could not really see because of the sunlight, and I was wearing goggles.  I thought I was taking photos and videos of the beautiful countryside but ended up taking about 20 selfies and a ten-minute-long video of my face. It was hilarious!

The tour took us to a local house in the country where they gave us fresh brewed Dominican coffee and some chocolate.  We then rode to a small grocery store, where the tour guide gave us snacks and we purchased a few small items.  For the final part of the buggy tour, we went to Macao beach.  After we parked our buggies, we walked down to the beach.  As I was covered in mud, I could not wait to rip off my muddy clothes and jump in the water (don’t worry, I was wearing a swimsuit).  It was exhilarating.  The tour guide unfortunately didn’t have us there very long, as we stayed there about 20 minutes or so.  We rode back to the shop where we started the tour and rode on the main highways to get there at full speed, which we were all a little surprised about.  The tour company we went with for this tour was Xtreme Buggy (Punta Cana).  The business is run by a quirky and completely loveable German man.  The tour guide was a woman from Switzerland that traveled to the DR so many times on vacation, that she ended up deciding to move there because she loved it so much.  She learned Spanish before she moved so that she could speak the language of the locals.  What a life! She really inspired me.

I must share this part of the trip because I think it may be helpful to some.  My husband and I do argue sometimes on our vacations and this one was no exception. I think it comes from anxiousness and wanting everything to be perfect because we spent all this time and money to get there.  However, we are human, so it can’t be perfect, and mistakes will be made.  For me, I get overly upset about arguments or disagreements on trips because it always reminds me of my childhood.  We would go on vacation every summer and my dad would get so angry with us kids every trip, and mentally abuse us, that it always stressed me out and made me feel terrible.  I could never fully enjoy our family trips for that reason.  I guess that should be another blog post, perhaps, but, whenever Mose and I argue on vacations, it immediately takes me back to that mental place and it feels terrible. 

The important thing to remember if you start to argue about something is that it’s from a place of anxiousness and wanting everything to be perfect. You need to come to terms with the fact that everything cannot go perfectly when you travel.  Whenever people are involved in anything in life, there will be imperfections. It’s important to go with the flow, easily forgive, and move on from whatever the other person – or yourself- is upset about while traveling.  It’s also important to work on yourself so that you are not easily getting upset about minor problems while traveling. Do not make the trip be just about you.  You both worked to get there, now, enjoy it and choose not to get upset by minor problems.

This blog entry has been a little long, so I will end it with this- MAKE THE TIME TO TRAVEL.  Do not wait until you have the time, as there will always be things that get added to your schedule that will fill up your time.  Quit spending money on frivolous things like makeup, expensive clothes, and jewelry and save that money for traveling and seeing the world, instead.  Of all the things you can do in your life, traveling is one of the most important.  While travel should not always be about vacationing- as we should also be going to help others around the world, I believe, it is immensely beneficial for your psychological well-being to get away from where you live and experience another culture.  Quit letting your fears get in the way of you living your life.  Go out and experience the world!