We went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Our flight left from Charlotte Sunday morning. We got up very early Sunday morning and drove to Charlotte. We had a direct flight to Punta Cana. It was about a 3 hour flight.
You can tell we were in a different country from the airport. Look to the roof on the airport. It almost looked like a very large hut. After we disembarked, we walk a pretty good distant to the entrance of the airport which women with fruit baskets on their heads greeted us and made us take a picture with them. Next we were charged a $10 per person entrance fee to enter the country. Welcome to the Dominican Republic.
It was about an one hour drive from the airport to our resort. You could tell the country is very poor. But the mountains in the distance were beautiful. They have the highest mountain in the Caribbean.
Our resort was beautiful. It is an all inclusive resort so the food, drinks and some of the activities were included. We have stayed at several all inclusive resorts. It is one of our favorite ways to vacation. It is so nice not to think about how much everything cost and order whatever you want.
Our room was amazing. It had a sitting area, jacuzzi, flat screen tv, mini bar and a private hammock and outdoor sitting area.
In the front of the resort, there was a very large garden. There were ducks, parrots and flamingos. The flamingos were a lighter pink than the ones of the zoo and had no odor. I know they get their color from their diet. I bet what the feed them at the zoo causes that smell also. In the picture, I'm standing about 3 feet away from the flamingos. There were about 5 at the resort.
One day we went on a 3 km bike ride. We rode to a local shopping area and back. There was another "couple" with us and a guide from the resort. The other couple were 2 gay men from New York who refused when I offered to take a picture of them together. We figured they were still in the closet back home.It was very hot and the humidity is high. The humidity was so high that the gum in my pocketbook got moist.
Down the beach from our resort was this shopping center. We laughed at how the used the names of major US chain store. There was Target, Kmart, Sears and Walmart. The Walmart sign even had a star between the l and the m. All the stores had basically the same thing in them and no prices on any of the items. All prices were negotiable.
