Tour of Punta Cana

1/22/08

class then beach. Today we went with Heyddy and Nancy and toured all around Punta Cana.  We saw Punta Cana village where our restaurants are as well as little stores, a movie rental place and a bowling alley.  We went to Punta Cana grade school and high school.  All the kids were happy and enthusiastic and school was so beautifully designed.  There are no indoor hallways, all the classrooms are connected by sidewalks.  The windows are wide open letting the tropical breeze blow through all day.  The kids were running around playing on playgrounds. The grass is so green everywhere.  We went to the Punta Cana golf course and clubhouse which was beautifully decorated and open aired as well.  The view from the clubhouse balcony is breathtaking.  You can see the pool below lined with palm trees and then white sand and the turquoise ocean just beyond.  You can see a lot of coastline and the golf course.  Punta Cana is extremely concerned with he environment so they are working hard to make their golf course eco-friendly.  Then we went to Tortuga Bay a separate resort but still owned by the Punta Cana group.  It is a very extravagant  resort with opulent villas that you can rent for $2,000 a night.  We took a tour of one and each room looked like a magazine cover.  All of the furniture was designed by Oscar de la Renta, a dominican designer, and many celebrities have stayed there.  Our last stop on the tour of Punta Cana was their ecological park with freshwater lagoons.  There are about 12 different lagoons and we can swim in 5 of them.  Dinner at le four pain, a "french restaurant" even though they have philly cheese steaks.  We watched “In the time of the butterflies,” a movie about the Dominican tyrant Trujillo and his assassination of the Mirabelle sisters.   After the movie Kristin, Brittany, Josh, Ben and I went to the employee club for some Dominican rum, or “ron” in spanish.  We went to the beach. We saw really dark greyish clouds and a rainstorm coming from the ocean.  and soon it started raining really hard.  We went under the pavillion near the pool and played foosball and pool.