Monte Cristo

1/24/08

class and beach.  after dinner at the "french" restaurant we went to a club in Bavaro called Monte Cristo.  Bavaro is another resort area about 20 minutes away.  Heyddy told us about this club and that on thursdays, they have a promotional thing where they have free vodka and whiskey drinks for two hours.  the club is not that big, but they had a huge screen playing "the best of the 80s" haha...awesome. We all showed off our new merengue skills on the dance floor and had a great night out.

Colmada

1/23/08

today I saw the ranch and petting zoo for the first time.  they have horses and they seem to be very well taken care of.  they also have mini horses and ducks and a donkeys and goats.  I tried talking to one of the workers at the ranch in spanish.  He did not speak english so it was fun/funny to try to see how much spanish i could speak and understand with him.  I was able to ask him about riding and how much it costs to ride on the beach. after lunch we went to the Colmada, a very small store that we can walk to from our building.  it is so small that you can not go inside.  they just have snacks, like cereal and cookies, and rum, and drinks, and flipflops.  it was surrounded by some very poor houses.  there were a few very cute children playing in the street.  they did not have a lot of clothes and they had no shoes.  two brothers were pushing each other around on a broken electric bike.

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.  

second day

1/21/08

 

first full day in Punta Cana.  Breakfast around 9 and we started Spanish class with Nancy at 10.  This was my first spanish class.  Lunch and break at 12.  Kristin and Katherine and I walked around the gardens surrounding our building. It is so beautiful, there are flower gardens and tropical plants everywhere.  More class.  There is a rhinoceros iguana habitat outside of our building to help repopulate them.  They are really big vicious iguanas that can get up to 100 lbs! For our first dinner out, we go into Punta Cana village where there are a few restaurants and little shops. We eat at Pizzarelli, one of the three restaurants that we can go to with our meal cards.  After dinner we went to the resort lobby with Nancy.  She took us to a lounge in the lobby that was empty but one of the hotel employees came and turned music on for us.  Nancy and the employee taught us how to dance merengue.  It was so much fun. There were old record covers on the wall of famous salsa, and merengue bands

finally started blogging

1/20/08

 

after hours of traveling we finally arrive at Punta Cana airport.  the second I get off the plane I can feel the tropical weather. no more snow!  The airport is picturesque: thatched roof and open aired.  As soon as we walk in we get a group picture with Dominican ladies dressed up in traditional Dominican outfits.  It is actually cloudy which is unusual for the dry season.  We have an orientation meeting and meet Heyddy, the coordinator for the Punta Cana ecological foundation.  We get our room assignments, and see our rooms for the first time.  My roommate is Kristin and she is really awesome.  We share a suite with Brittany and Kathrine.  We went to check out the resort and the beach for the first time.  We have to cross the road and take the employees entrance. The beach is less than a mile away down the employee road.  It was cloudy and looked like a storm was coming in.  We walk around the resort and stopped in La Yola, a restaurant right on the water.  We order our first beer, el presidente, a beer brewed in right in Santo Domingo.  We go back to the rooms and get ready for our first dinner. So hungry.  On our way it starts raining, downpour.  We walk down the employees road to the managers buffet.  After dinner we all hang out at the employees club and relax with some of the employees.  They teach some of us how to play dominos while other people play pool. It was still raining a little but the temperature was perfect.  The employees club is right across the street from our building.  I see fireworks coming from near the water. Bedtime.