Travelog: Punta Cana 2009

Prime Time

November 07, 2009

Punta Cana 2009

Back in August 2009 I had the opportunity to travel to Punta Cana Dominican Republic with three absolutely gorgeous and fantastic women. Our vacation lasted 7 days, and while the travel connections were complicated as we came from different parts of the world, it all came off perfectly.
Francoise, her sister Julianna and her mom were fantastic travel companions and we had a blast at the Barcelo Resort on the east coast of Dominican Republic.
I had read many places that these are the best beaches in the world, the warmest water in the world, the clearest water in the world. Absolute heaven. And I agree.
I had never experienced a hot beach or resort such as this before. My first venture into the water of the Mediterranean was unbeleivable. The sand is fine, granular, light. The water is warm, clean and clear. It's like wading into a large bathtub, Sun bathing is unbeleivable. It's hot, slight breeze, sometimes unbearable. But at the end of the day these are experiences that words cannot suffice, and as the week went on and on, it got better.
The week's package included the best rooms Barcelo can provide, complete with everything the finest hotels in the world can offer including a jacuzzi, and all the food you can eat 24 hours a day at all their buffet huts.
While we stayed 7 nights at Barcelo, we also ventured out of the compund on several occasions including day trips to Santo Domingo - a three hour bus trip that was so enjoyable as we saw so much of the countryside and Santo Domingo is a fantastic vibrant world class city with great beaches, casinos and the best of everything. We took a day trip to Catalina Island, and part of the boat trip to that absolute wonder of places included a side trip on the south coast of the city of La Romana. We saw a row of houses a mile long owned by such famous people as Julio Iglasias, Ricky Martin and Oprah Winfrey among others. These "summer homes" are worth millions and are breathtaking to see. The blue water ride to Catalina on our Catamaran Boat had one downfall - my video camera got wet and is forever rendered useless by JVC, so I am asking you all to boycot JVC products forever as those bastards wrote off a new camera of mine because of a little water. PPFFFT. No more JVC!
Now where was I ... ah yes .... Catalina Island sits off the south coast of La Romana and is one piece of paradise worth experiencing. Again, no words can justify how wonderful this place is. Our trip back from the island was a little more civilized as we were in a normal boat and we didn't get wet on this leg of the trip :)
The real excitement peak for the week came on our cross country Jeep ride through sugar cane fields, cigar making places, and coffee bean farms. Julia drove our Jeep through water, over hills and through "jungle" that didn't seem to me were meant to be driven through and over! She did a marvelous job of getting us back home in one piece along with about 15 other 4 wheel drive vehicles. It was one stimulating experience, let me tell you! Hey .... we saw a cock fight, tasted coffee beans like never before, sipped rum that gave me a buzz HAHA. Oh so much in one day .... I slept good that night.
Overall, it exceeded my expectations by far. The people in Dominican Republic are all fantastic - even the beggars and sleezy sales people we encountered were tolerable. So many things we did, so many places we visited, so many pictures and video we shot. But, sigh, I am not allowed to post as Francoise wishes a lot of it to be kept private. And rightly so .... me in a bathing suit is not a pleasant sight!
I have posted all the pics I am allowed to post below. Maybe in 20 years someone will post the good stuff from the trip, who knows! For now, have a look at what we saw during the best vacation in the history of the world ....