A cursory stroll through customs who stamped our passports and waved us on, and then the melee begins trying to find our bus. A friendly fellow grabbed my suitcase and asked me what resort. I immediately got the name wrong but he took off with us in hot pursuit trying to keep up with him as he went from bus to bus looking for ours. In the end, we finally sorted out our bus, and after tipping him $5 (all I had in small bills) got our bags loaded and onto the bus.
Because of the confusion, we were among the last to board, so the four of us ended up sitting in different seats throughout the bus as we embarked on our journey to the resorts. Everyone heading for the resorts in Punta Cana gets on the same bus and they drop you off as you go along to each resort.
The Dominican Republic is not a particularly wealthy looking place, let me tell ya....the resorts are...they are fabulous, but the rest of the country is kind of poor looking. Lots of motorcycles and no helmets, lots of old cars and trucks. There are new cars and trucks too, but outnumbered by the older ones, at least from my observation point in the bus. We had a flat tire on the way, a loud bang and the driver stopped to check, but that didn't deter him. He climbed back aboard, announced we had a flat, then continued the drive to the resorts.
We arrived at the Punta Cana Princess resort at approximately 12:00 and were immediately made to feel welcome by a woman who gave us a fancy little drink, then the guy behind the front desk, Stacy, met us with a fabulous smile! He is a fine fellow and made us feel immediately welcome as he checked us in. The lobby of the Punta Cana is fabulous, open on four sides with a high thatched roof. There's a bar, called the Oasis, lots of comfortable seating, and computers that guests can use to check and send emails!
Stacy gave us our room keys and directions and told us that he would send our bags along directly. Which he did, they arrived in the room in about a half an hour.
Our guest room was terrific. A balcony, overlooking the pool, and a sitting area with a couch, a big television with satellite TV, and a bar fridge that had a bottle of whisky and rum, two cokes, two bottles of sprite, a couple bottles of beer and two bottles of water.
The staff never let it run out....Housecoats, and towels, beach and bath, although face cloths were in short supply. Take some if you. They do have them, but they seem to be hard to get in your room.
We changed into our bathing suits, and hit the swimming pool and swim up bar.
Nelson was tending bar and introduced us to Banana Mama's, a drink made with rum and banana's and a little of this and that!
Only trouble is, after too many of them, the banana starts to give me a little heartburn, so I switched to something else on and off.
We walked the beach and visited the gift shop on the first day.
Learned a lesson...in Punta Cana, find out if the prices are pesos or dollars, they alternate and pesos are worth about $4 as of this writing, so a $1.00 key chain turned into a $4.00 keychain...oops...I spent about $60 to find that out!
We had our supper at the Casabe Buffet which has just about everything you could ask for and more, something for everybody, and it changes every day. We turned in early, probably around 10 p.m. following a long day that had begun about 4 a.m.
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