Category: Trips

On the final day of our adventure, I had declared it to be a sunscreen-free day considering everyone else was tan and I was not.  I definitely don’t know much about absorbing some suns rays but one of the girls had told me how she started out with SPF 30 at the beginning of the week to get her body used to the sun and then moved down to SPF 5.  This explained why the sun didn’t absorb into my skin at all during the week considering I was using SPF 30.  Also, this may inadvertently explain why I am like Casper the Ghost for most summers of my life.  😉  Of course, I’m sure one of you can verse me in the ways of tanning.

So with that, a bunch of us manly men decided to go without sunscreen for the day.  This was Vero and my first real day at the beach to be honest…we had usually done things around the resort but had never gone to the beach in the morning and stayed there for the entire day.  It wasn’t in our interest to do so…we need a little adventure during the day!

It was clearly the wrap-up day as tons of pictures were taken of all of us and we said goodbye to the great bartenders on the beach.  I read a book for awhile and just had great fun body surfing on the waves and enjoying the sun.  Around 1PM I thought that maybe this ‘no sunscreen’ idea was a little silly and lathered myself up but the damage had been done.  I was a human lobster!  It was quite irritating and it nearly killed me on the flight back home.  I literally had to apply ice down my shirt to ease the pain.  Yes, yes, I know, I am a fool.

Vero and I headed back to the resort and hung around the pool for awhile before leaving on the bus to the airport.  Once again, Vero’s grandmother got screwed over.  Remember she got some free spa time?  Well it turns out that there is some small print and that she would have to pay extra for the massages she received.  So when she went to check out at noon, there was a $45 charge in her name.  In the end, it was never paid because of the dispute of it all.

However, when we boarded the bus, they needed to see some tag that the reception would give you to indicate that you have checked out.  Her grandmother had not received this tag because of the dispute over the $45.  So she went back and in the span of six hours the charge had increased to $80!  Highway robbery!  We were not impressed but what can you do?  We had to leave for the airport.  She forked over the money and we said goodbye to this place forever.  Note, if you ever want to stay in the Dominican Republic, DO NOT GO TO THE BAHIA PRINCIPE.  Not worth it.

We got to the airport and had a bite to eat at Wendy’s (of all places in the Dominican Republic).  We saw our pictures up on a wall taken from when we first entered the airport the first time!  We didn’t really feel the need to pick up the picture but we were pleasantly surprised to see that Vero’s aunt had picked it up anyhow and sent it our way!  Thanks!

I was in pain from the sunburn and grabbed a few drinks of Gatorade to get over the feeling of nausea.  At one point we were in the gift shop and we were contemplating picking up some mamajuana for Mike.  But then while in line I realized that this wasn’t even the duty free shop!  I hustled down to the other end of the airport to find the glorious cheap liquor which adorns the duty free shops.  We are talking a litre of Crown Royal for $20.  Beautiful.  I picked up a bottle of Crown and some Tangueray gin for Krista and headed to the cash lineup.

In comes Vero’s uncle saying that the plane is boarding NOW!  What the heck?!  It’s 30 minutes before it’s supposed departure!  We start freaking out.  There’s no way I’m leaving this liquor behind!  Vero runs towards the other end of the airport while I wait in line.  After the booze is paid for I hightail it down the airport.  I can hear my name over the PA!  They are calling me, last call, last call!  I swear this is a bad dream!  I round the corner and find Vero looking worried around the front desk.  Everyone cheers me as I run up, give my ticket and board the plane!  All is well!  I guess the pilot just wanted to leave earlier for some reason.  I have never heard of that happening!  Case in point – look for the duty free shop BEFORE anything else in the airport!

The flight home was brutal for me as I was sunburned but other than that, pretty uneventful.  We arrived in Toronto around 1AM and headed to the hotel.  We crashed for a few hours and then got up the next morning so that Uncle Richard and Aunt Dinah could pick us up.  Unfortunately, there were some of our crew that got on a later flight and it was actually delayed for a few hours so they didn’t even arrive into Toronto until six in the morning and they had booked a room for the night before!  So they didn’t get much use of the room and didn’t have the chance to cancel them.  That is unfortunate.

Vero and I said goodbye to the crew as they were heading to the airport to get a flight back up North.  Vero’s grandmother actually got a ride with us to Ottawa as she had an appointment there.

Can I say that it’s quite hard to switch your brain into another language after speaking it for such a long time?  The waitress at breakfast asked if I wanted any juice and I replied “Oui, merci!”.  Ha ha.  She gave me a look that said “I don’t speak French.”

All in all, I personally had an amazing time down south with Vero’s family.  They were fun and it was great to actually get to hang out with them more than the obligatory holiday visit which is usually too short and doesn’t really get to see the real side of people sometimes.  I think I impressed them with my amazing videotaping work and my amazing bilingualness.  Plus, I don’t look too bad in sandals or with red skin.  All joking aside, I had a great time getting to know the family, the wedding was amazing even though we had a hell of a time at some points, and the excursions were a lot of fun.

I can’t remember if I spoke about this already but Vero and I have realized that we aren’t beach people.  While we had fun, we can’t picture ourselves hanging out by ourselves at a beach for a week with nothing else to do.  We enjoyed coupling the beach with the excursions though.  I guess we are more of the adventurous type.  Does this mean that we would never go back down South?  No.  But I don’t think we would choose to go alone.  It would definitely have to be with a group of people and I don’t think we would ever actively spearhead that movement.  Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time…but at least this experience allowed us to realize what we don’t and do like about travelling.  Gaetan’s trip to Peru comes to mind as something great to do…a little adventure, that’s what we’re looking for!

Cheers to the newly wedded couple!

Punta Cana. Martine 197, originally uploaded by palm0014.

 

Panic time. Everything is happening today. Food eaten, pictures to be taken, multiple things to do.

What was my mission that day? Make sure to videotape every moment of the day. I pulled out my fancy schmancy outfit for the wedding, put it in the washroom with the hot water running, realized it didn’t change a thing, and then realized that there was an iron up in the bride’s room.

I got relegated to videotaping the women getting ready while Al got to head over to the guys room. No harm, no foul. I grabbed a few videotapes and a beer and headed to the room. Vero gave me some pointers of what she wanted videotaped as she had the idea of the wedding video brewing in her head. I got action shots of the girls fixing up their hair, ironing some clothes, etc. It was quite the tough job to just stand there and point the camera…probably the hardest job of the day. 😉

One funny moment came when Vero’s stepmother asked for a lit cigarette to be passed to her (which is a surprise since she doesn’t smoke) and I just happened to filming in her direction but I didn’t really realize what was happening until it came into the viewscreen and by that time the damage was done. I quickly panned the camera away from her while you could hear her screaming at me “Get that videocamera away from me!” Ha ha…we all had a good laugh.

It’s interesting to actually have all of this on videotape because it is so fresh in my mind. Unfortunately the hairdresser didn’t get the style that Anne-Marie wanted so her sisters went to work at making her hair beautiful (which they succeeded at). I can only imagine how horrible the feeling must be to know you have an hour to go until your wedding and realize that your hair is in disarray.

We then headed out of the room, onto the trolley that took us down to the wedding chapel. A crowd has already formed and I took my place near the steps where the party was going to take place. Filming an event like this is quite surreal…you don’t really have the time to allow yourself to exist in the moment. You’re capturing it so you’re more focussed on the angle of the shot, how the shot looks in the sunlight, is everyone in focus…so I basically lived out the entire ceremony in a virtual-screen world. I didn’t mind at all, but I can see why it’s probably more beneficial to hire someone to videotape your wedding as they are not invested in the process as much. Speaking about hiring someone to videotape your wedding, you should talk to Vero in case you want someone to tape your wedding this summer (blatant promotion here).

Smiles were had, rings were exchanged, Vero bawled like a baby (no joke! This was quite a surprise. Clearly she does not have the thick skin she thinks she has.), jokes were made by the band…it was a great wedding. The weather was great (maybe a little too great as the sun was in our eyes for all the pictures) and everyone looked top notch. We had pictures taken on the grass and I’m sure they will look great when we get a look at them.

After the wedding ceremony I relaxed for awhile as Vero and others had gone to the beach to take some more pictures. It had stormed while they were there so they had to take cover under some palm trees. I was comfortable in the hotel room having a beer and taking a snooze.

That night we headed to the Italian restaurant where the reception was taking place outside on the patio. It was a good setup and it was quite comfortable. The wedding party showed up and the videocamera was in full recording mode. It was a little dark on that patio so the video came out a little wonky but the only way to prevent that is to have a spotlight on the people.

I got to sit with some of Anne-Marie and Steve’s friends whom I didn’t get that much chance to talk to before that night. They turned out to be a great time. Speeches were made, laughs were had and crazy dances were done to get the couple to kiss. The waiters were quite crazy in their own right. They would come in dancing half the time and sneaking drinks of beer under the table so their manager couldn’t see them. I thought it was quite hilarious. I think at one point the waiter came in and danced with Vero’s grandmother at one point. I’ll have to check the pictures.

I don’t know what else to say other than the wedding went off great. After all the obligatory dances, some fun music came on and people got up to dance. The best part of the night was when out of nowhere a man appeared from the edge of the patio and jumped into the dance floor. At first we thought it was the guy from the night before at the karaoke bar but we realized it was Vero’s father dressed up in a chippendale outfit! It was quite hilarious as he danced around the area. He has quite the sense of humour which I love. Vero even mentioned that he was thinking of wearing that outfit for the entire day but Vero managed to talk him out of it.

Only a few songs were played before they had us leave the patio. Before leaving I recorded a bunch of good wishes to the wedded couple which will end up on the video. I also took some footage for my eventual “Palmer Edit” of the trip. Let’s just say that it will probably have a little more flair than Vero’s version!

We headed over to the discotheque for a few songs and after we grew tired of that, we headed back to hotel room for the night. A great wedding was had and I’m sure Anne-Marie and Steve as happy as they could be.

 

Man, it’s all becoming a blur now. Mental note, just go through the videotapes of the week…it would be easier recalling the events of the week.

Thursday was the wedding rehearsal day as well as the Bachelor Party. Big events to head to so we took it easy for the early part of the morning…went around some shops looking for a straw hat and had a bite to eat. Have I mentioned that so far in the trip, the weather has been very cooperative in that if it rains, it will rain in the morning while I am sleeping. I can’t complain about that.

In the afternoon I got out of the pool to head to the wedding gazebo. The gazebo is located right along the main strip which cuts through the resort and the trolleys pass by every five minutes. I personally thought it’s an odd place to have the gazebo. One would think it would be out of the way of the viewing public. But I suppose it may be a marketing tactic to have others think “Oh boy, we should get married at this resort!”

No one was there when we arrived so I went back to grab some drinks and found everyone heading over. When we got there, there was not much to do as we just went through the motions of how people would walk up, where people would stand, etc. I was there with Alain scoping out how we would videotape the wedding. I would handle some closeup shots and he would get the wider angle stuff. It’s like we were professionals.

Afterwards, we headed to the beach, had a decent day there and later on in the evening we headed towards the lobby to meet up for the bachelor party while the ladies went to the bachelorette party. Vero had quite a few things planned for her sister so I knew they would have a fun time.

Note of interest: Very hard to have a bachelor/bachelorette party on the same resort.

Unfortunately, there was a snag that hit us all in the form of the bride and groom receiving a phone message indicating that there reception hall for the wedding was bumped. Ouch. That was quite unforeseen and quite unnecessary at this point in the trip. Let’s recap how many things have gone wrong so far in the trip (in case I haven’t mentioned them all so far):

– Vero’s grandmother not having a room reservation upon arrival
– A few people on the trip having to change rooms all of a sudden with no reason of explanation. Sometimes a couple would have to change twice during the week.
– The wedding planner that they have been dealing with during the past year has been fired as of the Tuesday.
– Vero’s stepmother needing to go to the hospital off-resort (no fault of the resort)

So with that, the bachelor party started off with a fizzled start considering the groom and some groomsmen where with the manager tearing a strip off of him. In the end, all we found out is that there was a Tire Dealer Convention in town and needed the hall (no word was ever given as to who made the reservation first but one would think that with our reservations being made a year beforehand, we were in the right) and now we were being moved to an Italian restaurant on the resort.

Needless to say, everyone was in a lackluster mood when Steve came back to join the party but we made the best of it, had a few drinks and headed to have a bite to eat. The debauchery began when we headed to the karaoke bar with a few gentlemen after dinner. There were some classic tunes sang (Black Velvet!) and Steve and Greg made a new friend in the form of some guy who took it upon himself to back them both up on singing duties whenever they took to the stage. It was quite hilarious.

Afterwards we headed to the discotheque on the resort and met up with the women and had a good time. It was funny to see Anne-Marie in full bachelorette mode with a list of things she had to do during the night before she could retire.

After the discotheque we were walking by the pool and Steve and I decided to take a dip. Keep in mind that around this time of the night (midnight), it’s not necessarily allowed to enter the pool, but I couldn’t leave the groom hanging. We slithered in like snakes and went through the water like a couple of Vietnam vets. In fact, we felt like Rambo at one point.

Unfortunately we saw a flashlight come our way and Steve jumped out of the pool. I was already near the swim-up bar so I decided to hide it out behind the bar stools that were in the water with only my eyes gleaming out of the water.

Of course, everything was going well until someone called my name to warn me that a security guard was coming closer but I just heard my name so I assumed all was clear so I stepped out of hiding and there was the security guard standing directly over me!

While he said something in Spanish I feigned ignorance and said something in French to the effect of “Oh no? We’re not allowed in the pool at this hour? Sorry about that!” I have no idea why I decided to speak into French at that point but I’m sure it was a funny sight seeing me jump out of the pool in my underwear and return to the group who were having a good laugh. Ah well, all in good fun and no harm was done.

iplaying: Daughter (Live) – Pearl Jam – Touring Band 2000

I was in better shape come the morning. My eye slightly hurt and I had a little limp, but all in all, I was good to go!

The standard process of the day occurred; called Vero’s sister, headed to breakfast and then headed to the beach. Simple.

On the beach we decided to check out some activities we could do during the week. They offered quite a few adventure packages such as snorkeling, scuba diving, deep sea fishing (awesome!), para sailing…a whole bunch of things to keep you entertained.

Vero, Andreane and I signed up to try out the para sailing. Para sailing consists of you being strapped onto a parachute which gets towed behind a boat over the water. While you regularly are up around 300 meters in the air, the water was choppy this day so it could only be set at 200 meters.

We forked over our cash (I believe it was around $40?) and waited for the boat to arrive and pick us up. We all piled into a boat which brought us out to a larger boat off the shore which had the para sail.

Vero ended up with a sweet deal as there had to be two people on the para sail at all times but there were only three of us, so she went with her sister AND me.

We met a few people from Sudbury and Montreal and Toronto. The couple from Toronto were the first to go up and they told me it was great while you are up there. This was important for me considering I have a fear of heights. But it just looked so darn cool to be floating 200 meters above the beach that I couldn’t pass it up!

Here’s how para sailing works; they strap a harness to you. Then when it comes to your turn, you go to the back of the boat and get strapped onto the parachute which is being towed behind the boat. Then you sit down and there is your friend sitting either behind/in front of you. Then the boat picks up speed and slowly lets the parachute line out. The wind is taking the parachute away and you are attached to it, so naturally you are following it! It’s a very calm process until they reach the end of the line and there is a slight jolt because you are now feeling the towing of the boat. It’s very calm up there and quite surreal as you are high above the trees. We could see the island for miles. It was quite marvelous.

Vero went up with her sister first and they had a great time although they somehow managed to not sit down in their harness so it was like they were standing up straight in the air and the harness was pulling up into their groin. Boy, am I ever glad that wasn’t me! Imagine being stuck up in the air for ten minutes with a giant harness digging into your twigs and berries! They got back into the boat and we enjoyed the time in the sun and on the waves. We literally were out there for two hours so I thought it was well worth the $40 just to be out on the water for the afternoon.

Vero and I went up and all was good. Like I said before, very calm up there. You can see the people on the beach and we were waving and yelling at them. We even managed to see our group of friends and they took some pictures of us in the air. At one point when the boat was turning around this creates some slack in the line so we slowly descend. Vero pointed out that we were aiming to land on a topless woman who Vero commented had ‘big jugs’! Ha ha. We had a good laugh at that. I would say we were fifty meters from touching the ground before the slack of the line disappeared and we got jolted back up in the air.

When the line is pulled back in there was some slack once again and we touched lightly into the water before they tightened the line and we hopped into the boat. It was definitely a highlight of my trip to Punta Cana and I would recommend it to everyone!

To be honest, the trip is becoming a blur to me and I can’t pinpoint any specific thing we did in the evening. I have a problem in that I like to capture as much as I can in terms of memories into my entries here, but in the end, it takes so much time to write about them that I start to forget what I did! I will say that after para sailing, we most likely went back to the beach, had a few drinks (Vero definitely liked the Amaretto Sours on this trip!) and headed back into the resort to take a shower and had some dinner.

***update***

I can’t believe I forgot this point of the trip. Turns out that Vero’s stepmother had chestpains and could not feel her arm during the evening! Luckily for us, we had some paramedic friends from Hearst on hand and they assessed the situation and the on-resort doctor was called in. An ambulance was called and she was brought to an off-resort hospital (which is supposedly set up for tourists).

In the end, all was fine and as far as we know, it was caused by high blood pressure at the time. Luckily they had travel insurance as the ambulance ride alone was five hundred dollars. It’s not worth not taking medical insurance while you are travelling.

The situation was quite alarming to me as it reminded me of what Dad had recently gone through during the Christmas holidays. It was very surreal. Nothing much happened for the rest of the night and I headed to a late dinner with everyone else while Vero and her sisters went off to see how they could help.

Awoke, had some breakfast and headed to the front of the resort to embark on the Outback Jungle Safari! Makes it sound like we are going to visit some kangaroos! Not knowing what to expect I was pleasantly surprised to find this to be one of the more entertaining adventures I’ve been on.

A flatbed truck with benches picked us up with our tour Nacho and the driver Leo. These two were quite comical…Nacho was definitely meant for the comedic stage and he had us in stitches the entire day. The tour guides around these parts must be well versed in many languages…he mentioned that he knew how to speak Spanish, English, French and German!

We hit the road out of the resort and the first sights of the land unfolded before us. The Dominican seemed to be a land where the poor are poor and the rich are rich. We were explained that the main driving force of the economy is tourism so we were usually welcomed with open arms. We were also warned not to give the children any money along the way as they can get suspended from school. This touring operation in particular allowed us to make donations to them which would go to a charity.

As we trekked along some open roads to our first destination, Nacho had Vero read out the rules of the trip which had some standard fare as well as the rule of “Listening to Nacho at all time.” This guy was crazy funny. He had this move where whenever he talked about the pretty ladies or thought about sex, he would make it look like he was rearing up to take off in a run on the spot.

What’s a safari without some drinks? We had some Dominican champagne (Sprite & Rum). Nacho would crack the bottle (!) of Sprite open, dump a quarter of it onto the road and fill the rest up with rum and pass it down the line of people (approximately 40 people on this tour with us). He also had beer on hand during the day for us.

We showed up to the first stop of the day; a typical dwelling in the Dominican Republic. While I wouldn’t say it was a horrible place, it definitely didn’t have the luxuries we are used to. The roof was made out of palm leaves and the entire place looked to be made out of concrete. That was very typical from what I could see along the way there. There was old furniture strewn about but it was very tidy. We went outside to meet the Grandmother who owned the house. She was sitting in the rocking chair with some grandkids. They also showed us some water collection system that they use to wash clothing. Hey, we even saw a banana plant! I never knew how bananas grew…I always assumed it was on a palm tree.

We also saw how coffee beans and cocoa beans were harvested and we got to try a few. A raw coffee bean doesn’t taste like much whereas the cooked ones taste like coffee.

We then piled back into the truck, had a beer and drove out to the mountains. We stopped at a little zoo where we saw crocodiles and other assorted vermin. It really wasn’t much to look at…a few crabs here and there and some crocs. But we were introduced to Mamajuana.

Otherwise known as gasolina, or the love potion, mamajuana is a drink which is supposed to enhance the libido. Nacho called it “The Dominican’s Viagra!”. Now the concept of this drink is that you place some mamajuana twigs and leaves/bark into a bottle and put two parts honey, two parts red wine into it, let it sit for a day, dump it out and then fill the thing with rum. Now, if you purchased a bottle of the twigs at the time, he said they were either good for 8-9 times of refilling or 8-9 years which I thought was quite the deal. It was a decent alcohol and I enjoyed the taste of it. I don’t think anyone bothered purchasing a bottle at the time. Nacho was quite hilarious during the pouring of the mamajuana as he got someone else to pour it out to everyone and he would go back into the lineup multiple times so he could get more mamajuana.

When going back to the truck, there was a man with snakes around his neck and so Vero and I posed along with some snakes around us. This was a spur of the moment decision but wasn’t too freaky. The snake skin isn’t slimy…it’s a little greasy if anything. They didn’t move that much either while draped around my neck.

Off we went to lunch which was a good spread of food (along with some Dominican champagne!). We also checked out some merchants wares for sale but I decided not to get anything. We also stopped at a cigar/rum stand on the side of the road where I picked up some cigars for my manager at work. I don’t know much about cigars but I got 25 cigars for $40 USD which I think is a decent deal.

At one point, we passed by some girls that Nacho knew and he jumped off the truck but Leo decided to keep driving! It was quite funny to see Nacho tear down the road to try and catch us.

The last stop of the day was to a beach (which I’ll have to find the name of) which is a sort of bay and the waves were coming in strong. They equipped us with a bunch of boogie boards and we got to spend an hour ‘riding the waves’. The concept (if some Canadians reading this does not understand this) is that when a wave comes in towards the beach, it is possible, if you match the speed of the wave, to ride the top of the wave and it will bring you into the beach. Of course, everyone has seen this in action in any surfing film (like Point Break!) but it’s another experience altogether when you actually do it. It took awhile to get the hang of it and I didn’t really know if I was doing it right but at one point I was on top of the boogie board (which is like a large flutter board) and I gave it my all and lo and behold, I was on top of the wave! It was quite exhilarating and the wave launches you quite fast towards the beach! I had no idea!

Unfortunately for me, two things happened during our time at the beach. Somehow some sand got into my eye and it wouldn’t come out. This was quite annoying as there was also ample amounts of salt water in my eyes at the time also. So I was blind. Then there was a point where I let go of my boogie board and it launched towards the beach. I went running after it but I had forgotten that the sand wasn’t level at the shoreline (as the waves must dig some pockets/holes of sand) and I rolled my ankle. So here is a blind, injured Canadians crawling up the beach to get his boogie board. Everyone on the shore was cheering me on not realizing that I had seen better days! I hobbled back into the water and gave the boogie board to Vero (we had to share) and I let the waves take me wherever they wanted to. The waves are quite intoxicating if you let yourself be taken by them. I can easily see how someone can float away into the ether which is the ocean.

Vero, Andreane and Vero’s dad all seemed to have a great time out in the water. Mr. Cantin must have caught the crest of the wave 100 times! We all had a good time and it was a good end of the tour.

After checking out some merchants tables (these merchants are EVERYWHERE!), we hopped back on the truck and enjoyed the end of the day ride back home. I would highly recommend the safari if you ever go to the Dominican Republic. I would have to say that we probably had the best tour guide on the planet though which helped matters immensely. Vero and I gave Nacho and Leo a decent tip in which he said “Ah…$1 for Leo and the rest for me! Thank you!” It was well worth the $85 to get a tour of the island, get some history and some fun all in one day. The weather was amazing also and I recall sitting in the back of the truck with no shirt on and absorbing the sun’s healthy rays.

After limping back to the bedroom, we headed to the BBQ a-la-carte restaurant for supper (although it took us awhile as we lost Vero’s dad for awhile and then everyone went searching). I believe this was the evening where the entire resort lost power for 10 minutes also. I wasn’t overly impressed with the BBQ dinner (compared with the Mexican one) as there wasn’t many animated performances from the serving staff and the actual food wasn’t too impressive either. However, we were dining along the beach and we had a nice breeze coming in throughout dinner and I sat there thinking “I could get used to this life.”

In the end of the night, I called it a night as I couldn’t function properly with a bum ankle and an eye that couldn’t be used properly. Vero’s aunt gave me some eye drops and we tried those out and it eased some of the pain but I was happy to relax in the hotel room for the night with a book and a beer. I had an entire week left to partake in the late night activities!

Woke up on Monday morning and headed to the buffet for breakfast. They had quite the spread…everything you ever need; fruit, pancakes, toast, eggs, bacon, etc. Very Canadian with some exotic stuff strewn about. I headed to the main man cooking up some omelettes and watched him work away at the beautiful concoction. I also noted that I would stay away from the omelette for the rest of my trip. This trip wasn’t about gorging myself in food and excess like the followers of Dionysus. I wanted to just remain normal in eating and whatnot. This is mainly fueled by the fact that I’m heading to the doctor’s office in a few weeks to check out my cholesterol. 😉

I spent the morning waiting for Vero to fix things up with her grandmother’s room. We also had another group booking excursions off the resort as well as booking a-la-carte meals. There are a half dozen restaurants on the resort which gave a-la-carte options instead of the buffet and you had the opportunity to book three of them. The trick is that you need to book them IMMEDIATELY upon arriving because they book up fast. We managed to book the Mexican, Italian and BBQ restaurants so all was good. However, all said and done, all these events took the entire morning to complete. Vero’s grandmother finally got a room and received $150USD in compensation, a t-shirt, a bottle of rum and an all-access pass to the resort which also included the spa. Not too shabby. After settling her into her room we had lunch and went to the market on the resort which consisted of little booths around a courtyard where the merchants asked you to see their merchandise. One merchant gave us some necklaces for free (which Vero gave him $2 for his trouble) and I sauntered over to a booth where there were some maracas. I thought picking up an instrument of some sort would have been interesting (I’m always on the search for new percussion instruments) and after talking with him for ten minutes he came back with the price of $80USD! At that point Vero has came over to the booth with me and we said “No thanks.” While I understand they skyrocket their prices so we can barter together, I felt that this was a little too high of a price to start off with. 😉 I had all week to go back so I had no qualms of leaving him in the dust.

We finally headed to the beach for the first time and it was quite large. The water was the bluest of the blue (as seen in any travel brochure for any tropical area) and the sand was nice on the feet. There were palm trees everywhere and loads of beach chairs to lay upon. Of course, while Vero and I searched around for people, we realized that the best place to search would be the bar on the beach and sure enough we found her family there. After grabbing a few drinks, we walked over to the area which would become our home for the next week. At this point, there are no topless people (other than men) seen. From the looks of it, it is a lot of people from Canada…t-shirts, bags, hats, all from Canada. Interesting.

Vero’s sister Andréane and I hit the water and the waves were amazing. The ocean is so much more exciting than the lake front. These waves literally pummel you back into the beach! We had fun trying to float on top of the crashing waves back into the beach. The salt was stinging my poor, poor eyes and at one point Andréane had a great laugh because I was blind and one wave hit me into the beach and then another wave came back from the opposite direction and hit me. I was being knocked around by the force of the waves! I almost lost my bathing suit a few times. Clearly I picked up the wrong size for the trip. There was also a giant shipwreck in the ocean about a couple of miles away from the beach. From what we found out, it was a fishing cruiser that broke it’s hull in the 1920s. It’s now rusted and you can see the immensity of the waves crashing upon it.

Around the late afternoon we returned to our room, had a shower and dressed up for the first a-la-carte restaurant of the night…the Mexican restaurant! It was great food (fajitas), great waiters who really played up the parts of Mexicans…full outfits with sombrerors and even a gun holster with a bottle of tequila and shot glasses as his bullets!

After dinner we went to the first theatrical show of the week – the Michael Jackson Show (Maren, this is for you.) It consisted of dance numbers with a Michael Jackson impersonator. They did a pretty good job actually and I really enjoyed their number for the song Bad. A lot of break dancing and if I would know the videos more (here’s where I was thinking of Maren), I’m sure they choreographed it exactly like the video. They had the classics as well; Thriller, Billie Jean…full with the moonwalk and all.

I retired early and let Vero and the others go and party it up as I was burnt out after the first real day there. So far, so good.

iplaying: Glass and The Ghost Children – The Smashing Pumpkins (Machina Acoustic Demos)

I awoke Sunday morning to realize that I never packed my sneakers for the south! I had to run out to Wal-Mart to pick up a pair which didn’t impress me much. Ah well…it was better than hauling some winter boots down south!

Uncle Richard and Aunt Dinah gave us a lift to the hotel near the airport where the rest of Vero’s family were staying. After getting dropped off, hellos were exchanged and the sheer immensity of the group of people dawned on me. There were 50 people going down on the trip to the Dominican Republic. I had to switch into French speaking/listening mode which has become natural over the years. Sure, there are a few words that bewilder me but I just go through the motions. The smile and nod as it’s called.

We take a shuttle over to the Pearson Airport, go through security and wait for the flight. I decided to take a nap as the night before had taken its toll and I fell victim to the groomsmen scaring me awake. Serves me right for taking a snooze around all the excitement! The flight was fine…four hours of trying to take a nap, screaming kids (the groom (Steve)’s niece fell sick…poor thing) and some excellent in-flight sandwiches in the form of Quiznos prime rib and horseradish.

We set our watches an hour ahead and exit the plane at 8:45. It’s a warm night…maybe around 15 degrees. We have our pictures taken upon entering by some women in grass skirts and I joked that this must be their security measures. Turns out that they sell the photo upon your exit from the country if you so choose to purchase it.

Upon first look, the airport is interesting as there are no windows and the entire roof is made out of palm leaves. I suppose there is no need for windows in a place where it never gets too cold. We headed outside and people were wanting to take our luggage but I knew better than to have them carry it and then give them a tip. It wasn’t too far to get to the bus. The bus itself was called the S.T. Gonzales which we found out stood for the Speedy Gonzales. We were all in good spirits when the bus driver got on board and asked if we wished to stop for a beer along the way to the resort.

We pulled up to a shop with a giant cooler of beer in behind the counter. At $4USD, I thought it was a steep price to pay for a beer down in the South but it was well worth picking it up. I was also pleasantly surprised that I looked like a hobo upon exiting with my beer in a brown paper bag! El Presidente beer is a decent beer indeed and it whet my appetite for some more as soon as we got to the Bahia Principe resort.

When we arrived at the resort there was a mix up in where to actually go. They dropped us off at the Bahia Principe Bavaro resort but we needed to go to the Bahia Principe Punta Cana resort. After an hour, we all got on a trolley which brought us to the other resort but in reality, it was a different side of the same resort and was literally a hundred meters apart from one another. They were mirror images of each other. Hey, how were we supposed to know? With 50 people wondering where to go, I soon grew tired from everyone trying to figure things out and realized that it was better for me to just ‘go with the flow’. This was a vacation! I could turn off the Palmer Planner mode!

We checked into the Punta Cana reception with ease although Vero’s grandmother didn’t have as much luck as everyone else. For some reason they had no reservation for her! After 30 minutes the rest of left Vero and her grandmother to deal with the issue and we caught a trolley which brought us to our rooms so we can put the luggage away. In the end, Vero’s grandmother had to stay with Vero’s parents for the night until they could figure things out as they had no spare rooms. Strike 1.

When Vero ended up finding us, we followed the sound of the music and ended up at the karoeke bar and then the discotheque for a drink. These places are all on the resort. I was laughing at the discotheque as it felt like a Canadian bar with cheap palm tree decorations (think the RumShack for you Ottawaites). I was expecting some Caribbean music but all we heard was what we would hear in a bar in Canada.

Even though we were at an all-inclusive resort, when Vero went to order a bottle of water, they wanted $2 for it. We were really not impressed as they had to ask their manager if we could get it for free and she still said no. Vero ended up ordering a Pepsi instead (much to her displeasure) and was questioning the all-inclusive resort option.

Thoughts of the Resort at this Point:
– The resort consists of a lot of similar looking buildings which hold a bunch of rooms in them. So it is easy to get lost for the first while. After a day I had it engrained in my mind where Villa #15 was located (right next to the pool, naturally!).
– When you enter the grounds, there is a giant market area to the left which also have little shops such as a burger joint (for late night snacks), an Internet café, the discotheque, the karaoke bar and a variety of different shops.
– When you continue in, you get to the main lobby which is a thing out of a James Bond film. Very majestic. A lot of seating area around a fountain. A reception desk, doors to enter the buffet area, a bar and an outside patio.
– There is also a theatrical stage to go to every night and watch a show each night.
– A few pools scattered about with swim-up bars.
– A main strip where the trolleys can drive though and pick you up to bring you around the complex. The sheer size of the resort is astounding. If you were to walk from one end to the beach it would probably take you 20 minutes.

iplaying: Tonight Tonight – The Smashing Pumpkins (AOL Sessions)

Vero and I packed the car and hit the road on Friday evening after I got a shot for Hepatitis A. Hey, you should never take the chance on those types of things! I also got some medication for malaria but there were only two reported cases of it in the past six months so I had no real worries (although I had heard that there was an outbreak of it in the past week while I was there! Must confirm that…)

We arrived at Aunt Dinah and Uncle Richard’s place in good time and hung out with Aidan and Paige who were spending the night. We watched a bit of Shrek 3 and I had a few beers while we all chatted about our upcoming trips (Aunt and Uncle are heading to Hawaii in a month’s time!).

The next day I awoke to ask Nanny if I could go through her photo albums as I didn’t really have any photos of my own with her and Granddad back in the younger years. I stumbled upon some great photos of them both as well as some others like a picture where my Great-Grandfather, Grandfather, Dad and myself are in the same picture. That was a gem of a find. I ended up taking a slew of pictures with me to Wal-Mart and Vero and I spent the next hour scanning and printing them off.

This was a tedious process as these old photos were not necessarily a standard 4×6″ size. So we had to crop a few and a lot of them needed colour correction which is hard to deal with because it’s all about personal choice when changing the colours. Vero had a good eye and at one point she was looking away and I had made my grandparents look like they came from Jamaica with a red tan! Woops! Went a little crazy with the red colour there.

In the end, it was worth the time and money to get these treasures in my photo collection. I would also like to do the same with the Patterson side of the family and I’m sure Nanny Ruth will be reading this soon enough and perhaps she can help me out with that venture.

We then headed out into downtown Toronto to visit Katie, Paul and Sarah. I do enjoy Toronto. Just parking the car and walking down Bloor Street to get some drinks for the evening put a smile on my face as the streets were a bustle with people getting ready for their evening.

We had some good laughs after some wine and some great Chinese food. We also tried to mimic this video Katie found on Facebook where you videotape someone trying to lip-sync someone’s else talking in the background. While we found this hilarious while attempting it, I have looked at the videos and I don’t think we did a great job. Katie commented “It was either we sucked at lip syncing or it was the five bottles of wine that messed it up!”

Vero and I then dropped them off at the karaoke bar for the night as we didn’t want to stay out all night. Thanks to Katie for having us over for a few drinks and it was also nice to see Paul and Sarah (Paul being the one who so graciously adorned this website with some photos of me while I was away).

*Note that I’ll be archiving these posts in due time so they appear on the actual dates that the events occurred but considering you’ll want to read my exploits of the trip up front and center, I will wait until later to do that.*

iplaying: Sunkissed – The Smashing Pumpkins (American Gothic)