Well, we are back and way more tanned after spending a week under the tropical sun in the Dominican Republic. Winter here seems a little harsher and the cold seems a little colder now. But it was well worth it.
This was the trip I won back in November when I attended the Blogjam conference, given away by the sponsor, Sunwing. Never having gone south before, I didn’t know much about travelling in the winter to a tropical island. I asked a lot of questions of friends, was given lots of advice, some of which I followed and some I didn’t. And, lucky for me, my co-worker, Rachel, was at the exact same resort just a few weeks prior so she was a wealth of information!
Michael and I flew out on a lovely Spring Nova Scotia day, and landed in paradise. Our resort, IFA Villas Bavaro, was so lovely. We had a great room, with a balcony, on the the third floor. Although I’ll admit I was a little worried about the loud music blaring next door at the Teatro (theatre) but it shut down at 11 each night and we were in the audience most every night anyway. Besides, I sleep with earplugs in anyway 😉
We ate like kings the entire time. The buffet on-site was packed full of such a variety of choices, it was hard not to fill your plate to overflowing at each meal. One of our favourite things to do was get a cup of coffee after supper and send one of us up to the dessert table and pick a plate of treats to try. We got to eat so many yummy things! And I made sure to enjoy the fresh, tasty fruit at every meal – lots of papaya, mango and loads of fresh pineapple. One night we went out to one of the A La Carte restaurants at the resort and enjoyed a fancy meal of Chinese food. We got all dressed up for it, but trying to get a picture of the two of us together looking swanky was trickier than I thought…but not to shabby looking regardless of the awkward angle…lol!! Because, hello, my $15 dollar Banana Republic dress I scored at Winners!!!
We went on one excursion while there, we took a trip out to the Saona Island, part of the National Park system in the Dominican. It was a gorgeous island surrounded by the most beautiful turquoise waters which were filled with huge starfish. We took a wild speed boat ride out the island, with a stop in a waist-deep lagoon. Once on the island, they served us a tasty BBQ and buffet before letting us swim and lounge around on the beach for a few hours. Then we were shuttled onto a catamaran for a leisurely sail back to the mainland. Well, I say leisurely, but some of us danced our little souls out.
On our excursion, there were loads of people from around the world. But at one point, I was following a guy with a Nova Scotia flag tattoo on his calf, so when we got the chance, we went over to them and introduced ourselves. Sure enough, Rob was born on the East Coast and had moved to Ontario where he met his sweet wife, Jen. We ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the excursion and really enjoyed getting to know them. Of course, I failed to get a picture of them, except this one of Jen dancing with one of the tour guides on the boat!
The rest of our week was spent either poolside or on the beach, over looking the palm trees and turquoise seas. In the evenings we went to the entertainment and then enjoyed leisurely mornings, drinking coffee on the balcony. It was a very relaxing trip, I read 3 books, did some chalk pastel drawings and just enjoyed the company of Michael. The wifi was sketchy at best, so phones stayed tucked away for the most part. So we didn’t even have that distraction.
We found the service to be excellent, even if there was barrier in our ability to communicate – the staff being Spanish and us being English. But we managed to muddle our way through it. Going into it, I knew that English was going to be an issue, but it wasn’t too bad, we always were able to get what we needed, whether it was a cup of coffee, a tasty meal or even something as basic as toilet paper.
The thing that surprised me was how little English was spoken by the other guests! Lots of Spanish amd French and very little English! But it was neat, it almost gave us a lot more freedom because we were so anonymous and conversations were so much more private, even if there were people near by.
When I finished my first book, I turned it in at the little kiosk, not wanting to drag it back home, not thinking there were so few English guests that might be looking for a new book to read. And after I did turn it in, I was kicking myself for not adding a little note in the margin somewhere to let the reader know the journey the book had been on already. That problem was solved when a Canadian lady from Ontario stopped to chat our last day at the resort and we discovered she had my old book in her possession – so she knew exactly where it came from!
I loved the coffee there. So rich, dark and strong. I looked forward to every cup I had! I bought some coffee to bring home, because that was one of the things I was going to miss a lot about the Dominican. I was pleased as punch with myself, only to discover on Sunday afternoon that our local Sobeys store is wise enough to stock Dominican coffee. I guess I won’t have to miss the coffee after all!
Everyone had warned us that once we went south and had a taste of it, we’d want to go again. And they’re right. I’d love to go again but this time I’d take the girls, it was too long apart from my girls for this momma’s heart!
I have more to share about the trip so look for another Dominican post over the next few days! So much to share!!
To be continued,
Lori
PS Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to the Blogjam crew for this opportunity and for the hard work they do lining up awesome sponsors for their event such as Sunwing!!! So, Renee, Kerra and Krista – you ladies rock!!
