Tomorrow is the last day of my 2 week Dominican Republic vacation. Two weeks was a bit long for me as I like 10 days and then I want to get back home. After you have 2 kids it’s hard to really hard to relax 100% on a vacation. You need to watch them all the time and that can get draining. The place was great, but the weather in Punta Cana sucked the last 4 days, it’s was really windy so we couldn’t enjoy the sandy beaches. Then my daughter got sick and now my wife and I are both sick with some cold if you can believe that? I got a cold in a tropical country, yeah I’m cool.
So tomorrow we fly out at like 11 pm, and we fly all night and get home at roughly 5:00 am Vancouver time on Monday morning. Flying all night long may or may not be good, depending on if the kiddies will sleep and also if I can sleep on those Air Transat planes. So I am home by 5 am Monday and then I am back to my old life in Vancouver.
I only left my room about 1 hour ago and here I am. I haven’t even eaten anything yet today, I had zero energy to get out of bed this morning. Luckily my wife brought a bottle of Advil and that seems to have kicked in so I have some energy and don’t feel like hell anymore.
I kind of realized after this vacation, that I hate vacations! I have come up with a solution though to this problem though! I plan on buying some type of 2 bedroom condo in a hot place such as San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas or Palm Springs or somewhere like that. I did the calculations and it’s cheaper in the long run if I buy a condo in a hot climate rather than spend $5,000 per year taking the family on 2 week vacations. So that is my official goal, I am buying a vacation condo that I own 100%, no time share b.s (that’s a scam).
Anyways, it’s been relaxing, stressful, fun, tiring, drunk, sober, tanned, burned and all around a good time. It was a cool place to visit and experience. I was watching the news and the Dominican Republic is on a island that is shared with Haiti (never knew that). Haiti is a 3rd world country and I know the Dominican is just as bad, even though I never actually saw the poverty with my own eyes since I stayed in a resort my whole vacation. It’s hard to believe that such a beautiful place is a 3rd world country. I am lucky to be from a place as rich as Canada, and I never forget that. The weather may suck in Vancouver but you can do whatever you want there. Any dream you want can happen, try telling that to the people here. Anyways hasta luego (see you later) Dominican.
I snapped more photos of pizza, lizards, flowers, pigeons and etc…
all the pizza you can eat!
ebony & ivory…
another Gecko lizard I caught on camera…
gardener with my daughter…
daughter & wifey all dressed & going to dinner…
a ton of coconuts for sale at $1 each…
German tourist with some guy with sharp teeth…
outdoor street fiesta…
gardener climbing a coconut tree to get some fresh coconuts to sell…
CV | 
03 7th, 2009| 
Today the weather isn’t cooperating and the weather looks like Vancouver, but without the cold temperatures so I don’t mind it too much. I’m starting to get a wee bit bored of porking out and laying out in the sun like a beached whale. One week is enough vacation time for me, after that I get bored and want to head back home. Don’t ask me why, because I just don’t know.
At the moment the rain stopped but it was damn windy about 20 minutes then it poured for about 5 minutes and now it’s just cloudy outside but still really warm. I should also mention that all hotel lobbies that I have been in these tropical places never tend to have doors and many walls for the lobby areas. I guess they don’t really need it. Hell maybe they don’t even have heat in the lobbies, why would they? They have no doors, lol.
Tonight we are having dinner at some place called the SteakHouse, which is part of our all inclusive package for the 2 weeks that we are staying at the Riu Taino hotel. I’ll snap some photos tonight of our steak dinner.
I snapped a few photos below:
A closeup of a gecko lizard on wooden post (fast little bastards).
When was the last time you drank from a glass Pepsi bottle?
Cool looking Peacock shaped plant
And dats all for now folks……..
Just taking a break from the sandy beaches, the salt water is itching my back so I need to shower pretty soon. Not much to say on my end, all is well in paradise. I saw ABC news from New York this morning and saw all the snow they are having in the Eastern US, wow! It’s March and snow is still happening, unreal. Isn’t it “Spring Break” soon?
Here it seems to rain at night and then the next day BLAM, back to soon. It probably the dream weather I would love for Vancouver, rain all night sun all day. Vancouver gets rain all day and night ha ha.
Anyways I snapped some more pictures of daily events around my hotel. Nothing really exciting happening around here, basically what a vacation should be all about. I got up at 7 am got kids ready, have breakfast, went to beach laid around for few hours, had lunch and here I am for about 1 hr.
landscapers pulling out plants
Bananas growing on trees outside my room, pretty crazy. These ones aren’t ripe obviously..
You can buy these coconuts which they cut for you, then put Dominican rum inside so you have an instant tropical drink. The price is $1 US.
outdoor aerobics on the beach…
my breakfast for this morning: chopped ham, bacon, eggs (over easy) and the croissant for my kids.
Somebody wanted more photographs of food so I snapped today all inclusive, all you can breakfast layout.
an assortment of pancakes, waffles, french toast, donuts and other pastries
more pastries
various types of fruit for breakfast…
We are on week 2 of our Dominican Republic vacation, and the last week of it as well. I am really enjoying the friendliness of the local people here. People here seem so much more laid back than in Vancouver, not sure why but they are very relaxed and care free.
I just took my daughter for our usual afternoon baby stroller/walk so she can fall asleep and have her afternoon nap. I sneak away after she falls asleep in the stroller, then I go over to the next hotel (Riu Macao) to use their wireless Internet. It’s my afternoon ritual here in the Dominican.
Me and wifey are walking quite a bit each day because we both hate just sitting there all damn day (gets kinda boring tanning for 8 hrs). This morning we walked to the “stores” which look like basic structures with no electricity, no flooring (unless sand is considered a floor) , no doors. My mother in law suggested we walk to the stores, yeah some stores ha ha. In any case it’s always interesting to other cultures around the world. Things here are much more simple than Vancouver and for the most part I consider it a GOOD thing.
walking to “the stores”
The Dominican Republic version of MetroTown Mall…
various items to buy such as, drums, statues, pottery
This is called the “John Wayne” store, not sure why but it was funny…
do you like the floors here? beats laminate flooring anyday…
The “Leonardo Di Caprio” store, umm no comment..
The outdoor mall of Punta Cana…
walking along the beach back from “the stores”…
We checked out all the hotels on the strip and surprising our hotel is actually not as nice as others around here, however those other hotels cost much more to stay at than ours (Riu Taino). The food is the exact same at all the hotels (we checked) on the strip, the only difference is the visual appeal. Our hotel is by no means bad but when you compare to others such as Rui Palace then you can see the difference. I snapped a few photos but we went at night and it’s hard to get how amazing this hotel is in the dark. It really does look like some type of palace.
outdoor bar at Riu Palace
outdoor bar area Riu Palace in Punta Cana
inside bar at Riu Palace hotel in the Dominican Republic
outdoor waterfall
Matteo with Mamma at the Riu Palace hotel….
night shot of pool at our hotel Riu Taino…
local Dominican man making hats & bowls out of palm leaves, very neat…
dude selling cigars, he looks pretty mad at me (yikes..)
my little showoff
And back I go to the pool to meet up with the kids and wifey, maybe grab a Pina Colada along the way.
