Hola!

Canadian Tourist Mecca… The All Inclusive Resort. A sea of people gathered in the main lobby area, conveniently located next to the entertainment hall, main pool and bar. Definitely not a non smoking environment. Free wireless. Yay.

Getting here was the standard snowbird journey… We left Toronto mid-afternoon during a cold weather alert, -20 something, and had a smooth transition into the flying sardine can. Customs was quick, located the tour operators representative and were pointed to bus #25 to take us to the Bahia Principe San Juan in Puerto Plata. Caribbean efficiency ensued, and after requisite confusion our minibus had us on our way. I broke my own rule when booking this trip, the one about the resort needing to be next to an airport. So a long and crazy drive later we pulled into the resort about midnight.

A small midnight snack of fresh fruit was much appreciated by this point, and having been pre-checked in, and with key in hand, we called it a day and went to find our room.

Those of you that have had the dubious privilege of having me navigate will not be surprised that finding our room in what is a maze of two story blocks of rooms proved a wee challenge. Many circles later we found said room, a nice enough set up with a king sized bed, which we promptly fell into. I think Amy was relieved at the size if the bed. She has declared me a bed hog, having occasion to poke and push me away during our most recent “sleep over”.

Morning brought sunlight, blue skies and a buffet breakfast. We attended the required “orientation” performance and then went back to our room for a nap. Buffet lunch, wander up and down a lovely sandy beach, settle into chairs to read, get a drink from the bar and chill until the sky starts clouding. Shower. Beachfront sunset through the clouds. Buffet Dinner. And Amy is down for the count.

So here I sit in this lovely lobby, with its stone floors, high white wooden beamed ceiling, lattice work and rattan furniture. This is so not my usual form of travel. It will be a nice enough interlude, and we are looking forward to beach time and massages. Maybe we’ll go to town. Or not. Adventure travel will have to wait a week while we play.

Hey, by the way, the Spanish spoken here is way different than I am used to… faster and less enunciated. Oh well.

I am on my way to peek at the “entertainment. I here YMCA blaring through the speakers somewhere!

Buenos Noches,