DAY
2 – Saturday January 14, 2017:
Today, after breakfast, I have to meet with one of
the hotel personnel / tour operator so that I can arrange our transportation to
the airport next Friday, the day we’ll depart.
It’s really a matter of logistics.
We need transportation to the airport and, since we’ve already paid for
it beforehand, we just have to make sure we have the ride we need when we need
it. Other than that, we have some
restaurant visits planned this week to inject variety and fun into our dinners
here and, now that they are booked, we can relax and begin to enjoy our
altogether too short time here.
So, when we all
got up, at about 8:00 am, even though I woke up twice last night, I still
managed to get a good night’s sleep.
Brent also felt rested, and he really needed his sleep. Brent and James got busy very early doing a
zip-line adventure. I couldn’t figure
out how Brent managed to book and pay for this adventure so quickly. After all, we had just arrived at this
resort. I found out later he booked it
through another tour operator (not Transat).
Dave and I told each other we’d go out to the pool, but Dave snoozed in
his bed all morning, so I went out on my own and sat by the pool. When I got too hot, I went in for a dip and
then decided to go to the pool bar and order a drink – a virgin Pina Colada
drink (we’d been told by a tour operator not to drink Dominican rum because we
could get really sick). I stayed for two
drinks then got out of the pool and sat in my deck chair and read my book “The
Girl on the Train”. Dave never did come
down to the pool; he is still recovering from our trip here yesterday and is
resting accordingly.
However, before even considering going to the pool,
I had to go to the meeting requested by our tour operator, Raul, to arrange our
departure time next Friday. He also gave
us some much-needed information on the adventures we could sign up for. Since I knew I wanted to go on at least three
adventures this week, I signed up for them right away. Later on, in the afternoon, I went back to
Raul and paid for them; it cost me almost $360.00 USD, which sounds like a lot,
but I have a feeling I’ll get real value for my money. The three adventures are: the Caribbean VIP Safari (an all-day tour of
a nearby mountainous region and a city region, and includes lunch on a
house-boat, which sails down a river); then there’s Swimming with the Dolphins,
which I have never done, but Dave tells me it’s real hoot (he did it before on
another trip here); and finally there’s Monkey Land, which is about having fun
with small, but tame monkeys in an animal-friendly environment.
So, most of my morning was taken up with logistics
and signing up for adventures. After I’d
spent two or three hours at and in the pool, I felt like I had taken enough sun
and decided to go back to our room and rest.
I ended up taking a two-hour nap!
As it happened, I had taken quite a bit of sun today. Brent warned me later on at dinner not to go
out and sunbathe again (either in the pool or out) without putting on
sunscreen, and he is absolutely right! I
knew the sun here could do some real damage because the sun’s rays are so
direct, but still, it crept up on me and I only realized after I’d had my nap
that I’d gotten some first degree burns on my chest and arms! It sure didn’t take long for that to happen!
After our first a-la-carte dinner in an Italian
restaurant on the resort, El Paradiso, at 6:45 pm, I walked with Dave over to
the convenience store nearby and purchased a spray bottle of sunscreen, SPF
50. At one time, I would’ve thought this
was too strong an SPF factor for me, but not anymore. No one who is white and from Canada, like me,
can take their skin for granted in a country with a warm southern climate like
the Dominican Republic. The sun is much
more direct here because the Dominican Republic is much closer to the equator
where the sun shines constantly and with strength. It doesn’t take long for the sun to damage your
skin.
Tomorrow, I’ll do more swimming and sunbathing of
course, but first, I’ll definitely spray my upper body, in particular, in the
expectation that not doing so will injure my skin further and make my stay on
this island miserable this week and I do not want that under any circumstances.
copyright 2017 - Anne Shier
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