Hotel Gran Bahia Príncipe Punta Cana

Yeah, resorts aren't really for me.  While the beach was great and the facilities were nice, I found it to just be too big and noisy.  That and the wine was horrid.

In Gerardo's Car

The view near La Romana

We left early on Friday morning and headed off for Punta Cana.  Gerardo and Manuel were driving, so we put 5 people in Gerardo's car since he drives an SUV and 4 in Manuel's.  I was with Gerardo, along with Robert, Mari and Sylvia.  Manuel, Pavol, Paula and Yeimy were in the other car.  The best moment during our trip to Punta Cana, besides the amazing chicken wrap at Burger King, was our lost in translation moment with Gerardo.  It went something like this:

Kierstin to Sylvia: How do you pronounce binoculars?
Sylvia: binoculars.
Kierstin: okay, its the same
Sylvia to Gerardo: What is binoculars in Spanish?
Gerardo: Pinocho
All of us: ahhh pinocho
Gerardo goes on to explain to us that in Italian there are two c's but we were just like, ok that is random.  Sylvia then looks it up in her dictionary - she gets a lot of other words but not pinocho.  I looked it up on my translator and it said pinocchio but in the moment, we were like, what pinocchio? But then, we wondered, is it singular or plural - like in English, a pair of binoculars
To Gerardo: how do you say a pair of binoculars, like a pair of pants
Gerardo is confused but says: un pinocho, dos pinochos, tres pinochos
More discussion on languages and whether or not it works as a pair... we're still confused, so finally...
Robert to Gerardo: ok how would you say this: I am using a pair of binoculars to look at birds
Gerardo: Estoy usando un par de largavistas para ver a los pajaros.
Us: WHAT? Now you're using a different word!!
Gerardo: noo, that's what binoculars is!
Us: But you just told us it was pinocho?
Gerardo: nooo, pinocho is the boy who lies and his nose goes like this *action of long growing nose*
All of us start laughing uncontrollably and pondering how people would laugh at us if we referred to binoculars as pinochos in real life.  We're still not sure how Gerardo heard Pinocchio when we said binoculars...

When we finally arrived in Punta Cana (after a traffic jam before Higuey), we went to drop off Sylvia so that she could meet up with her friend.  We ended up getting into this golf club/residential compound and waited there for her friend to arrive.  Once we did that, we headed to the resort.  When we arrived, the man at the gate said he couldn't find our reservation after we told him to look under the name, Pavol Kazimir.  He told us to move out of the way since there was a line forming.  Gerardo got a bit upset and told the man that he's not moving, we were here first so he has to help us first.  The man then went to the next car, which was Manuel and company, and then came back and said, well that guy is Pavol Kazimir, and Gerardo says, "yeah I know, we're with them!"  So we got let in.  Then when we pulled up in front of the lobby, the guys there didn't want us to park there.  So Gerardo backed up a bit, but then got fed up and just left his car there.  Eventually the staff went and parked his car in the parking lot.  We arrived prior to check in time, so they gave us our wristbands and sent us to the restaurant to have lunch.  When we returned, one of the three rooms wasn't ready, so they brought us an additional welcome drink while we sat and waited.  We tried to make a reservation for an a la carte dinner that night, but were told that we couldn't since they only took reservations until 3:00.  It was approximately 3:01 when the guys went there.  We ended up making one for Saturday night at one of their Japanese restaurants on site.

The resort itself was quite large.  We had to be taken with our luggage via a sort of train to the areas of the resort where our hotels were located.

Robert and Yeimy

Unfortunately, Robert and Mari's room (Villa 30) was a ways away from where the girls room and the guys room was (we were both in Villa 25).  We all dropped off our luggage and then quickly headed to the beach.  It was a rather cloudy and windy day so the beach wasn't all that enjoyable.  Gerardo, Pavol and Manuel ended up going to a pool that we technically weren't supposed to use (certain pools and amenities were just for particular classes of guests).  We then met up back at the pool that was for our use to hang out for a bit, before heading back to the rooms to change and get ready for dinner.

Paula

Hut

After dinner, we hung out in the lobby bar for a bit before heading into a sort of marketplace area.  There we did some window shopping, hung out at a karaoke bar and then danced in the streets before Robert, Mari and I headed back to our rooms and everyone else went to the disco.

Gerardo and Pavol at Karaoke

Robert and Mari dancing in the street

The next day, we met for breakfast before heading to the beach again. 

Statue in the Garden near the lobby

Paula at Breakfast

Frisbee was played, tanning was enjoyed, water was splashed and everyone had fun.  We then decided to move back up to the pool for more relaxing.  Robert ended up joining in a water polo game.  It was pretty pathetic as both teams had their goalies sitting in the nets and kept players at either end to "cherry pick."  Yeimy and I took a walk on the beach while the sun was setting, and when we returned to the pool, we ended up taking a ton of amazing underwater pictures with Manuel's awesome underwater camera!

Sylvia, Manuel and Mari in the pool

The beach as the sun went down

Beach

Frisbee

In the evening, we went to the Japanese restaurant.  We had a hard time finding it at first.  I was rather unimpressed by the selection they offered, especially because everything came with meat (except the desserts).  I ordered a coca cola to drink, but received flat pepsi instead.  They messed up our order several times but in the end, we all had something to eat.  The food was fine, nothing spectacular.  We didn't end up leaving the restaurant until 11:30pm (our reservation was at 9:30).  I was really exhausted, but everyone else wanted to go for another drink.  I honestly felt like I had taken medication that made me drowsy, so I went back to my room and fell asleep almost immediately.  When Yeimy and Paula returned, they had to come in through the balcony since our keys kept being deactivated, and then they decided to sit and chat while watching tv.  Needless to say, I had a horrible sleep.

On Sunday, our final day, we met for breakfast again.  I ate more delicious croissants (I was surprised at how good they were) before going back to the room to pack up my stuff.  We had a bit of miscommunication since I, along with Robert, Mari and Sylvia, were under the impression that we would check out and then spend the rest of the time at the beach or pool, since we had discussed with the resort staff the night before as to whether or not we could stay past the checkout time.  Everyone else decided to go to the beach before checking out (which gave them about 30 min or so).  I ended up staying in my room, packed up, and met Robert, Mari and Sylvia at the lobby to check out.  We then enjoyed a quick iced coffee before heading to the beach.  I send Gerardo a message to tell him that we were heading to the beach, and they said they would join us in a bit as they were just checking out.  While we were enjoying a great spot on the beach with the little hut for shade, the others ended up going for lunch and then decided they were ready to leave.  This cause some issues since we were waiting for them at the beach.  At the end, we made our way back, ate quickly, and we left before 3 pm.  Traffic was insane on the way home, it took us over 6.5 hours (which included 2 quick stops) to get home.  In Higuey, traffic was nearly at a standstill.  Because of this, we sent Robert out on a mission to find ice cream at a colmado.  It was quite funny to watch him run back to the car, at which time we sent him up the street to another colmado. 

Robert colmado hopping while we were stuck in traffic

The highlight of the trip back was an awesome car game that Robert and Mari taught us.  It really helped to pass the time and we all learned a lot too!  Educational and fun!