“Babies don’t need a vacation, but I still see them at the beach… it pisses me off! I’ll go over to a little baby and say, What are you doing here? You haven’t worked a day in your life!” ~ Steven Wright
Last Saturday we arrived in the tropical paradise of Eden Roc at Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic. For those of you who may be as geographically challenged as myself here is a map. 
It was a very long trip with delays on both airports after a short night but good to escape the bitter cold turn in the winter in Connecticut.
“There’s nothing more miserable in the world than to arrive in paradise and look like your passport photo.” Erma Bombeck
Once we were finally moved to a new room the next day with a working air conditioner and a good nights sleep things looked a lot better and we were able to appreciate more of the surroundings. It’s a lovely resort, albeit overpriced for the amenities in my personal opinion. A non all-inclusive resort where the word of the day seems to be “pleasure” as in “it is my pleasure to help you” I assume, though I am not sure it is not the Caribbean version of “Bless your heart,” which may or may not mean what one assumes it may mean if you catch my drift.
This is not your typical “Shaw Vacation” (which term should be trademarked) with spreadsheets of activities and wake up times. This was more of a spur of the moment use of some time share points to get away, just Skip and I, the two of us, alone, (softly bring in Keith Morrison of Dateline saying ….”Or was it….?”At any rate in a moment of winter weakness I said yes and Skip hit the “book” button for the trip with the finger he had hovering over the keyboard. (I dare anyone to tell me that is not the truth!)
Enough on my preamble here are pictures of the amenities. We have our own private villa with a pool and our own golf cart. Sweet Suite!
Everything is quite lovely, the hiccoughs seem minor and the biggest issue seems to be communicating them clearly to the staff. “No señor, lite soy sauce is not the same a gluten free soy sauce.” ~ Linda Shaw
The setting is among the loveliest I have seen and it accomplishes what the brochures say, as it is peaceful. Some people do “peaceful” well, some do not.
“I don’t know if I can relax. Relax, I can’t do. My brain, on idle, is a bad thing. I just get weird. I mean, not weird. I get, I get antsy.” ~ Johnny Depp
Los Establos
There is also just a golf cart ride away a place for adults and kids if that’s what you like called Scape Park that has zip-lining, an Eco Tour, Cave expeditions, horseback riding,waterfall expeditions, mountain bike eco trail animal encounter or day cruising at the marina a short taxi ride away. We just looked at the caged animals and passed on the other activities to retreat to our villa. (I think the monkey is giving me the middle finger!)
We’ve done more than our usual share by far of reading and relaxing and hanging out by the pool. Even I have put on a bathing suit and swam when our “pool boy” was not around.
The settings for meals, although there are only three restaurants on premises can not be beat. The food is very good, I am a tad more cautious having a severe gluten allergy, but for the most part the food has been tasty and beautifully presented. Though I should have trusted my instincts and avoided whatever it was that gave me food poisoning for 24 hours. But thankfully, that’s all in the past
We even “dressed up” for a picture one night for dinner, although communication of “please do not get my stomach in the picture” seems to get lost in translation.
Yesterday we took a break from all of the quiet and serenity and took a cab ride to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The driver was a lovely twenty year old man who was self taught in English by listening to pop tunes on the radio. He was trying to make a better life for himself and he was engaging and funny. There is definitely more to see and do in Punta Cana than what is at this resort if you choose. It was good to “get away” but it was good to get back. For me that’s more of what this particular trip was about.
“A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” ~Earl Wilson
Today, as I write it is raining again and I am hoping that it will be brief.
There are plenty of things that I am sure I could have done or should have done or seen! There are a couple of things that need to be unseen! The first is a pedicure tank where the you dunk your feet in the same water as others and the fish eat the bad stuff off! Eww! The second picture is just wrong!
“The purpose of a vacation is to have the time to rest. But many of us, even when we go on vacation, don’t know how to rest. We may even come back more tired than before we left”. ~Nhat Hanh
I’m as guilty as the next person of not relaxing generally on vacation. We are “doers” by nature and I often feel guilty to come back and answer the question “What did you do on vacation?” with “Not a dam thing!” We are almost trained to tick off what we saw and did like a list of accomplishments. This was a different trip. Not a bad trip, not my favorite trip, but albeit a good trip. Time spent in reflection and relaxation and taking the moment to breathe in life is never, ever a bad thing. And if you just happen to be in Punta Cana on a tropical island paradise with this view, well it is really a very good thing.
“Perfect happiness would be knowing that all my family and friends were happy and safe. Then I’d go to a tropical island with my husband where it was gorgeous and fun all day long and interesting and fun all evening. Good food and dancing would be nice, too, and weekly visits from those safe and happy family and friends. Plus world peace.”~ Suzanne Weyn
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