“What do you mean you’re taking a vacation, you’re on vacation all the time!” We hear that all the time. Some people are joking when they say it, others seem truly confused. We just laugh, along with every other full timer that has heard the same comment.
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The Gang[/caption]If you follow me, you know we anticipated our recent trip to the Dominican Republic for months. We went with the group of family and friends that we have camped with for many years. It was a trip that we’ve talked about for a long time. This year it happened. Thirteen of us, (8 Joneses) boarded a flight, half asleep but excited at 5:30 am last Sunday morning. 10 hours later we were at the resort lounging in the pool, near a swim up bar and chatting about the upcoming week and how happy we all were to be there. It was the first time we had all been together at once in over a year. The destination was beautiful, but the trip was made by the people we shared it with. Like everything else, it’s about the people.
The trip got off to a rough start when my daughter-in-law Amber slipped on the tile, with feet wet from the pool, entering an unfamiliar restroom. Her first few hours on the island, were spent in the Emergency Room of a nearby hospital getting 7 stitches in her forehead. She did not suffer a concussion but was quite sore from the fall the next couple of days. She was a trooper and put the accident behind her and had a great trip, with a bandage on her head and a puffy eye. Good stories for the grandkids.
Lazy days at the all-inclusive resort were punctuated by two excursions. The time we spent away from the resort made me feel like we had really visited the island. A resort is a resort no matter where you go, especially in the Caribbean. You don’t really see a place till you get out and about. We found the Dominicans to be very nice, and quite laid back. Although the island is densely populated, and traffic is busy, I found it interesting that there were only a handful of intersections controlled by traffic lights and they were near the airport. Most intersections were uncontrolled, with speed bumps placed to slow everyone down as they approached. It was remarkable to watch how easily our drivers maneuvered around each other. Small motorcycles mostly 500cc or smaller usually carrying 2-3 people, single passenger scooters, panel rack pickups carrying some 20 workers standing up in the box and multitudes of tour busses zoomed around each other, horns beeping making each other aware of their intentions. No one seemed irritated and kept moving along. Road rage didn’t seem to exist. Americans are much too up tight and self-centered to be able to deal with that kind of traffic. There is no texting and driving. Dominicans seem to approach driving like playing a video game. Our bus passed a small motorcycle being driven by a man, with three small children sandwiched between him and I assume his wife at the rear. Imagine a family of 5 going somewhere together on a motorcycle! In the United States they would be in a Tahoe with televisions and Wi-Fi. The narrow streets were lined with store fronts pushed right up against the open sewers running along the road sides. People were engaged in their conversations, and mostly looked happy. Extreme poverty was present just a few miles from the resort as you leave the city of Punta Cana. You know you’re along way from home when the tour bus pulls over to let a farmer move his heard of cattle down the road past the bus!
We visited Los Haitisas National Park and took a boat tour through the Mangrove Forest, out onto the brackish waterways were the sea water meets the fresh water coming from the mountains in the middle of the island. We toured caves where we saw 10,000-year-old face carvings, and petroglyphs. The tour guide taught us about the Pre-Colonial Dominicans, the importance of the Mangrove Trees and lots of interesting history and folklore. I saw and photographed a couple of species of birds I had never seen before, an extra treat for me. Randy and Amber joined us, and we all enjoyed the day off the resort exploring the northern coast.
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Friday, we left again to take a Zip Line trip. After skydiving and parasailing in past years, the zip line has been on my list for some time. I went anticipating a single line. I was thrilled to find out we did 12 lines through the tree canopy of the mountain rain forest. By far my favorite line was one of the longer ones that whizzed through a tunnel where the tree canopy had been trimmed to allow passage of the line. The trees were blooming, and the smell of flowers rushed at me as I sailed through. It was quite a moment. My only regret was that I didn’t rent the GoPro to strap to my helmet. It would have been cool to watch it later and see the same view without all the adrenaline surging and not having to focus on all the things they told us to do so we didn’t get hurt or wipe out upon reaching the next platform with the instructor giving us hand signals. My memories will live in my head.
In between excursions we lounged on the beach, swam in the ocean, stood around in the pool with our drinks, ate very good food and napped whenever we wanted. I was happy to have identified about 20 bird species on my own, with the help of the Merlin Bird App on my phone. Three were new to me and are endemic to the area so that was exciting. My sister-in-law Sue, and I were entertained one evening, as we sat on a patio, by a mother Gallinule and her babies. We couldn’t stop laughing at them, with their giant three-toed feet that they would eventually grow into. They stepped on their own toes and wobbled about as they followed mom around the lawn between our patio and the pond were they lived.
Even though we don’t live in a bricks and sticks home on our corner lot in Williams, we do still have our ‘home’ and routine albeit an unconventional one. Everyone loves a vacation from their normal routine. My sites are already on joining my Aunt on a trip she takes to Europe to sail the Danube and take in the Christmas Markets along the way. I had intended to go this year, but it didn’t work out. Now I can look forward to something next year!
Until next time…
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