November 2021

Last full day and I was determined to walk to that abandoned hotel. I set off before dawn. It was almost a 2 hour walk, with pauses to watch the birds playing / preying in the surf ...A wonderful bird is the pelican. His bill will hold more than his belican. He can take in his beak food enough for a week. But I’m damned if I see how the helican. (D. L. Merritt, 1913, from the NY Times archives). I’ve always liked that limerick.

I was able to take a few pictures in some unfinished out-buildings before security guards showed up to tell me “prohibito” and ensure I was not going to try to enter the hotel on the cliff. I did walk to the base of the cliff, but then had to turn around and walk back. But here are the stolen pics.

After my long morning walk and a bit of poolside reading, I headed to the spa for the third time this week. While the massage was great, what I really enjoyed at these spa afternoons were the saunas and pools. The steps in order were:
Aroma therapy:

Bucket shower

Dry sauna

Shower, Turkish bath

Shower, plunge pool

Calm pool, jacuzzi

Heated sitting area (for waiting for the masseuse)

After my massage, I went back redid some the sauna-plunge pool. By the time I was done, there were no clients left, which allowed me to take the above pictures.

The spa was very relaxing. I love the hot-to-cold and back again. Wish I had a Turkish bath at home.

Finally, the belated birthday. It was Steve’s birthday on the 8th, but much to my disappointment, the staff rekally dropped the ball. They’d promised special ‘events’ and even went so far as ask us to be out of the room so they could decorate and then didn’t show. So, I expressed my disappointment to the Butler (yes, our room came with a butler), who was off work but had asked a coworker to look after us. Anyway, this day (a day late), they were in our room while we were at dinner.

Better late than never.

Yesterday, we returned home on a business class flight via Montreal.

Great trip. Already missing the warm weather and looking forward to the next trip (Hawaii).

While I still haven’t walked the beach all the way to that hotel in the distance...

...I have discovered that it’s one of several abandoned hotel complexes in Punta Cana.

There’s a video here about this one. It does make me want to check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVYGtFrTFX4

Meanwhile, the vacation in paradise continues. Nice sunrise this morning.

And some pics around the resort, a couple of them from Halloween.

Meanwhile, we know our time is limited and that they’d already set up the outdoor skating rink structure in our nearby park before we left, meaning going back to the cold temps. I’m going to miss 31 degrees!

We are currently sitting in deck chairs listening to the waves and surf.

While our first room was lovely (see previous post), it turned out the the patrons of the swim up bar, overlooked by our balcony, were very noisy - lots of impromptu drunken singing fests - and it was very close to the theatre, which meant that we had noise from the pool all afternoon and noise from the theatre all evening. So yesterday, we switched to an identical room a bit closer to the beach, but more importantly, far enough away from the noise to allow us to relax.

Every morning, I walk for two hours on the beach, which stretches to infinity, or at least farther than I’m willing to walk around in either direction. Walking one way, I pass these odd items in the water. No idea what they are.

In the other direction, a good 45 minutes farther down the beach than I’ve walked, there’s this building, which I guess is a hotel, but it’s not on google maps as such.

And along the way, there are these interesting art sculptures.

Now, why haven’t I ventured closer for a look? If you’ve read previous posts, you’d know I’m always up for a walk and enjoy those longer jaunts; however, despite the art installation, this stretch of beach is really isolated and far beyond sight of the hotels and crowds. While that makes it enjoyable on the one hand, it felt a bit dangerous for me walking alone, so I’ve promised the hubby to stay within sight of a resort.

On Halloween, we ventured away from the resort to cheer on the Toros del Este at El Corral de Los Toros (aka Estadio Francisco Micheli) in La Romana. The stadium was a 90 minute taxi/excursion each way ($298USD round trip) and $35 for 3 tickets (we invited the guide to join us) + beer and hamburgers. So all in all, an expensive outing. I’m wearing my new Toros visor . Sadly, our cheering did not spur the Dominican League Toros to victory (4-0 for the Estrella’s, and our Toros with only one hit and 2 errors).

The weather has been sunny and warm (high 31, low 24 - Celsius, of course) every day, except one morning of rain a couple of days ago. No complaints from me. I love the heat!

The food has also been very good. Here are the menus from three of the a la cartel restaurants. The third requires a reservation and there’s no limit as to the number of reservations we can have. The first two are first come, first serve. Since we prefer to eat relatively early (6:30pm opening), we have had to wait showing up when the doors open.

The Majestic Elegance resort is certainly passing our expectations. Melvin, our butler, keeps in touch via what’s app and has been ensuring we always have what we need - whether it’s dinner reservations, a new room, toilet fixed, or a bottle or rum (for Steve) and club Sosa (for me), or a ride & guide to the baseball game. All good.

Might try renting a kayak one day this week, if I can fit it in around spa appointments