Geocaching & Dune Buggie in Punta Cana
It has been a couple of days since my last post, but up until today nothing too exciting has happened. We have spent our time relaxing by the pool, relaxing by the beach, eating, sleeping, and I went on a 3 mile run. Overall, it has been pretty
relaxing.
This morning Laurie, Vicente, Alissa and I made plans to go on an 8 mile round-trip geocaching hike. The closest geocache to the resort was exactly 4 miles away. We woke to the sounds of pouring rain, but by our 9:00 meeting time it was barely a mist. We were actually thankful for the clouds as it made the hike less sweaty and enjoyable. We walked along the beach the entire way. About 2 miles in Alissa was questioning why she decided to come along, but she was a trooper. We finally zeroed in on the cache which was right near the drop off for the Dolphin Island adventure. Thankfully we hadn’t booked this, otherwise we could have walked all that way for nothing, where if we had did the excursion they would have dropped us off right there.
Laurie made the find, which was amongst a bunch of garbage and sadly some medical needles. There was another cache .30 miles away and I talked the gang into going for it, but unfortunately we were stopped by a water hazard. I thought we might be able to cross with taking our shoes and socks off, but after I stepped in and sank down into the muck I decided I didn’t want to risk crossing in that environment not knowing how deep the water actually went or with the possibility of getting stuck. It was time to turn around and make the hike back. With about 2.5 miles left to go Vicente opted to jog the rest of the way back. Laurie, Alissa, and I stopped for some ice cream at a little shop 3/4 mile away from our resort. It was a nice treat. Although Alissa said she didn’t really enjoy all the exercise she was glad she had made the trip and would likely go on another Auntie Jess adventure in the future. We got back to the resort over 18,000 steps later and in time for lunch. After about an hour break it was time for our dune buggie excursion.
We had said that after a terrible dune buggie excursion in Cozumel that we would never do another one, but since the rest of the family was going and it was only $50/person that we would go. The excursion was ok, and not near as terrible as the one in Cozumel, but certainly nothing to brag about either. Tom drove (which he agreed to when he saw it was wasn’t a manual transmission like in Cozumel) and we drove to a beach (we didn’t get to drive the dune buggy on the beach) and then to a cave where you could swim. They had professional photographers along and we actually bought the disk. Sometimes it’s hard to get good pictures of us, as we are the ones that are normally doing most of the picture taking. Tom swam at the cave, but I wasn’t all that hot and didn’t feel like getting wet. He said the water was a bit chilly, but liked the experience. After the cave we drove back to where we started. So as I said, it was a good, but not great excursion. I feel it was priced about right for what we got.
Tonight we are eating at the steak restaurant at the resort (last night’s dinner was at the seafood restaurant. It was good, but I wouldn’t call it amazing). Tomorrow we will relax in the morning and go on the catamaran excursion in the afternoon. After about an hour break, it was time to meet up to go on a dune buggie excursion.
