Day 4 : This Sun is Different

Our last full day in the DR has unfortunately come. After a busy couple of days, today’s plans consist of rest, relaxation, and soaking up the sun on the beach and in the pool. 

After our wildly late club night last night we woke up around 9 and got ready for the day. Our resort has some shops on premise so we kicked off the day there. We found some souvenirs, goodies, and snacks since the breakfast buffet was no longer open. 

*side note* during the day if the main buffet isn’t open the only thing open is the snack bar area which only consists of hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos, and fries. Needless to say, we’ve eaten a decent amount of nachos while here. 

Then we hit the beach! I’ll tell you.. the sun here is different. We’re closer to the equator, the UV index was 10 the entire time we were outside, and I’ve never in my entire life (including 22 years living in Florida) reapplied sunscreen so many times. My shoulders got pretty burnt yesterday during our buggy ride, so I actually had them covered as much as I could while in the sun. There’s a constant breeze on the beach so sometimes it’s hard to tell how burnt you’re getting. On the other hand, sometimes I could feel the sun so strong it felt like I was on fire. 

There’s also an abundance of seaweed at the moment so even when we did go into the water to cool down and swim a little, we were dodging seaweed in addition to waves. 

All was good though and we spent a few hours here, had an entire photo shoot for ourselves, and then decided to go to the pool. The pool is heated – a lot – so it’s not nearly as refreshing as the ocean, but it does have a bar! Even though I’m the only one drinking LOL 

We made dinner reservations for the Italian restaurant for 6pm, and in hindsight we probably should’ve taken the 9pm offer. We would’ve been able to get some more time at the pool instead of having to cut it short to go back and get ready. Nonetheless, it all worked out!

We put on our nicest and cutest outfits and were out the door to dinner. This restaurant was much nicer than the Mexican one from the other day and also way less busy. Our main “complaint” is the restaurants’ definition of salad bar. 

Both at the Mexican and Italian restaurant they said they had a salad bar. Except the Mexican salad bar was more of a nacho bar and the Italian salad bar was more of a soup / charcuterie salad bar. Very odd to say the least, but hey, maybe that’s how they do things here!

Speaking of, it’s been interesting to see the difference in food and drinks compared to the US while here. It seems all the soda is flat, they make all their juices naturally, and sugar cane truly is available a lot of the time. I’m surprised at the lack of real Dominican food at the resort, but we’ve concluded it’s likely due to them catering to their demographic which likely isn’t locals. However, it would’ve been really nice to have real DR food more than just once’ while here. 

Regardless, dinner was delicious! We wanted to get some cute pictures in our outfits so we headed back down to the beach. Unfortunately it was extremely windy so not many good hair pictures but we still looked cute! 

Since we leave out tomorrow morning, we’re packing up as much as we can tonight. We’re not sure how strict customs is going to be, so we tried to have anything we didn’t come with readily available incase we need to take it out. Hopefully we don’t experience any issues though. 

Having an early dinner and then packing for a few hours works up an appetite, and what better way to spend our last night here than getting some delicious pizza from one of the only places open late?! 

As we get ready for bed to leave out tomorrow, I can’t help but feel grateful. 

Grateful that we were able to come to the DR. That I was able to celebrate my 10th NYNP trip with two of my sisters and one of my best friends. That we stayed safe the entire time here. That we had a great time and got to see parts of the DR outside of the resort. That we made memories and shared so much laughter. That we were able to mix excursions with relaxation. 

Grateful to have another trip to share with you, lovely reader, who keeps me going! 

While today may have been somewhat uneventful compared to the last two days, it has been just as fun and exciting. Like I said yesterday, I can’t believe we’re already at the end of our trip and I also can’t believe it’s felt like we’ve been here for so long. 

I’ll still be sure to blog tomorrow to wrap up, so make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss it! 

Wish us safe travels back home, no issues when going through customs, and no delays! 

Until tomorrow ❤