Dear Dominican Republic

A glimpse of Lifestyle Tropical Beach Resort

Dear Dominican Republic, 

¡Muchas gracias! After last week, we're missing ya already.

Thanks for sharing one of your resorts; we made good use of beach hammocks, the giant chess set, and days to do whatever we wished. (Fun reading, thoughtful conversation, playing more card games than we had in a year, and making new friends to play with us.) Your tropical setting hit the spot for island morning runs, and Ryan's yoga on the beach.

Your people and culture gave us sights we'd never seen before: people carrying large baskets on their talented heads, presidential nominee posters plastered everywhere, and piles of pineapples for sale. (We ate near our weight in sweet, fresh pineapples.) Crystalee enjoyed practicing español. 

Let's be honest. We both know you're a third world country. On your 50-mile stretch from the Puerto Plata resort to the Santiago airport we learned drivers don't really need traffic lanes or turn signals. (But we sure used our seatbelts!) Also, our leaky roof, pushy sales staff urging us to take tours, and archaic dinner reservation system just made things more interesting...

Skipping souvenirs, we brought home some wicked sunburns. You gave us new passport stamps, and we'll remember you fondly.

Thinking of you as our sunburns peel, 

The Becks

P.S. Muchas gracias to flight attendant friend Rachel, who found the screaming deal and told us about it. She introduced us to this travel site - what a great price for a week's vacation!

Ahh...blissful beach hammocks...

We ate snacks here a few times, the Blue Lagoon restaurant.

One of the restaurants, and our preferred place for lunch.

Unsuspecting, happy couple. Sunburns, coming up!

After the rain, getting my camera "flower mode" going...

Since neither of us know how to play chess, we used the pieces to play giant checkers. Ryan: 3 Crystalee: 0. Ouch!

Wish I could sneak a bundle of these pineapples with me - so juicy sweet.

We made this our own personal gazebo to play card games.

Extreme neck strength? The graceful balance of royalty? How do they DO that?

I have this obsession with license plate pictures.

The political signs dominated the DR driving landscape! 

More fruit sellers - they approach your car at stops.