Punta Cana Airport and the Bus Ride to the Resort
Friday, July 6th, 2007I had some concerns about visiting the Island of the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic actually shares the island with Haiti, to the West.
I wasn’t sure about the safety. I didn’t wear my watch because of this. Yeah, I didn’t wear my watch worth about $100, but I brought my laptop. Whatever. I thought we were going to land and kind of be on our own. I thought the trip to the resort was going to be through some back woods jungle with people trying to stop us to mug us. Some was true, some wasn’t.
After landing at Punta Cana Airport, we all hopped off the airplane. We were organized into a group and walked into the inside of the terminal. Getting off the plane wasn’t as big of a shock as if it would’ve been if it was February. The temperature was about 88 degrees, but very humid. It wan’t much different than up here, just a lot more humid. I mean huuuuuuuumid.
We walked into the terminal to be greeted by someone taking our picture. The first sale. Well, we didn’t buy it, but that gave us a hint of what we were in for. We went through that line and had to show our passports and purchase a tourist card for $10. We took a few more steps and showed our passport to someone else who took the tourist card from us. Well, there goes our first $10. A few of us were more than suspicious about where the heck our $10 just went. Whatever…moving on.
I have to say, the terminal was very cool. It was open and airy and the roof was made of palm. You could feel the wind flow right through the place. We went to claim our baggage. I found Laura’s but couldn’t find mine. I bit later on, Laura discovered that someone had kindly taken my suitcase off the conveyor belt and left it on the ground. Nice guy, I’m sure.
After getting our baggage, we were swarmed by a bunch of guys who wanted tips. They would grab your bags and walk them to another room. They wanted your money. I gave the first guy a few bucks, but handled my own bags after that. If I gave everyone money who wanted it, I would be broke. Everyone was very nice though. Not much danger, just a bunch of people who wanted tips. If you are into having things done for you, this is the place.
We found the bus that would bring us to Iberostar Bavaro in Punta Cana. Here is the actual resort page.
The bus we got onto was parked near what seemed to be a thousand other buses. We gave the driver our baggage and boarded the bus. There weren’t too many people on it. We were heading to the resort.
The bus was an old diesel with what seemed to be an interesting transmission. Some of the vehicles need a little maintenance. The resort was 22km away and the trip took about 40 minutes, I would guess. I didn’t have a watch on. We drove along the beginnings of a highway. I would see the big signs with pictures of what’s to come. Punta Cana is under construction. It was kind of neat bouncing around in the back of the bus heading to who knows what.
We passed a bunch of what many people would consider not so nice areas. Even right outside the resort, I said to Laura, “I am not too impressed.”
Next…the resort.
