Punta Cana, DR ~ Activities

On previous beach vacations, Hubby & I have pretty much packed our schedule.  We still have plenty of beach time, but it's normally one day at the beach, one day doing an activity, and repeat...for the length of the trip.  However, this time for budgetary & also time purposes...we only scheduled one official excursion...a half-day Zip Line Adventure through the jungles of the Dominican Republic.  We had zip-lined once before in Riviera Maya, and had a blast...so we were hoping this would be a similar experience. 

The guide picked us up from our hotel at about 7:45 am and after making one more stop at a separate resort for some others, we made our way about 90 minutes inland to the jungle!  It was quite the experience just arriving at the base...we had about 15 minutes of "massage" or extremely bumpy, crazy roads!  Thankfully we were all laughing and enjoying ourselves! 

The location was absolutely stunning, but there were some low clouds that made pictures look a little weird.  Either way, we were excited about zipping through the trees! 

We received some basic instructions, got all harnessed up, and then we were off! 

A view to the longest platform...800 meters or 2600 feet away...we were on that line for almost a minute! 

And this is what happens when you don't keep your speed...you have to turn yourself around and pull yourself into the next platform!  Ughh...

Overall we had an amazing time, and it was so fun to get away from the beach for a few hours to see some of the Dominican Republic countryside and learn a little bit about the country from our tour guide on the way! 

We saw this house during our "massage"...and I think it's absolutely the most adorable thing ever!  Too bad paint jobs like this aren't popular in the US!  ha! 

The only other actual activity that we did while in Punta Cana was a visit to a local flea market.  And this isn't just any flea market...it's oceanside, or in some cases IN the ocean...and full of souvenir type merchandise where you can definitely get your fill of bargaining!  It was a 40 minute beach walk, one way...which if you've ever walked on the beach for any extended time you know that's a LONG ways.  But...we were cheap and decided to walk instead of paying the $25 one-way water taxi. 

We ended up buying 3 different canvas paintings that we still need to put on a frame...but they are beautiful & will make me feel like we're in the tropics...even if we're stuck in SWMO!  We had fun bargaining with the vendors and trying to communicate using broken English from them and broken Spanish from us.  Definitely an experience! 

Next up...the food!