Exploring

  Bayahibe, Dominican Republic
Sunday, September 14, 2008

I slept until 10AM today, which felt heavenly. The breakfast buffet was about as impressive as the dinner last night, except for the wonderful omelet station.

There¡¦s really not much to report from most of the day. I figured out where to get beach towels (something I never sorted out yesterday), lathered on the sunscreen, and spent some time lying on a lounge chair at the beach listening to Beethoven¡¦s symphonies (the Fifth and Ninth). I¡¦ve never spent much time listening to symphonic music before the past few months, but those two are both majestic, multi-layered, and quite interesting when you actually listen instead of treating them as background noise. I¡¦m ready to branch out.

After I got bored with the beach, I headed up to the pool, where an American-sounding woman asked me to take her picture in the pool. I complied and later saw her at dinner. Sara and I invited her to dine with us tomorrow night since she seems to be nice and traveling alone.

When I got hot enough, I finally went in the pool water for the first time. Wonderful! It was the perfect temperature and so relaxing. Lazing in the pool, looking out at the the palm trees and thatched roofs, it's hard to have a care in the world.

Sara arrived around 3PM after her long, long set of flights. We sat on our patio and caught up for a hour or two ¡V she has a lot going on! She¡¦s gotten a job offer as a consultant from the suicide hotline she¡¦s worked with, she¡¦s reconsidering a relationship with a guy who lives in Denver, she has an agent interested in her novel, and¡K Well, maybe that¡¦s enough! I¡¦m not sure how she¡¦s going to get it all done, but she¡¦s very excited about it all.

We roamed the property, including a bunch of areas I hadn¡¦t seen yet ¡V the miniature golf, the spa, the gym, the Italian restaurant (closed on Sunday, apparently). The spa is beautiful ¡V the waiting area is all dim lights, stone walls, and comfortable chairs. Even better is the Jacuzzi area, which is free if you¡¦re getting some other service. Columns and plants and cool-water Jacuzzis. Sara and I got a menu of services and spent some happy time mulling over what we might do.

We roamed the beach for a while and saw a beautiful heron-like bird. We sampled the house red wine (as bad as the white, unfortunately). We inspected the open shops (over-priced, as expected). We sat by the pool and dangled our feet in the water, made plans to go to Punta Cana, made plans to go to the gym instead of being complete lazy slugs all week, and put none of our plans into action yet. fº

Apparently the only open restaurant was the buffet last night. I was so much more impressed than Saturday! There were a bunch of stations with things like roast beef, peel-and-eat shrimp, and Asian stir-fry, all of which were very good. I hope that¡¦s more representative of the food than Saturday¡¦s buffet. Fingers crossed!

I also have my fingers crossed that Sara will keep me entertained enough that I don¡¦t run out of reading material! I¡¦m 10 pages from finishing the first of three books that I brought, and it¡¦s only day two!