Sun Country 745 to Punta Cana

Our flight to Punta Cana left two hours late because “maintenance problems” had delayed the arrival of a red-eye from San Francisco. Fortunately, I found out about the delay the night before when I routinely checked our flight before going to bed. The temperature was 15-below when we left for the airport at 6 a.m. – fine for Bob, Becky and me, not so good for Chris dressed in shorts and things! Our fellow passengers were already in the boarding area so our check-in was easy and fast, except for Bob, who will no longer travel as “Robert”, but rather under the name on his passport: Harold Robert. Airlines are now sticklers for the passport name; too bad the vigilance doesn’t extend to some other areas!

We were in the second-to-last row of the plane and had the middle seats free. We flew to the east coast and turned right around Washington, DC, for the hop over the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos and, finally, to Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. My first impression was of very green, lush jungle, with a few rivers and primitive looking roads traversing the island, bounded by the turquoise Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean sea. I wonder what Columbus thought when he saw this land in 1492?

At the end of the flight, I moved to the last row, also vacant. After a pleasant and uneventful flight, we experienced a short delay waiting for a gate. We were greeted at the airport by women in colorful native dress, taking tourist photos and ushering us through a long line where we dropped $10 a head for the required tourist card, promptly returned to the immigration authorities when our passports were stamped a few minutes later. The Punta Cana airport is a lovely, open air facility with plenty of activity – rather too much for my taste. Music echoed throughout, rather grating to my ears, and I wondered if it was “merengue”. I should know this, but do not.

The ride to the resort was short. Our modern bus had only a few passengers, all Minnesotans looking a little shell shocked after the long day. The poverty I had expected along the route was not very much in evidence, as I think the area is rather prosperous by Dominican standards, and unpleasant sights are somewhat hidden from tourists on the way to posh hotels.