We woke up one morning to find this gentleman picking coconuts from the tree right outside our villa. Nice job. There were signs telling you to stay on the paths so you don't get hit in the head by falling coconuts; one staff member even warned me about it one time when I was - *gasp* - off the path! They motioned with their hand to their head (no translation necessary). I think it was while taking one of the below pictures (underneath the palm trees). So we figured this guy was all about preventative measures. We later saw that all of the buffet restaurants were having "Dominican Cuisine" theme nights for dinner, and the piles of coconuts and palm leaves for decoration led me to think otherwise.

Watch out below!

There were lots of these trees around with those big, long beanpod-looking seed things, which were all over the ground.

There may be stepping stones, but you don't want to walk this path barefoot. Trust me.

Now all these damn palm trees look the same to me, but obviously they're not. This one doesn't have coconuts. Some of them didn't have any fruit at all. These were many mini-fruits.

This is a different tree, but the same type of fruit. Some were red, some were green. What the hell are they? Who knows.

I love taking shots underneath trees where the entire canopy fits into my frame; I started doing this back in 2001 during my Brazil trip and the local papaya tree. Bummer I didn't come back and re-shoot these when the sun was out. Nice star-like quality.

Sometimes the grounds were a little too "manicured".

This crazy tree was right outside our balcony. Talk about strange fruit.

Close-up. Don't have a clue. They were hard if taken off the tree, but there was one on the ground and it was all kindsa squishy. Bizarre, almost potato-like eyes all over the thing.

I didn't find this little pond until the last day or so; it was kinda nice but in a different part of the grounds where we never needed to pass through (until I made a point to do so). It was lovely until they started up with a few sprinkler/fountain things that kinda ruined the serenity. It was oddly lacking in wildlife, probably due to the fountains.

The local bottled water they gave out was from this comapny, Mont Pellier - I spent the first two years of my life in Montpelier, OH (and my dad went to high school there). This was mostly for my dad, and also I kept re-using it to fill up on pineapple juice (as pictured) because that stuff was like crack to me. So fresh!

We end with a lovely parting gift, courtesy of our charming housekeeping staff. We kept leaving small tips (usually $2) for the staff when they cleaned up our room (as recommended by every travel website) and it finally paid off with this kick-ass towel sculpture, complete with local floral accents from the bushes outside our room. Sweetness.

We left tips for the stock boys who re-stock the mini-fridges (with soda, water, beer, whatever) but they never showed up when we weren't around and therefore never refilled our fridge. I had a cool $2 sitting in that thing the whole week. Our TV also never had a working remote (even though I left notes about it on our door and then asked for a replacement from the front desk, which never worked), which was frustrating when the only time we ever had the TV on was as we were getting ready to sleep (and therefore in bed). They got some NY stations, which was strange to see weatherman John Bolaris (who used to work for NBC in Philly) on the TV in the Dominican Republic. Did get to see Seinfeld, too!

We spent a lot of time in restaurants, mostly buffets. There were always tons of service staff around to get you drinks, clear your dishes, whatever. Their level of the english language varied greatly but they were always severely courteous and nice and often very friendly - and nobody ever left tips at a buffet. We'd see some of the same people at the same places and would have friendly little reunions when they'd remember us or vice versa. Very cute. I occasionally got props when I tried to ask a simple question or made a comment in spanish - usually with a raised eyebrow, I'd get "hablas espanol?" and I would always reply "si, un poco" (yes, a little). I also packed my beloved Red Sox shirt from the big ECBB trip back in '04. Beloved because of the trip, not the Sox. I got it at Fenway. Anyway, I wore it a couple days and had no idea that David Ortiz, almost-MVP and massive home run beast, was Dominican. Well, every person in the Dominican Republic knows that, and they all reminded me when they spotted my shirt - sometimes from 50 yards away! They'd point, say "Red Sox... Ortiz! Big Papi!! Dominicano!" and smile this huge smile and I'd just nod and smile and agree. Everybody wins. They think I did it on purpose.

We had some mild frustrations trying to hook up with our local Expedia.com travel liason, as he was never at his table when he was supposed to be, according to his schedule. He was really nice to us when we arrived but after we gave him the cold shoulder on pre-paying for our cab ride back to the airport, he disappeared. We ended up buying some internet time to make sure our flight back was all good to go. Check-out was easy, the folks at the desk were always nice and helpful, and they called us a cab. Standing in line for hours in the heat at the airport to go through customs still sucks, but it wasn't too painful. Strangely enough, our flight out to Puerto Rico left EARLY, like almost an hour. They told us "well, the plane's here and we're ready to go, so we're gonna". Thank goodness we got there in plenty of time. That actually gave us a more comfortable amount of time to wait for the connection out of San Juan, so it worked out. The flights were smooth and Steph was tan, all's well that ends well. It's almost a shame you can't see the other dozens of pictures I took... 'cause we look good naked.