Day 5, July 12: Leaving the country, or so we thought...

We thought that we were on our way to the airport around 2:40 pm for a 4:19 pm flight.  Our taxicab driver had advised us that this was the best time to leave to make the flight on time.  However, two acts of fate intervened which prevented us from making the flight.  The first was the fact that Deborah called Doug when we were halfway to the airport, to let him know that he had left his backpack.  The backpack had his laptop in it.  So, we turned around to head back to Deborah’s because we did not want to leave the laptop in the Dominican Republic for over two weeks until Deborah was to return home.  The second was the fact that American Airlines decided to change the departure time for the flight, on its own, without prior notice to 3:45 pm.  As a result, when we arrived at the airport at 3:40 pm, in time for us to dash through this small airport for the 4:19 flight, the plane was leaving.

Although we were crushed, there was nothing that we could do.  It took Doug a minute to calm down from his frustration, but when he did, he found out that I was already looking for a local hotel to spend the night and a taxi for us to use to go to the hotel.  While neither one of us wanted to stay one more night in Puerto Plata, we had to acknowledge the reality of our situation and what had to be done.  We were spending the night at Bluebay Hotel.  We were able to locate a room and check in upon our arrival at the hotel around 4:45 pm.  We sat down for a few minutes, watched the end of the new Flash movie, and decompressed from the drama at the airport.  Although American had changed the flight, they at least rebooked us for a flight on tomorrow at the same time and in the same seats.  Wasn’t that nice of them?

Turns out that the Bluebay is a totally inclusive adults-only hotel right on the Atlantic Ocean.  Doug took several photos of the location to share with everyone.  So now we were making lemonade out of the lemons that we were given.  We browsed the materials on the hotel, and Doug decided which of the three restaurants we would enjoy for dinner.  He wanted the Italian restaurant rather than the seafood or Dominican options.  I left the room and started walking toward the beach.  Neither of us knew where the Italian restaurant was, but I was just following my instincts.  Turns out my instincts were correct.  The Italian Restaurant was the restaurant on the beach.  However, this day, the menu was not Italian, but a general cuisine.  Doug was able to get seafood pasta, and I ordered a grilled chicken Arbana styled dish with mashed potatoes, gravy, pureed broccoli and pureed carrots.  My meal was delicious!  Doug’s pasta was over cooked, but he enjoyed the shrimp.

After dinner, we looked at the beach and started the pleasant walk back to the room.  When we returned, I watched three episodes of the $100,000 Pyramid, and Doug read his book.  We both went to sleep at eleven hoping to have a good night’s rest.

Unfortunately, Doug could not fall asleep until 1:30am and I was awaken by loud neighbors above us, who returned to their room at 2 o’clock in the morning, partying with friends and keeping up a lot of noise.  I finally fell asleep around 3 am.

Photos from the rest of the day...

We ended the day in our room after dinner, looking forward to leaving the next day.