The Catalonia Bavaro Resort

The bus pulls into the resort and we are all smiles as we finally made it to our destination. It's a beautiful facility with plenty of open air. you don't see too many of these joints in Wisconsin. The lobby is full of activity as our group waits to check in. It does seem to take a while for this to happen. I guess it's our first experience of "Dominican Time" as they say. If they say 10 minutes, it means about an hour. 15 minutes is about an hour and a half and 2o minutes is about 2 hours. After our long day I wasn't too happy about all this "Dominican Time" stuff.

We get our room assignments and haul our belongings through the resort as folks mingle and sip cocktails at the bar. We can't wait so we decide to enjoy a drink before checking out our room. It's worth it because I really needed to knock the edge off and It's my first taste of "Presidente Beer" the local brew and it's not too bad. Our room is big and comfortable. There's a deck with a hammock and 2 rockers overlooking 2 holes on the par 3 golf course.

We get cleaned up and make our way to one of the buffet's for dinner. With so many choices I find myself wandering around an island of food until I settle for some chicken and pasta. Then I settle for some pizza and a burger. Then I settle for some dessert. I settled for as much as I could. It was a very long day and I was a very hungry man. Kathleen and I decide to walk around the resort and get familiar with the place. It really is a wonderful environment. There's a huge fountain near the lobby that serves as a backdrop for many pictures including ours. The evening ends after a few nightcaps and a fine Dominican cigar. It's getting late and we have a 10am orientation meeting so we decide to get back to the room and get some well deserved sleep.