Here are some photos from our "picture perfect" vacation to the beautiful Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. 
Place your mouse over each picture for the description.

Punta Cana is a resort destination, not a town or city. Instead of the usual "all inclusive package", we bought last-minute cheap tickets ($178 plus tax!) and with help from a local taxi driver at the airport (and his English-speaking friend via cell phone after much confusion) we managed to find a great hotel for the first night, very clean and nice, but not near the beach ($35 US for the night). Our hotel for nights 2-7 of our vacation was the Da'Tonino ($50 US per night), right between the Ocean H-10 Resort and the Carabela Resort, on the world famous Bavaro Beach in Punta Cana.

Hot sun, white sand, and turquoise water - with a warm breeze blowing day and night - life can't get much better than this!

The food took some time to get used to - it smelled "different" and most menus were only written in Spanish. Day 1 lunch was ordered as "tortillas & frites". Having some high school French classes under my belt I knew frites were french-fries, and we both assumed tortillas were Mexican items that we knew. Not so... tortillas in the DR are actually omelettes! They were fairly good (despite the strange odor), but it sure was a surprise when the plates arrived at our table! Jeff had already learned "beer" on his Mexico trip last year, so that was a no-brainer (cervazas). He got really good at ordering "dos cervazas, por favor" (2 beer please). The beer was "El Presidente" and was quite good. A few places even had Jeff's fave, Budweiser, so he was happy.

Within a few days we stopped noticing the smells...the food tasted better, and even the garbage and bathroom areas didn't seem as bad. We had at first wondered how people could stand the smells (they didn't seem to even notice, while I was trying not to gag), and then realized we were now getting used to it, and didn't mind the strange smells of the food, the streets, and the insides of the buildings quite so much.