As The Departure Date Approaches

Well, this one has kind of crept up on me.  I found the exact same thing when I went to Jamaica last January, it was very close to the departure date before my vacation plans really started to sink in.  I think it has to do with the fact that there's (relatively) very little planning that goes into one of these beach vacations.  I went on Sunquest's website, I picked a place that looked good, I paid them.  Obviously some research has gone into what activities will be available to me while I'm there, but even that research has been done with a significant lack of motivation given that I could happily spend my days snorkeling and sipping on rum-based cocktails.  It's funny when I contract this to Japan and Iceland.  This close to either of those vacations I was completely incapable of focusing on anything else.  The concept of work was a veritable write-off.  This time it's barely in my mind, except that it occurred to me this morning when I stepped out into the cold, dreary day we're having here that I wouldn't be putting up with this kind of weather next week.

I must interject at this point, that none of the above should be taken as a complaint.  The whole point of heading to a beach resort is to relax, and so it would defeat the purpose of said relaxation if all I did in the lead-up to it was get all wound up.  I just find it an interesting juxtaposition of the two types of vacation that I'm likely to take.

I'll take a moment to address some of last week's comments.  First and foremost, thanks as always to everyone who takes the time to comment, it's great to know you're all interested in what I'm writing.  I think I may have been somewhat unclear last week regarding my request for assistance.  You've all come up with some brilliant suggestions for future articles, and I appreciate that, but what I was after was your experiences with the two topics I glazed over last week: Travelling Without A Plan, and Keeping In Touch While Abroad. I just felt like they were interesting topics, but that I could make a better story if I could draw on some of your experiences as well as my own limited experiences.

Something Jay brought up last week was the recent earthquake in Haiti.  Obviously this raises some concerns regarding travel to the Dominican Republic.  Interestingly I've been unable to find any indication that Haiti's Eastern neighbours have been impacted in any way by this quake.  Even the Canadian Government's travel advisory site for the Dominican Republic only mentions that travel to Haiti should be avoided if at all possible. It's incredible that they should have been spared the kind of devastation that has impacted Haiti, but I'm thankful all the same.

Well, this is the last scheduled post before I leave, so now we enter the time when this blog becomes a little more ad hoc.  You can probably expect a couple short posts over the remainder of this week as the trip takes greater prominence in my mind.  I believe that I'll have at least "some" internet access while I'm away, the extent of that is still unknown to me, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm able to get a few posts out next week too.  So, stay tuned for further updates, and thanks for reading!