22 Apr 2023
Very fun excursion that was recommended by the Nexus Tour representative (Awilda) in our Punta Cana resort. The buggy ride is on a dusty trail so goggles would’ve probably been better than the sunglasses I wore. I wear contacts and had to blink like a madman to clear my eyes of dust as I rode through certain extra dusty terrain. Bandanas or other face coverings are essential as well. They sell at ATV venue but Awilda arranged for a vendor to bring bandanas to us on our resort so we were prepared ahead of time. We rode to a market place that had an artificial waterfall/cave. Then we rode to a beach (Macao) where locals offered pictures with their animals (lizards, monkeys, parrots). They expect tips/collect a fee. So before allowing them to place their animal on you, make sure you know their expectations. The monkey guy caught me off guard asking for $30. I was able to argue him down to $20 for not letting me know in advance. The ATV company had photographers who captured us throughout our excursion. I decided to purchase their pictures and they AirDropped them to my iPhone. When I went back to my resort, unfortunately I damaged my phone in the lazy river and lost all of these pictures. I went to Apple once back in the US but was told they could not connect to my phone and all data/files were lost unless backed up on iCloud (they weren’t). It was so frustrating. I decided to contact Awilda to ask if there was a way to contact the venue and possibly get another copy of pictures somehow. Long story short, it took her one day to get me a contact number and I was able to get the pictures emailed to me. She was always great on the resort always sweet and smiling when we saw her. She had given us her WhatsApp contact info to communicate with her as needed for the reserved excursion and even for our private airport transfer needs. Having her info is what saved our vacation pictures. I appreciate her very much!