Check in was no problem for our flight this morning and we even managed to skip the gigantic queue of people since we weren't going to America. We spent a couple of hours pottering around the airport shops until our flight boarded at just after 10am. The plane we were to take ended up being a rather small and old looking twin turboprop which conveyed us safely if very noisily to Punta Cana airport, oddly the busiest in the Dominican Republic despite not being in the capital, taking just over 40 mins. We arrived at the almost entirely thatched airport and went to collect our bags where in true South American style we found that there were airport trolleys which you couldn't use as the porters (who outnumbered the passengers!!) wouldn't let you. Instead we had to carry our bags through customs and around the airport looking for both a cash machine and someone who knew about buses to Santo Domingo. We eventually found a man who seems to be the only person who knows anything in the area who gave us directions and informed us we would need 3 buses. Firstly we caught a sort of airport shuttle which turned out to be free from just outside the airport (no path to the bus stop of course) which dropped us off at a very small sort of bus terminal. We enquired about buses here as well and after an hours wait we were eventually herded into another small minibus which was to take us to a bigger terminal where we could catch an intercity bus. It drove through a few small towns before dropping us off at the main bus terminal for the area where we just had time to get a couple of cheese and sweetcorn empanadas and a bottle of water for the journey before it left. This bus was rather cramped and quite cold as they had tuned the air-con up as high as it would go but it was saved because it also played Bachata for almost the entire journey. The scenery wasn't very spectacular consisting mainly of fields although as we approached Santo Domingo we got a few more glimpses of sea. The bus dropped us off at a random intersection as there is no actual terminal in the capital city and we were thus forced to take a taxi to the address of the apartment we had rented. We arrived at around 5 and after shouting up the stairs a few times we eventually got hold of the lady who was in charge of the apartment. She informed us that she hadn't finished cleaning yet so while she did that her husband took us to a cash machine and showed us where a small supermarket was. We bought some food for dinner and a huge water bottle which we were informed that you could phone up and swap for a full one and then went back to settle in. Our apartment, which we paid 200 euros for 11 nights, consisted of a bedroom with bathroom (no door to this oddly) which had an external door as well as a lockable internal one leading into the open plan kitchen/living room, also with an internal and external door. Nice, light and airy with the added bonus of tiled floors which we would be able to dance on and a floor length mirror which would be perfect for practising in front of! After phoning the water person who turned up within 5 mins with our full bottle we showered cooked our dinner consisting of pasta with tuna and sweetcorn which was ok, the sweetcorn was lovely but the tuna was a bit tasteless, after dinner we showered and went to bed exhausted!