The Other Side of Paradise: A Journey through rural Punta Cana
I stayed in a resort in Punta Cana, the kind with the endless buffets, swim-up bars, and postcard beaches. It was beautiful, no doubt. But I didn’t come all the way here just to stay in a curated version of paradise. So I left the resort for a day. Rode a four-wheeler through the backroads. Visited a public beach. Saw what life looked like outside the gates and that’s where the real stories started to show themselves.






Riding a four-wheeler through the backroads, away from the polished hotel zones, I found a different kind of beauty raw, quiet, and alive. Women sitting under trees selling juice in reused jugs. Children outside playing waving like they’ve done it a thousand times before. A mother balancing her child and a bunch of fruit with equal care, standing in the middle of a dirt road like it’s nothing.



