Sister Sarah and I did a day long excursion today with
Bavaro Runners.
We got picked up at 8am. Loye and her son, Jeremy, from Atlanta also went from our hotel.
Here's our guide, Alexis. He was fabulous ... funny and knowledgeable.
We visited one of their three sponsored schools and learned about the Dominican educational program.
Our destination for lunch was at the top of the mountain.
We drove through the fields of Central Romana Corporation, the largest sugar cane plantation in the country. With over 200,000 acres the fields of mill, they are also one of the most extensive in the world. Here's Sister Sarah in the sugar field.
Alexis described the lure of riches of the Haitians in working in the fields.
We tasted some freshly cut sugar cane and juice.
We learned how rum used to be made.
The tour included all you could drink rum and beer. Here's Alexis leading us to a cheer with our first drink at 10:30am.
We watched as they made cigars.
We could buy some too if we wanted. Here is Alexis showing us the "Monica Lewinsky" cigar.
There are lots of dogs running around the area. Jeremy made a new friend.
We could buy rum but it was 1.5 times the price than that at the hotel. I could have bartered them to the price at the hotel but then I'd have to drag it around so I didn't bother.
Here's me in the sugar fields.
Then we went to Maria's house, a typical country home, to sample fresh exotic Caribbean fruits, roasted coffee, cacao, see and learn how they live from the land and their organic products.
Here's some coffee drying.
Here's Sister Sarah and I with a banana plant.
Loye got more creative with it!
Maria had kittens. How cute are they?!
These are cocoa beans, which will be dried and roasted. In this state, they are slimy and disgusting. I tried one and thought I was going to lose my breakfast!
Here's Jeremy turning the roasting coffee beans.
They gave us samples of coffee, hot chocolate and
mama juana. I bought Gord some coffee beans there.
We stopped for a buffet lunch at the Bavaro Runners Ranch on the Anamuya Mountains. This was our view.
We were running out of beer so Alexis stole some from another truck ... hee hee hee!
Here are Johnny, our driver, and Alexis next to our truck just after lunch.
We finished our day at Macao Beach.
The waves were huge and strong and so much fun! Here's Sister Sarah.
And here's me tangled in a wave.
Alas, the day had to come to an end. Here's our group.
Sister Sarah and I were the only two from Canada. The rest were from the U.S. There was also a couple there from Ireland.
Our plane was due to leave at 11am ... here is Sister Sarah boarding.
But we were delayed for about an hour while they checked everyone's checked suitcase for "contraband". Plus there was gas spilled next to us that they had to clean up.
