Aside from the various activities in the resort, my family chose to go on a tour of the Punta Cana countryside. The tour, Bavaro Runners, took us to a local elementary school, a sugar cane/tobacco planation, and a local organic farm.
Our bus! It was quite something riding on that, especially on the bumpy mountain roads. Our guide, Rene, joked that the tour came with a complimentary mechanical massage XD
Short video of us exiting a small town.
First stop: local elementary school
Didn't see much of it, just sat on the bus and listened to our guide explain the education system. They get free university education! ;_;
Moving on the roads
View of the distant Oriental mountain range (I think...) So dramatic that the peak is shrouded in clouds.
Royal palms, a main building material in Dominica. One can differentiate them from coconut trees from the pointed stem at the top of the tree.
Coconuts, yuuuuum. These belong to a plantation.
Second stop: sugar cane and tobacco plantation.
om nom nom. Use to eat a lot of fresh sugar cane back in China, they taste soooo goood.
Our driver skillfully skinning a sugar cane with a machete.
and on a larger scale, mechanically juicing the sugar cane.
Fermented tobacco leaf.
We got the best cigar roller on the plantation to give us a demonstration of how they're made.
Bottle of mamajuana, Dominica's national drink. A bunch of roots and leaves (each family has their own blend) soaked in rum, red wine, and honey. A very very strong drink, you take shots of it like vodka ;D
Our guide also explained the process of transforming sugar cane juice into molasses and rum.
Third stop: Maria's farm.
Her colourful kitchen. It smelled absolutely divine when we stepped in.
Rene holding a vanilla vine. I was very disappointed that I didn't find any beans sold in bulk ._. Nor rum cakes "orz
Did you know that a banana tree can only fruit once? After it's picked, it will be cut down.
I like the pop of bright blue roofing ;D
A fruit of some kind, didn't catch the name. It's used to make bowls and containers of other sorts.
Cacao beans! Interesting fact about them is that they grow from the trunk or branches of the tree.
My favourite picture of the trip. Tis a rippened coffee bean.
Roasting in the sunlight~
And then smashed to remove the husk.
(my first thought after typing that was how in ragnarok frontier the beetle husks in Umbala got nerfed cause everyone was making millions off it. A friend of mine had a few thousand in storage and was majorly pissed off.)
Next up is cacao!
Looks pretty gross right out of the pod. The beans will be dried under the sun and then roasted.
Our guide working the grinder ;D
and out comes cacao nibs, intensely delicious.
The farm gave us quite a few samples:
Fresh coffee, black.
Hot chocolate, beats the commercial kind any day.
Ended up buying 2 jars of cacao, 1 jar of sugar, and a bottle of coconut oil (in hopes of making my hair nicer).
Last stop: lunch.
Our lunch place as beside a zip line ground.
Close up of a different tower.
Didn't bother taking pictures of the food, though it was quite delicious. After lunch we were dropped off at our resort to continue with the rest of our vacation~
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