After all the mornings activities we were starving and it was time for lunch. We had traditional dominican food and it was amazing. We had beans and rice, fried chicken, pasta salad, potato salad and fresh fruit.
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| look at those bananas. I had no idea that each tree only gets one bunch of bananas and then it has to be cut down...it will never produce a second bunch of bananas. |
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| then we went to a rum distillery |
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| about to try a sample of mamajuana. A traditional dominican drink- 12 unique herbs, xpices and barks native to the DR, honey, red wine and rum.... |
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| this is a cinnamon tree |
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| this is called a traveler palm...i think...anyways, it just grows like that |
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| this is me going through the kitchen of a dominican home... |
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| but they do as much of their cooking as possible out doors |
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| louis drinking coffee or hot chocolate... |
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| I was trying to take a picture of the chicken and didnt even see the little green parrot in the trees |
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| coffee and cocoa beans |
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| louis is getting the juice from the sugar cane squeezed into his mouth...it taste like watermelon kinda... |
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| my turn |
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| getting ready to try raw sugar |
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| louis too, of course |
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| That guy owns the coffee/chocolate plantation and is roasting beans coffee beans |
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| then he grinds them up |
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| this is chocolate. When you break open the pods they're all white and slimy. Then once you roast them, you can grind them and then you get cocoa powder which you can make chcolate bars or whatever out of |
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| hot chocolate |
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| getting ready to sample a raw cocoa bean. you cant at the little bean in this form. We were trying the white slimy stuff actually...it tasted fruity |
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| once you sucked as much of the white slimy stuff off as you could, you just threw the little bean away |
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| here are cocoa pods- the yellow things, then cocoa beans that have been roasted and are ready to grind and then a tin of cocoa butter. You can see the sugar cane that is all messed up in the middle from it being wrung into everyone's mouth. |
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| eating raw sugar cane. Another thing you just chewed on and got the flavor and then discarded the rest. Its super fibrous and you cant really eat it. |
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| cocoa pod on the tree |
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| they really had decorated the resort for Halloween by the time we got back that evening |
