Since our last blog, Top shelf has moved around the SW corner of Puerto Rico to La Parguera, the most western town on the south coast. This post is the second of 3 post regarding the Dominican Republic.
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| Marian Puerto Bahia |
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| Rural DR |
As we traveled to Samana DR during the night, I had a secret plan in mind. Once we got to Samana, Julianne's birthday was in 2 days, so I had heard of the Dominican Tree House Village, that was 30 minutes from Samana. In keeping with Julianne's introduction "outside the wire", I thought a few days here would be a great birthday present. Once and a while I get it right!
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| Julianne in the Tree House |
After spending Sunday at Marina Puerto Bahia, well protected inside the wire, we got a ride from Richado up the mountain to the rain forest where the tree house village is located. Leaving Samana, we both got a first hand look at rural life in the Dominican Republic.
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| Outdoor Shower |
Once we arrived, our driver carried our bags a 1/4 mile up the mountain to the registration hut. We quickly found that the rural folks in the DR are very nice, and they are willing to help you in any way they can...for a gratuity. I quickly found that I needed to carry less than 1,000 pesos bills ($20) or I would quickly go broke!
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| The Tree House |
Another porter, carried our bags up another 300 feet to our tree house (a well deserved 1,000 pesos). This tree house was built on the side of a box canyon in the rain forest. Inside, the room is basically a floor with an attached bathroom and an open air shower that was carved into the side of the canyon. The bed had a mosquito net over it for obvious reasons.
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| Bed with Mosquito Screen |
We had the afternoon, so we decided to take bikes 3 miles down to the beach. On the ride down, we saw some natives slaughtering a pig on the side of the road. I stopped to watch, but Julianne kept riding. I decided I had better catch up.
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| Julianne in the Beach Caves |
We got to the beach and had a great afternoon exploring the rock formation and had a traditional DR lunch including La Pina (pineapple juice out of a cored pineapple) and whole fish Dorado (mahi-mahi). On the way back, we got off the bikes and played baseball with some of the local kids and their dad.
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| La Pina at the Beach |
Later that afternoon, I convinced two of the locals that ran the zip line to take me up for a private tour (remember the 1,000 peso notes!). The zip line ran below our tree-house, so the plan was that Julianne would film me going by the tree-house. The plan fell apart as the tree house manager made her a second Pina Colada.
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| Zip'n over the Waterfall |
The next day, after a very relaxing night under the mosquito net in the jungle, we went to go horseback riding. We had to drive in the van down to Samana, where we picked up a very nice young lady from Spain. She couldn't speak a word of English, so we had fun all day trying out our mangled Spanish on her.
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| The Conquistadors |
The horse ride was incredible. Not because of the beautiful waterfalls at the end of the trail, but because of the rural logistics needed to move over 500 horses through the jungle. All of the local Resorts offer the folks to go "outside the wire" on a horseback riding excursion. Obviously, lots of folks sign up. The logistics involve rural DR kids, who bring their horse to the starting point where the tour owner assigns their horse to a tourist. The kids then run beside their horse, or guide their horse in most cased along a completely overused trail in 6 inches of mud and rocks, 2 miles to the waterfall.
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| 500 Horses to the Waterfall |
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| Riders at the Waterfall |
We mounted our horses, along with the Spanish girl, and quickly took off with our young guides. They saw that we were all comfortable on horses, so they had us move quickly by the literally hundreds of horses on the trail. The incredible part of this experience was to look at the expressions of horror on 90% of the tourist on horseback. They had not been outside the wire, and this was full immersion into the DR rural culture.
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| At the Campfire |
Later that night, back at the tree house, we met a nice family from Philadelphia. After getting past the Eagles vs Patriots jokes, we had a nice time talking with them and cooking marshmallow around the camp fire.
The next morning we got up early and left the tree house as we had our annual sales meeting. Julianne and I were joining the meeting via video conference.
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| Long Awaited Coconut Bread |
But before we left the tree house. The two DR woman who did the cooking, made us two loafs of Coconut Bread. Ryan had told me of this special Caribbean bread back in the Bahamas. I now would have two loaves on Top Shelf!
Next: Beth & Rob visit from Hilton Head
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| Suspension Bridge at the Tree House |
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