Family Trip

My mom, dad and grandma came to visit!!  They were here late Wednesday night through Monday afternoon.  Thursday they toured the colonial zone during the day.  We met up after work to visit Jardin Botanico Nacional (National Botancial Garden).  We saw lots of pretty flowers, trees, gardens, and birds.  Then, we checked out la zona colonial at night and tried some Dominican cuisine for dinner.

Friday’s intineray included a day trip to the beautiful Guayacanes beach, eating fresh fish on the beach for lunch, local market shopping(crazy to say the least), and supermercado shopping.

We went to the mountain town of Jarabacoa Satuday and Sunday.  A 2 ½ bus hour ride took us to this town in the middle of Cordillera Central (mountain range).  We walked all over the town, toured a local coffee factory, hiked to two waterfalls, enjoyed time in the town’s central park, rode motoconchos to la confluencia (where the 2 rivers meet) and enjoyed local food.

National Botanical Garden

sugarcane

Playa Guayacanes

lunch restaurant

Jarabacoa

el rio

a fruit called manzana de agua

They were a little unsure about the new fruit...

Café Monte Alto does every step of the coffee production in Jarabacoa (from growing the bean all the ways to packaging the final product).  The company has 3 farms with 150 workers per farm to harvest the beans.  Then, the beans go through many steps before it ends up in your coffee cup.

little coffee plants before they are transferred to the fields

machine that takes off the outer shell

drying the beans

bags and bags of coffee beans

women picking out the bad beans

a machine that also sorts the good from the bad

samples!

coffee plant

Cafe Monte Alto is the name of the company.

El Salto Jimenoa Dos—We reached this waterfall after a series of swinging bridges.  We also took a short hike to check out some Dominican flora.  

Motoconcho Rides!

La Confluencia-where the rivers meet

the town of Jarabacoa

fresh fruit and vegetable stands are a common site in this fertile area

huge tree in Jarabacoa's Central Park

the view from our hotel balcony

El Salto Baiguate is another beautiful waterfall.  It was much more powerful than normal because of all of the rain recently.  

We even got the privilege of experiencing a political rally for the upcoming presidential elections!

Dominican food at one of my favorite restaurants, Adrian Tropical.  We are eating overlooking the Caribbean Sea.

Mangola---a smoothie with passion fruit and mango

I also had great helpers at school for a day!  

Mom and Grandma are each teaching reading groups in the back.

Dad is helping students one-on-one.