Our first stop on the cruise was in Samana, in the Dominican Republic. This island is largely undeveloped, and many people on the boat we talked to took a cruise excursion to a private island for the day (which, fyi, we got the impression that everyone felt they were ripped off).

We had booked a tour online before we left with this guy Terry, an American expat who has settled in Samana.  He took us to his family’s property and showed us some interesting plants, including coffee beans growing:

Oak on the family property.  It had the most amazing view of the ocean from the top of the mountain.

We stopped for lunch and some beach time.  We took a walk down to some interesting bolders.  Of course Oak has to off-road:

For lunch, we had an island medley cooked up by an old Samanan (?) woman.  It was all tasty – fresh veggie salad, rice and beans, plantain and root vegetable,chicken and fish.

We stopped a shop that had this crazy “island moonshine” but really it was more like a mulled wine.  It had a bunch of different spices and flowers inside the bottle. We tried a sample but it wasn’t too tasty.. haha

And, we spotted some island chickens.  How could I resist?

Oh, our new camera came this week.  So, I will be back with more house photos eventually!

Posted by Carrie on Sunday, March 28, 2010
Categories: blog, cruise2010, travel · 1 Comment »