La Caleta

After returning to Santo Domingo we still had a few more days of Community Based Training. We spent them with an environment volunteer named Victor in an area called Boca Chica east of Santo Domingo. The first day we spent most of the day in Parque Nacional La Caleta which is absolutely gorgeous and they’re starting to get it all set up as an area where tourists can take a quick day trip. On Thursday we went snorkeling. Did I mention I get seasick? Well, I do, so I took a dramamine hoping that would help because we were going to do a count of the aquatic life in the area because they’re trying to keep the area protected. However, the afternoon arrived with choppy waters and relatively overcast, but we loaded into the boats nonetheless. I didn’t see anything in the water unfortunately although my friends saw some stuff. It was so choppy that I wasn’t feeling super well from the beginning and then it started pouring rain so we made the decision to head for shore. Anyway, here’s some pictures from those couple days at the coast.


One of the boats coming back from snorkeling. It was dumping rain.

Claribel and Mark on the way back in from snorkeling.

Leeann, Sarah and our training director Jennifer McGowan on our snorkeling trip.

Two of my favorite boys! My Spanish professor Juan and my friend Cliff

A hermit crab I found at the beach.

My friend and professor, Claribel and I

Yes, I swear I'm in the Peace Corps!

Here's my whole group. I'd name them all but I'm running out of time and have lots of catching up to do still.

The rocks at La Caleta

The cemetery at La Caleta. Every time there's a hurricane some of them get damaged.

Amber Mines and Chocolate

Our last full day in La Cumbre was a busy one. We had class at the Mansion in the morning and then in the afternoon we had Spanish class which is where all the fun happened. First my friend Andrea’s host dad took us to check out the minas de ambar (amber mines) in the area. There is an area where there’s a bunch, some of them still being used, others of them not in use. It’s pretty interesting although not particularly environmentally friendly since they throw all the leftover stuff (which there’s more of than amber) over the sides of the hills into the valleys and creeks which definitely causes some pollution. These mines are not particularly safe either. There’s no sort of support system in the mines, plus we’re in a country that’s prone to earthquakes. Andrea’s host dad said that he was in one of the mines when there was an earthquake and it was really scary and really loud. We went in a little bit, enough to see a miner at work and decided we didn’t want to go any further. Here’s some pictures.


One of the nicer entrances to a mine that we saw. Mostly they were just holes in the ground, many of which looked difficult to enter.


Juan coming out of the mine.


Our miner friend hard at work. If you look behind him you can see the holes he’s working on.

This same afternoon we got a lesson in making chocolate. My friend Cliff lived with this great family who had a conuco (a little farm) in La Cumbre. They had cacao and while we were there some of it was ready to harvest. The ripe cacao pods are either yellow or purple. When they’re ripe you take them off the tree and crack them open. Inside it’s a bunch of white gooey looking stuff that’s actually quite tasty, like a sour sop for those of you who know what that is and how it tastes. Well, what you do next is take this white gooey stuff that is filled with big seeds and lay it out and let it ferment for several days under cover. After that you take the seeds out of the white stuff and dry them for several days. Then we get to the fun part that we got to be part of. We went to my Spanish professor Juan’s host family’s house, where his don, Rafael, showed us what to do and let us get our hands dirty as well. First you have to toast the seeds, which was done in a big pot on the stove top. Here’s a picture.



After that you had to take the husks off the seeds. Here’s Cliff and Rafael doing just that.


After that we used a hand turned grinder that was just like the flour grinder we have at Bean Haven for those of you who have seen it. Here’s Juan, Cliff and Kevin doing some grinding and then there’s me doing the grinding.


Here’s a close-up of the grinder.


After you grind it, then you add sugar and mix it in and grind it again, and then add more sugar and grind again if necessary.


Here’s the finished product. I personally think it still could have used a lot more sugar but I’m not the dark chocolate type. But overall a pretty cool process to participate in.

I’d been wanting to see some cheese made since I got to La Cumbre and found out that Ben’s dad was a lechero (milkman) and that his host mom made queso. We (my group that lived in Km 15) finally made a date for Sunday morning (the last free morning we had before we left La Cumbre) to see the process. Olivia, my friend Ben’s host mom had about 4-5 gallons of milk which she put in a big container. Then she added the cuajo (rennet) to the mix and stirred it in. Then we waited. After about 45 minutes she added some hot water because it was kind of a cool, wet day. Once the curds formed Arturo and Olivia separated the suero (whey) from the curds.

Arturo, Ben´s neighbor helping to drain out some of the whey.


Olivia, Ben´s host mom taking the whey out of the container.


Oh, such pretty curds


Olivia salting the curds.


My friend Ben packing the cheese into the mold.


The cheese getting pressed in the mold. We didn´t quite have exact weights to use to press it as you can see. Then we let it set like this for about 45 minutes.


Here’s Olivia proudly holding the finished product which was delicious by the way. We tried it right after this picture was taken!! It doesn’t get much fresher than that.

A Few More La Cumbre Pictures I Missed

My favorite view from La Cumbre. That´s a mango tree in the middle.


The neighbor Yomaira and her daughter Cristal


Moises, he was my cousin and my little 4-year-old boyfriend. Although I broke up with him once because he was stealing food from the other kids. But we worked it out.


My host mom Maria sold torta as I´m sure I mentioned before. Here´s her roadside stand.


My little host sister Lizbel. This is the best picture I have of her. She´s not a super smily child.


This is me dancing in the plaza with a cousin of my friend Mark´s host brother. Family´s get complicated here. And I´m not sure if we were dancing to a merengue or a bachata, although I´ve decided I like bachata music better.

Catching up!

So I’m way behind by now. I’m now in my site for a visit for a few days but more on that later. There’s lots to catch up on first.

Here’s some more pictures from La Cumbre from some planting and transplanting we did in our last week there. Following that are some pictures of a party we had at my friend Ben’s house for us and the birthday of his host dad Rafael.


Jaron preparing a box garden.

Alexis, Leeann, and Malia preparing a box garden.

Leeann and Mark with Kiri in the background in the middle.

Kevin checking out some seeds that Yeni had sprouted in CD cases.


Tim, our technical trainer, squatting, giving us a lecture about some aspect of transplanting.

Thinning some carrots.


Digging up some peppers to transplant to our bed.


Transplanting some tomatoes.


Lizbet, one of Jared´s host siblings


Andrea and Carlitos dancing up a storm in Ben´s living room.


My good friend Cliff and I


Jared, Kiri and Cliff


Ben and Yeni


Sarah, me, Kiri, and Jaron making a surprise entrance!


Sarah, me, Kiri


Sarah and Carlitos dancing. Carlitos was our dance instructor for the time in La Cumbre, mainly because he refused to not let us dance. He was my friend Jared´s host brother.


Yeni and Mark with bottle caps for eyes.


Jasmin, Alexis and Sarah getting dancing lessons from the pre-teens at the party.

Kevin´s new haircut, although he´s already had it cut again.

Lots of pictures of my friends and family in La Cumbre. I miss them!


A couple of the kids down and Cliff´s place, Jose and Wanda who always wanted to chat with me when I visited.


Kevin with Lizbel, Moises, and David


Kevin with Juana and her husband


Kevin with Yudelka, David, Joel, and Elvin. Moises was already sleeping and missed the picture.


More family that lives just up the road. Tito, La China, and Eddie


Kevin, David, and Edwin


Joel is my cousin in La Cumbre Elvin´s son and pretty cute all around!


Here´s my family in La Cumbre. Edwin, Lizbel, me, Maria, Arsenio, and Daury behind.


My little host brother Edwin trying to hide from the camera. It was a sneak attack picture.


My cousins Daury and David


Cristal is the neighbor´s daughter and Lizbel is my little sister.