Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Oct 3 Hello Dominican Republic

Oct 3, 2013

Dominican Republic could not be any more different from Turks and Caicos. DR is a rugged, steep, vast, mountainous volcanic island containing Pico Duarte Mountain at 10,400 ft, making it the highest point in the Caribbean. In total DR is about 18,700 square miles and has a population of 10 million. Comparatively, Turks and Caicos islands are mostly flat with a few hills and all the islands amount to about 140 square miles and population of 31,000.

Often times we chose to explore the places less traveled by tourists and DR is no different. After an unnerving drive from Santiago, we arrived in Jarabacoa. It is deep within the center, or "Cibao" of DR. Ryan says driving here is like a video game, dodging trucks backing up, cars parked in the road, caballeros riding their horses and endless motorbikes zooming in and out of traffic in all directions. In TCI, I was the main driver and got really good at driving on the other side of the road, but here I remain in the passenger seat trying to avoid my anxiety getting the best of me. Pictured above is our little rental car and second floor room at Rancho Baiguate.

We walked around the grounds and the resident dogs, or "perros," joined us. 

 
The flowers here are reminiscent of Costa Rica and Hawai'i. So beautiful! 

Ryan checks out bananas at the source. 

A lovely iris. 

View from our hammock.


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