Wednesday, March 25
I’ll bet you thought I forgot all about this, didn’t you? No… just life getting in the way. Here we are, moving on to an early Wednesday morning, when we arrived in port in the Dominican Republic. I was quite excited to greet this day.
Why was I awake at sunrise? Time change. Early excursion. Fear of missing out on the breakfast buffet. Mind your business.
This is the port where Hubs and I disembarked and went on a Coffee Experience excursion. It was one of the main highlights of the trip for me, despite an 8:30am departure time. We hopped an hour long bus ride to visit Tubagua Eco Lodge (www.dominican-republic-ecolodge.com) where a dude named Tim started up this little hideaway/coffee “thing.”
Here’s the gist of what we learned of the history of coffee in the Dominican Republic, the lazy blogging way (click to embiggen for the details). Oh, and yes, I realize I missed poster #1. I have no image of it. I do not know what happened.
In an open-air “classroom,” in a raised hut-like structure, we were treated to an interactive presentation. We learned about the way they start coffee plants that they then donate to a coffee farm to help them grow enough coffee for the eleven million people on the island. Tim was charmingly transparent about the fact that he makes money to run his operation not just from Ecolodge rentals, but by realizing that cruise ship passengers are more than happy to PAY to have the privilege of doing labor for him. <giggle> And so, we got to help plant a new generation of coffee. We each filled a bag with compost, added one bean, and topped it off.
After we’d all had our bean planting experience with photo ops, we walked back up to the “classroom,” where we continued to learn about the whole coffee making history and process.
While our guide, David translated for Ronaldo (the head coffee farmer dude), two women roasted some beans right in front of us and we learned about the whole process, from berry to cup. I’d really hoped to get some photos to make a collage with berries green coffee beans, roasted coffee beans, and a cup of joe. Alas, it was not picking season, so that did not happen.
Here’s how Ronaldo got the grinding started off while David taught us a little song.
A few of us took a turn with the bean masher (ha ha) while we all sang, “Maha, el cafecito” (mashing a little coffee). when it came to my turn, Hubs took video (he thought). Unfortunately, he missed the action (and the song) and thought he was stopping recording when he actually started it.
Once the beans were ground, The women made coffee with what David called a “Dominican Keurig.”
We all got a little taste (or maybe three), then headed down the trail on the property for an amazing (typical for DR) lunch to rival anything I’ve had on board the ship.
Before departing Tubagua, I purchased a couple of bags of their coffee to take back home.
Because the main economic source is tourism (as on most Caribbean and Bahamian islands), we made a few stops on our way back.
Back on the ship, Hubs, TG, and I spent some time at the pool before dinner, followed by some trivia and more of the comedic stylings of Alycia ? I was so tired from waking up early and the whole day, and couldn’t wait to go to bed. Didn’t even need melatonin!
Step count for the day: 12,527