Thursday - Mega Trucks

On the Thursday of our week in the Dominican Republic, we went on the Mega Trucks excusion.  This was a full day excursion, and we enjoyed it.  Lots of opportunity to see more of the Dominican, including more homes, schools, another beach, etc.

Our ride arrived around nine o'clock in the morning.

I think 28 people could fit in the vehicle, plus the guides.  Our group was 24 people, plus the driver, the narrator, the Paparrazi, and one more guy whom they called the bartender.

For every picture in this post, there's about 3 more that I didn't post.  For every picture we took, there's about 5 that we didn't take!  It was so hard to capture everything.

A street in a town...somewhere!

Thursday must be laundry day, we saw many many houses with laundry over the railings, fences, sometimes a clothesline of sorts.

At one point we had to stop for a herd of cattle to go by. It is really uncommon in Canada. When our farmers have cattle on the road, they go banannas, drive like crazy to get there, and call in the cowboys. A young man was prodding them along.

This picture is a little blurry but it is a cocoa bean.

Egrets.

Termites.

We would very often see partially finished homes, or buildings - often just part of the foundation.  For most houses, property taxes are only paid when it is built, and when it is bought/sold.  I believe if the house is never finished, you don't pay the property taxes.

I was able to zoom in and see the inside of this house.

Our first stop was in a little village, where we had the opportunity to look at the houses, and even go through one of them.  Mega Trucks sponsors these villages in some way, and in return, the tourists are brought to them.

This is the house we were able to enter on our tour.  A mother and her two sons lived there.  The whole house is about 15 feet square (at least that is my guess).

This was the view behind the house...beautiful!

Inside, the house was split down the middle.  On one side was the living room, as shown below.

On the other side, the bedroom was one part, and I'm told a kitchen was the other part, but the curtain was drawn in front of that room.  It already felt strange to go traipsing through someone's house - the woman was sitting on her front porch while we all went through - the last thing I was going to do was peak behind curtains! :)

There was a door on each end of the house, so we could walk right though it.  Outside the back door there was this little building.

Another home in this village, it was much more run down.

A cactus hedge used as a fence. We saw as many of these as we see evergreen hedges here in Canada.

The ubiquitous dogs and chickens. Chickens run free like the cattle do.

In this village, a number of the men worked carving soapstone and other wood.  The items were available for sale.

We also had an opportunity to taste some coffee from fresh coffee beans, and a small amount of chocolate from the cocoa.

These were some roasted coffee beans.

The chocolate powder...it was quite bitter.

We resumed our travels, and came across some banana trees.

A school.  This school is also sponsored by the Mega Trucks operation.

Some of the terrain we drove through.

Part of this excursion included a 45 minute horse-back ride.  This was one of the reasons Rob and I chose this excursion over another very similar one by another operator.

We had gone horse back riding during our trip out west in May 2008 and we really enjoyed it.  I think that ride was about 2 hours long, but I was far more sore after this 45 minute ride than that 2 hour ride.  I think because the horses were allowed to go a little faster.  Most of the time they were just walking, but the tour guides would ride by periodically and excite the horses a bit and then they would trot or more.  Plenty of bouncing...enough so that I was reminded everytime I sat down for the next day or two!  It was fun though!

Yes, it was still January... :)

Lisa, this picture is for you!  I was ahead of Rob, and he had the camera, but I managed to ask him to get a picture of these pigs - they were so cute. :)

Since Rob had the camera, I wasn't able to get a picture of him until the end of the ride, when he was being asked to dismount, so we didn't have time to get a good picture.

We dismounted from the horses near the lunch facilities, so we walked over for a hot lunch, in colourful surroundings.  These buildings were most likely built and maintained by Mega Trucks.

Scenery at our lunch location.

Pineapples.

After lunch, we climbed back into the truck and continued our trek through the country side and some villages.

This village had a central park.

And a car wash!

This is a bridge under construction.  It is being built by the government, and it seems no one expects it to be done anytime soon.

So, in the meantime, this is what the "road" is like.

We headed to a private beach, and along the way the way there was some lovely scenery.

Relaxing at the beach...or trying to!  My attempts to sit in a hammock were rather amusing to any who happened to see it!  A complete somersault. :)  Thankfully Rob didn't have the camera! (But, this is Rob now, I was very thankful Karen was not hurt, because - bang! - she was on the sand.)

After an hour at the beach, we made one more stop, at a place where they made cigars, and "mama juana".  "Mama juana" is an herbal medicine that reportedly cured all ills.  We could sample it (yuck!) and it was also available for sale.

Ponies are another form of transportation.

On the Mega Truck Tour and the Dune Buggy excursion, one of the guides is called the "Paparazzi", and follows along videoing the day.  I just think it is funny that they really call them the "Paparazzi." :)

The last picture for this post...a fellow tourist kindly took this shot of Rob & I.