Cool mountain air of DR



 To say that it’s hot in Luperon would be an understatement. There are days when you wake up and there’s no wind in the harbour and it makes for a rude start to the day. Just doing dishes, you have to stop after washing a few pieces to mop off the sweat dripping down your face and arms. So the dishes only get done once every other day lol. Too hot for such a menial chore 🥵

The harsh reality is that the hottest month is around the corner. August apparently is quite hot. It makes us drool just thinking of nice white snow swirling around us .🥶

For a little bit of reprieve from the sweltering heat, we took a mini vacation to the town of Constanza, which is surrounded by the highest mountains of the Dominican Republic, and also, I believe, the highest of the Caribbean. It sits close to 4000 feet (1 164 meters) and has the coldest weather of the island. Woohoo !! 25 degrees in the daytime and low of 15 at night Brrr! Now that’s chillin 😎  

The mountains are absolutely spectacular and it’s also where close to 90% of the vegetables are grown for the DR. Fields of cabbage, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, garlic and strawberries to name a few. You can smell the onion fields from a distance. Hard to imagine that some people don’t like them 🧅. The avocados are gigantic. One of them equals 4 or 5 of those sold in Canada. What a treat to have this on our door step.

The fields are all tended by hand. Very few machinery. No animals, at least none that we saw, no pesticides so pretty much all is organic and so cheap to buy. How wonderful!

Driving through the mountains was awesome. Cool fresh air, big vegetable fields, verdant hills and let’s not forget; crazy drivers. Lol 

Even though we’re not in the city, the Dominicans from every corner of the island are some of the worst drivers we’ve ever encountered. There seems to be no rules or regulations. Red lights don’t matter, double yellow lines are just a pretty colour painted on the asphalt, one lane becomes three and passing a vehicle in a blind corner going up a hill is a simple manoeuvre. Motorcyclists,  those who have a helmet, seem to prefer to hang it over the backlight instead of wearing it. It never ceases to amaze us how many people and packages can fit on a tiny motorcycle. 

I must say that Mike has developed and perfected the Dominican driver attitude so off we go galavanting around the isand with ease of mind.😳

So now vacation is over. Time to get to work and start preparing the boat for when hurricane season ends and we can resume our sea travels. We’ve got some minor projects that we want done and hopefully the marina next door will pay their arrears and reopen in the near future so that we can haul out to do the bigger repair. 

Stay tuned, we might need another wee vacation before leaving the harbour of Luperon lol 😄

Cheers

Mike and Pierrette

Finally a selfie that we both like. Lol. Mountains of Constanza behind us

Town of Constanza from highest peak

Our hotel in Constanza 

Lush hills of Constanza 

Town of Jarabacoa. They love their hanging  parasols 

Beautifully decorated  bike . Town of Jarabacoa 

Feeding my favourite piggie . She loves carrots 🥕 

Planted fields on the mountain side

Vegetable field in Constanza 

Constanza 

Donkey coming to join us for happy hour at the bar lol

Awindow of our hotel room with big peach tree (full of 🍑)spectacular clouds- Luperon Harbour 

Our feline guests at the restaurant in Puerto Plata

Our favourite beach-Luperon 

Beautiful sunrise-Luperon 

Local dish - Sancocho (meat & veggies soup)

Comments

  1. Wow 🤩 nice pictures, very happy for you, quite the adventure, stay safe and keep enjoying yourselves 🍷😎🥰🍻

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great blog and pic's as usual glad you enjoyed your mini vacation.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks great! Can't wait to show the kids tomorrow. That peach tree made my mouth water. It was good to see a picture with you both together. What is your next planned destination??

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  4. Belle ville Constanza de beaux paysages ,les fleurs, les légumes et les fruits en abondance et pas chers quoi de mieux. Bonne préparation pour la suite ,hâte de vous suivre .

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey guys, hope you are good. It's the end of August and we keep checking for the next post....
    Hugs from your old neighbors.

    ReplyDelete

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