Dominican Republic and Curacao, Willemstad

Clearly I’m having to good a time as this is my first post for the world cruise J.   We docked in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on Sunday and Curacao, Willemstad on Wednesday.  I like to take excursions that give me a feel for a country, so in both of these locations I went out into the countryside to see a cacao processing facility, a former plantation and some lovely beaches. 

In the Dominican, it was a long drive out to the cacao processing facility.  This island still has much development ahead as most people in the countryside have no running water and sanitation works seems to be non-existent.   After visiting the plant we stopped at a family-run farm where they grow cocoa and show the full process.   I’ve seen this before, both in India and in Boston.  Yup, Boston.  Behind the Old North Church is a chocolate shop where they show how early settlers processed their chocolate.  I should be an expert on it by now.

For photos we start with a cocoa pod, and as the second photo shows, there can be many pods hanging around on these trees.

 

The inside of a pod (this one has already been half emptied). 

The dried cocoa beans being pounded… for a long time.

 

Not sure this is how I want to eat my chocolate.

 





Everything in Willemstad is colorful with brightly painted buildings in the city and the countryside.

 

 

In Curacao walking along this row of market stalls you hardly notice how this differs from many city markets…

 

 

 

It’s actually a floating market.  The boats go back and forth to Venezuela to load up on produce and fish to sell.