Vacation Pics - part 4

This is part 4 of a series of posts about our trip. Scroll down to see parts 1-3.

Our next stop was Samana, Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. This country is still largely undeveloped, so the nature was mostly left untouched which made for a great ATV tour. We went through many back roads and mud paths to see beaches, rivers, and a waterfall. It was great seeing much of the lush countryside, but also was a reality check seeing how the people of the country live in poverty. Begging is common here and we were hit up quite a bit for "dollar." That's the most English I believe the people speak out that far. Tourism is definitely a big resource for the families of Samana.

Onto the pictures - first is our caravan of ATVs all lined up and waiting. Both the sweetie and I rode an instructor's ATV as neither of our original ones worked properly. They were nice about letting us have their rides.


Here's a spot right by where we tendered to shore from the ship. There are no docks for cruise ships here.

My sweetheart getting ready to go!

And we're off - through rivers and mud.

Here's the local bank we found along the way. The security here must not be quite as important.

This is El Valle Beach, the beach we stopped at for fresh pineapples and drinks.

Isn't this beautiful?

Me with my tasty drink.

The hubby in front of a beautiful setting.

Us together... we did take the trip together, see?

Some amazing flora I found on our hike to the waterfall.

And here's the Zumbador waterfall.

It was another beautiful sight to see.

And here's a self portrait with my snazzy helmet. Safety first!

And once we got back into town, we headed for a local place to dig up some good food. Of course everything, including the menu, was in Spanish. Thank heavens the hubby knew enough to get us some delicious food and also could shoo away the boys wanting to clean our muddy sandals for "dollar." We passed, as the sandals weren't any sort of shoe to clean.

This is the restaurant.

And the streetscape (Sorry for the poor quality, we had to buy a disposable since we ran out the batteries on our digital.)

And here is La Churcha - a church brought over from England in the 1860's and rebuilt here.

And that was a full day. We headed back to the ship for another night's rest for our last stop.