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Start of
another day, and yet another tour! This day started with a
trip to the Ron Brugal Rum Factory. Here is their link www.brugal.com.
The Brugal Rum Company is big business in the D.R. So is cigar
making.
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Outside by
the shop for the tourists, they had samples of the equipment
used in the past for crushing the sugar cane and refining
the sugar cane liquids into Molasses, which was then refined
into the rum. Cane fields from all over the country supply
the Rum Factory.
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Here the
finished rums are blended and automatically put into bottles.
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Which are
then cased and put onto trucks for delivery world wide.
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Here is a
truck full of molasses coming into the factory.
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Here is a
sample of their most common 5 Extra Vintage sizes. They make
about 10 kinds of rum.
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Next was
a trip to the top of the mountain overlooking Puerta Plata.
The bump on the top is where the statue of Christ is located.
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Looking back
onto the city from about half way up...this is one of the
oldest cities in the Carribean. Near here is where Columbus
first set foot in the new world.
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Looking down
onto the city. An old spanish fort is in the corner, top right,
under some clouds. You can see freighters unloading...the
bigest one is an oil tanker.
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There is
a large statue of Crist, just like the one in Rio at the top
of the mountain. The clouds were moving very fast along the
top of the mountain, making it very surreal.
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Self taken
shot looking down onto the city
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The Dominican
Republic has alot of very green fertile hills and mountains...not
like the Bahamas at all, which is much browner and flatter...
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Some folks
took my picture before I had to head back down to the city.
Most of the tourists were Canadians and Europeans...most in
their 60's, 70's and 80's. Lots of Germans....
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This is what
alot of the city traffic is like. Lots of motorcycle, or "motoconcho"
taxi's. Very dangerous. Everyone said to avoid these kinds
of taxi's.
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A farmers
market. Notice the vest on the motorcycle driver, that means
he is a licensed taxi driver.
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The city
court yard. Very beautiful buildings, some almost 400 years
old surround the plaza.
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Some newer
buildings from the 18th century.
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And a brand
new church...
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Lots of locals
and tourists rest, eat and enjoy the plaza. It is one of the
prettiest places I saw in the city.
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Here is the
the San
Felipe Fort, which was started in 1549 to prevent pirate
attacks.
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Here is a
shot from the plaza in front of the fort.
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I put the
camera on autotimer, and took this shot. My camera is resting
on another cannon...
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A shot looking
north into the bay the fort guards. I was the most fascinated
by the castle of all the spots the tour went to that day...but
all the other tourists were more interested in the cable car
and/or Amber Museum. People now days just don't appreciate
a good castle or fort!
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After the
fort, we went to The
Amber Museum and store located in downtown Puerta Plata.
Some of the best clear "honey' amber in the world comes
from the Dominican Republic. A fair amount has insects and
such from millions of years ago embedded into the stones.
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Here is actually
a lizard, which was caught inside the sap. Very expensive.
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Roaches from
millions of years ago. They would probably start to crawl
around and breed if cut out of the stones....LOL....
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Beetles,
Mosquitos, etc. Any dinosaur DNA in that mosquito? The jewelry
here was too expensive, but I did find a nice place that sold
amber with bugs in it, and bought several for Teresa!
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Sadly, a
fair number of the last days were rainy. But it didn't stop
diving and swimming at least! All too soon it was time to
head back to the U.S.
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