Heads Up!

Why's everybody looking up there?

Because they are anxiously searching for a loose coconut that could, at any moment, plummet toward earth and smash their un-helmeted skulls open like they were.. well, coconuts.
The Samana

peninsula has one of the longest stands of continuous coconut palms in the world. From the sea they rise up to cover the hills and seem to go on to infinity. More trees... more danger!

Look out little buddy! Unlike the star of "Gilligan's Island", the coconuts don't drop on your head with a hollow sounding clunk, followed by a laugh track. Getting hit in the head by a falling coconut is no laughing matter. This is a real and ever present danger that some say accounts for over two thousand deaths world wide per year. Tropical storms with very high winds can launch this tropical fruit into the air like cannonballs. Even on a windless day, the ripe coconuts can fall from eighty feet or more. (It has been said that you are more likely to die from getting hit in the noggin by a coconut than by a shark attack.) Take into account an average coconut weighs close to five pounds and the trees can grow from sixty up to a hundred feet high, and you soon realize it doesn't take a physics degree to come to the conclusion that if you are standing directly in the path of the coconut when it falls, you may be seriously injured or even killed....

But, let's trust Dr. Peter Barss on this...in the Journal of Trauma entitled "Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts", he notes in his research that a coconut palm tree 82 feet in height, a coconut weighing five pounds or more falling 82 feet, would have a velocity of 50 miles per hour on impact and a force of as much as 2200 pounds! (Dr. Barss received an award by the editors of the Annals of Improbable Research in recognition of research that "cannot or should not be replicated".)

It took only one random coconut hurtling silently downward like an anvil from the sky, landing on the beach beside me with an emormous thump, before I got the really big picture. That was the end of MY research.

I have always wondered why hotel workers were up at the crack of dawn with 60 foot poles poking around in the clusters of coconuts at the tops of the trees. I used to think they were getting a ripe one down for the amusement of the hotel guests, or a delicious tropical drink, but now I know better. It's a safety issue. In the Dominican Republic, locals were constantly pointing upwards and gently moving me to the right or the left of a tree and reminding me of the danger. My very first warning was the day I arrived and a car rental company insisted I get the "coconut" insurance. More than a few tales of shattered windshields and dented hoods later, I decided to take public transportation instead.

Here's a

daring

and ex-

perienced

climber

going up

to shake

the loose

nuts from

the tree.

The Spaniards had never seen

coconuts before they arrived

in the Dominican Republic.

The name cocos came from the slang word in Spanish for "monkey face"

because of the three germination pores on the coconut that resemble two eyes and a nose. Sort of reminds me of someone...

"The coconut was the

milk bottle on the doorstep

of mankind"

Hugh C.Harries 1979 -

Principes 23, 143-148

Despite the ability to

instill fear,the coconut gives back.

It means well.

Every part of the coconut is useful.

Bees love the flowers!

The trunk

is used as

wood and

the leaves

are used as

roofing material.

The husks of the coconut fruit can be used for kindling. The shell, cut in half, can be used for bowls. The meat is edible while the milk tastes good and quenches your thirst. Fermented coconut milk is also popular as an alcoholic drink. Decorative items and even jewelry are made from the coconut!

Carpinteros

(woodpeckers)

love to make

their

nests in

dead coconut

trees.

They are also fun to climb! Especially when they start to bend over a little after time. They have ridges about every 6 inches or so that give you a fairly good foothold (and handhold) if you're agile enough. Above is a picture of one of my smaller friends, Hayes, climbing a Coco tree on Soliman Bay, Mexico and, in general, just monkeying around.

Useful fruit or deadly killer? Either way, when amongst the Coconut Palms, keep your eyes on 'em .... and your distance. To do otherwise would be NUTS!

www.florida-coconuts.com/coconuts.html for coconut recipes, where you can buy green coconuts, learn how to properly open a coconut and how to shred a coconut.

You can get hurt by flying coconuts in New Orleans too!
www.mardigrasdigest.com/html/zulu_coconuts.html

http://www.latinamericayourway.net/

The End of the Road

Or is it the beginning?

The dirt, bumpy, pot holed, road NE of Samana passes through the tiny fishing village of Las Galeras, then abruptly ends smack on the beach. How bumpy was it? So bumpy we had a flat tire for a few miles and didn't even feel it. (We only pulled over then because people along the road kept waving and pointing at the tire.) So bumpy a lovely Canadian woman, (Hello Helen!) told me she had previously had back problems, but after hitting a few especially teeth rattlin' holes on the way there, something just 'clicked" into place during the ride and her back hadn't felt so good in years! (Don't try this at home kids.)

Las Galeras is a tight knit community numbering less than two thousand with many living on small farms throughout the lush countryside. Time slows down here. It doesn't run past like a scared rabbit. A few times I think it might have actually stopped. . The people make a living fishing of course, but also make a bit of money from the tourists who make the extra effort to arrive here.

When you hit the end of the road, you'll be right on the beach. If you need any boat transportation Ambiori (left)is the guy you need to look for.

Just yell his name and he'll find you. He was very helpful in arranging boat trips for me during my stay and on a SUPER lazy Sunday when I may have been the only gringa in town, he taught me La Bachata, the preferred dance of the "campo". Well, he tried anyway.

The area boasts one of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world...Playa Rincon.

The easiest, most memorable way to arrive here is by boat. More hair raising, bumpy, out of your seat transportation! (Theme parks should try to replicate this.) Crashing out into the surf in a small, light weight boat from the beach at Las Galeras, heading out to sea, and then riding the waves back in to the beach at Playa Rincon, is a real adrenaline booster. Yeeee-haaaa! Trust your boat captain and enjoy the ride. He knows what he's doing. Don't be nervous when you realize there are no life jackets.


Jesus, my captain that day, told me he had been fishing and boating on these waters for twenty years and only lost one person overboard...his own grandfather..and it was at night...but they found him, fished him out, and all was well.

(For someone with twenty years of experience

he looked to be about, oh, 30 years old?)

For now, Rincon is a pristine, white sand beach, with crystal clear water, and coconuts swaying in the tropical breeze as far as your eye can see... This is probably everyone's idea of the Caribbean beach they thought only existed in glossy travel ads, or Corona beer commercials. The beaches are public, but there is a rumor that Julio Iglesias is buying up the land behind it for a mega resort. That means all the people from the resort will flood the beach. Of course the rumor could be completely unfounded as they so often are, but someone, someday, WILL buy the land. Time's a wasting! Make those travel plans now, before they cut all the coconut trees down so they can build swimming pools, bars, kiddie playgrounds, shuffle board courts, mini golf courses, well, you get the idea.

I spent a pleasant, peaceful day there.

A family had a makeshift eating area

set up under a palapa and I snacked

on fresh caught, charcoal broiled

lobster. The most succulent, tasty

lobster I've ever eaten.


Here's the kitchen area.

Fresh fish on the barbie!

Has a dishwasher

ever had a better view?

Add a few of the

local Presidente

beers (grande please!)

and paradise found!

Noooo, I didn't drink all of those

dead soldiers in the picture,

but I did add a few bottles to the pile.....

At the end of the day, the boat trip back to Las Galeras seemed even more exhilarating than the ride in... Life jackets? We don't need no stinking life jackets!

There are other stunning beaches in the area too. Playa Madame and Playa Fronton to name a few.

As beautiful as the beaches are, the people who live here are what make the area so attractive. Their warmth, dignity, humor, and generosity, are boundless. They are poor in the monetary sense, but rich beyond compare with a sense of community, the bountiful harvests from the sea, and the calming assurance that their lives will be as stress free and unhurried "manana" as it was today. No medication required.

THIS STUFF IS GOOD!

Take a long look at the odd, pod shaped, fruit hanging from the tree below. I'm sure almost everyone in the world has tasted this fruit at least once.

I'm talking about chocolate. Did you ever think....hmmmm...Where does it come from? (No, not heaven. That's a good guess though.) Or what does it consist of? What IS it? Well just in case you ever do, and don't already know, the above picture is of a Cacao tree laden with fruit. Chocolate and cocoa are made from the seeds of this ridiculous looking fruit protruding awkwardly from the trunk. If the tree world has personalities, the Cacao tree has got to be a cartoon character.

Although chocolate may have a humble, modest, almost downright embarrassing beginning on the tree, it has been highly revered for thousands of years. The Aztec ruler Moctezuma ceremoniously welcomed the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes in 1513 with a cup of it...just after being asked to hand over the valuables. It was the drink of the Gods. Monteczuma had held in his hand the equivalent of a gold foil wrapped chocolate coin...worth zillions, but Cortes didn't think much of it, although he reported it did give him some pep during his laborious destruction of the city of Tenochtitlan while in search of silver and gold. The Aztec king knew "xocoatl", (cacao) was his most precious possession. It was rare, probably only enjoyed by the regal Aztec few, and perhaps even used for a type of currency. The Aztecs drank cacao with a hot chile spice or vanilla, so it was pretty bitter. It would be over 100 years after Cortes returned to Spain with goods from the new world that someone thought about putting sugar in it. Chocolate became an overnight sensation. (Some claim Spanish Royalty knew all about the recipe all those many years and kept the secret to themselves. Who could blame them?) Chocolate "bars" popped up all over Europe where the elite and affluent went to drink the thick, sweet, rich, and exotic beverage . The rest is history.

Inside the pods is a slimy goo, sort of cotton candyish, that is edible, but not too tasty. Inside the goo are the seeds.

They're taken out, dried, and then ground into a powder or cocoa...the stuff of which Milky Ways are born. Miracles really do happen.

Cacao trees flourish in tropical climates, mostly as an understory plant. The Dominican Republic supplies only about one percent of the world's supply of cacao, but for a country the size of Vermont and New Hampshire, and considering supply and demand, that's quite a chunk of chocolate.

You can buy real cacao pods from Puerto Rico here! www.montosogardens.com (click on the online store, then fresh tropical fruits) You can roast the seeds and make your own special blend of cocoa, or try growing a tree from the seeds. (Yellow usually means riper.)

There are some instructions on how to grow a cacao tree here. www.ehow.com/how_2104210_grow-cacao.html

For lots more information on what is decidedly my favorite tree can be found here:
www.xocoatl.org/tree.htm (The History of Chocolate )

and here: http://www.outofculture.org/