Day 4 (Continued)

After I posted previously, a sudden tropical thunderstorm descended upon the resort. It was awesome, in both its contemporary and its classical meanings.

Also, all the walking around I did, I ended up with a blister on my pinky toe. That's a lot less awesome (again, in both senses of the word).

So, that was quite an experience, the safari jungle tour.



Granted, it could have been better described as "rural farm tour," but given that the farms and such were in the jungle, I think the description was accurate if a touch misleading.

It was interesting to scratch beneath the surface of the regular tourist areas, that's for sure. If I thought the poverty was apparent before... Wow. We visited one of the better-off farms (in no small part, no doubt, thanks to the deal the family made with the tour company,) where three buildings with a total of five rooms housed fifteen people.







Given this family was able to afford electricity via some solar panels - enough to power their stove, a television, and a radio, at the very least - I can only imagine how some of the surrounding families lived.



Here's their outhouse...



...and their shower.



There, I got to try home-made Mama Juana, and I had the best hot chocolate I've ever had in my life, bar none.



It was made from scratch; the woman who made it shaved the cocoa, mixed it with cinnamon, then added cane sugar and boiling water. Everything was made right there on her farm. I can only imagine how good it would have tasted with milk instead of water.

Here's the family's coffee-maker.


We visited a school that's funded in large part by profits from the tour itself, as well, and stopped at a beach for horseback riding.

That's right, I went horseback riding for the second time in my life. I enjoyed it a great deal more than I did the first time - maybe now that I'm older, I can appreciate such things more? Dunno. Anyway, the horses we were given were pretty damn skinny, and in theory were trained to follow the horses ahead of them, while the professional riders lead the group along a trail. I say in theory because my horse kept deciding he didn't want to do any of this following business, so I had to work to keep him on-track.





Also, we visited a cigar factory, and much like the jewellery factory the day before, it's not really the sort of thing one associates with the word "factory," at least not when you come from a Canadian context. The building only had a single wall. If I smoked cigars, I might have taken more of an interest, but I don't so I didn't.



I mentioned that there was lots of rum, yes? Well, yeah. Lots of rum. It should be noted that drinking in vehicles is not allowed, but it IS permitted. I even had some coconut rum, by which I mean rum in a coconut with some lime.



The entire trip suffered from periodic downpours of rain throughout the day, but all in all it didn't bother any of us too much.

Oh, two final notes...

Even in the middle of nowhere, you can't get away from politics...



...and that Walter guy, I got it wrong. His name's Walter Musa, and Sindico is, I think, the position he's going for.

DAILY DRINK TALLY:
-4 Rum and Coke
-1 Rum and Sprite
-1 Mama Juana
-1 Waterfall
-1 Tequila Sunrise