Authentic Local Experiences of living in the Dominican Republic: Cacao Heaven
After living in Germany for two years, I found myself saying goodbye to my sisters in Hamburg, for what I thought would be just six weeks. My trip was only supposed to be for a couple of weeks in Australia (followed by four weeks of planned travel in Bali), before returning home to Germany. Little did I know that the two weeks planned of being in Australia, would turn into one whole year of being in the country (many thanks to global pandemic).
That one spontaneous year in Auz turned out to be the best year of my life (so far). Thanks to an epic travel and volunteer platform called ‘Workaway’, I experienced living in a number of conscious yoga communities (read more about here); where I experienced the most incredible soul connections, dove deep into plant medicine and unexpectedly met my twin flame after a series of serendipitous events.
A series of serendipitous events led me to meeting my twin-flame, Alex, within my unexpected year in Australia.
The Universe works in mysterious ways, and over the years I have learnt to follow the graceful guidance that she so often whispers to me in the voice of my intuition. The same whispers which guided me to remain in Australia before the global lock downs took place, also guided me to leave Australia one year later to go and live in the Dominican Republic with my beloved. It’s funny to me because this is the life that I have always wanted to live. One of pure freedom, travel, adventures in tropical climates, whilst immersed in cultures rich in love. I remember being in my final year of University in 2015, actively manifesting (through vision boarding & visualisation) the life that I have been living for the past five years.
A love more magical than any fairylale
My first few weeks in the Dominican Republic:
Thanks to Workaway, I was able to dive into life in the Caribbean with such ease and grace. Alex had been out here for a few months already volunteering at a luxury hotel resort in the mountains, and I was soon to join and volunteer at their newly opened hostel in the next town over (El Valle) near the beach. It was within this beautiful area that Alex and I began to lead Yoga & Fitness events on the beach, which led to us birthing Ecstatic Love Events (find out more here).
Upon my first week of living in El Valle, Alex introduced me to a local man who became a loving grandfather like figure to the both of us. We would visit him often and despite being a man who materially hardly has anything, he is the most abundant, humble and happy man that I have had the pleasure of encountering along my journey so far.
An abundance of cacao we stumbled across on our journey to Federico’s home
A magical waterfall along our trek, which you could swim behind the waterfall and it was shallow enough to stand up!
Beautiful nature captured during our jungle hikes
This man is named Federico. He lives in a very small village called Arroyo Seco, which has no running water or electricity, which is unfortunately very common in the area. The locals use horses and donkeys to collect water from the nearby. Even groups of children as young as 6-7 year’s old are sent on these missions.
The entrance to Federicos humble home
This is Federico, who you will always find baking and creating (unbelievably he is over 80 year’s old)
Federico lives an extremely humble life and his home is open to absolutely everybody. Despite being located essentially in the middle of nowhere, people come from many different towns and regions to visit him (and to be on the receiving end of his love and his delicious homegrown and homemade cacao drink).
Federico’s home grown cacao in his abundant garden (you can eat the white gel which tastes like sweet candy)
Freshly roasted cacao beans
Federico’s magnificent kitchen, where you’ll find chickens, roosters, cats and dogs wandering around
Quite literally his home is open, his door is open, and you can rock up at any time of the day and sit down on a plastic chair in his kitchen and he will give you a cacao drink and homemade ‘pan de coco’ (coconut bread). During your visit, you’ll be accompanied by a number of people popping in and out of his kitchen to purchase the fresh goods that he offers from his abundant garden (including self-extracted coconut oil and milk fresh from his coconut trees).
Growing and making cacao has been in his family for generations, and you can tell by the taste and love that has been put into cultivating the delicious and healing potential of the plant. Federico’s grandmother used the cacao plant as a medicine, to help the women in the village who were breastfeeding and could not create enough milk. The cacao has properties which helps breastfeeding women to lactate and therefore it became a powerful healing tool within their village. The power of their homemade plant medicine coconctions must have been really powerful, as Federico shared with us that his mother died at an incredible age of 115 years old.
Whilst we were at Federico's, he gave us a personal tour of his incredibly abundant garden which had so many varieties of fruit trees, herbs and medicinal plants. It was amazing to see how much someone could grow within a relatively small landscape. It really goes to show the future of how we could all live, if we wanted to live off the land in a self-sustained manner.
An abundance of coconuts from Federico’s garden which he uses to make fresh coconut milk, coconut oil and his famous ‘pan de coco’ (coconut bread)
A magical tour through Federico’s rich garden
Pineapples growing in his garden
Along with an abundance of banana trees
Along with so much fruit abundance, Federico also has a little wooden classroom set up in his garden, where the children of the village come together to learn in a school-like setting (although unfortunately at the moment this is not allowed due to the pandemic). If you are really lucky during your visit, Federico may may show you his collection of ancient Taino artefacts he has found in the jungle over the years (as shown in the images below).
Just before Frederico’s property, there is a home of a lady who also makes ‘pan de coco’. We had stopped off there before to buy some water from their little ‘colmado’ (store). We sat down and she had some freshly baked pan de coco which she so generously offered us to eat for free. The lady went on to share her beautiful story about how by baking and selling pan de coco, she was able to send two out of her five children to university with the profits that she made. You could see in her eyes the struggle and sacrifices that she has had to make in her life for her children. It was such a humbling experience to be on the receiving end of this powerful story, allowing it to really soak in how absolutely blessed we have been in life. Not only to grow up and live within built-up areas that have running water and electricity, but also to receive education with such ease.
Humble homes in El Valle (where I lived for 2 months)
Despite there being a lot of poverty and many people living below the poverty line, the sacred land of the Dominican Republic provides such abundance to its people. If you were to go on a jungle trek, you will find wild bananas, cacao, coconuts and a variety of other fruits growing in absolute abundance. The locals often go off into the jungle for the day to collect the fruit which they are then able to sell on the street. The locals around here know how to climb the tall coconut trees with ease, making it look as though it’s their second nature to do so. The young children play in the streets and are able to entertain themselves without the need to be glued to screens like we see in the West today. People gather in the streets to dance together, to listen to music and share delicious home cooked foods. For a country that materially seeming has very little, the hearts and lives of the locals here are extremely rich in love and spirit.
Barefoot jungle hikes with my love
I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post about some of the rich and authentic experiences, that I’ve had the blessing of experiencing in the Dominican Republic so far. Here is a little poetry style vlog of our experiences at Federicos.
