Fish and Salt

 

Fresh tuna being processed at the Salinas landing.

The supermarket visit in the DR is never complete without that strange whiff of salted fish as you walk by the end of the meat row. It knocks at your senses like an unexpected visitor at the door. This very Dominican experience was brought full circle by a recent day trip to the fishing village of Salinas, about an hour West of  Santo Domingo. Unlike the resort filled beaches to the East, Salinas’ dark sands and desert-like environment have kept it less developed. First impressions leave me with three images; fresh fish, sea salt, and kite boarders.

After trying out a training kite for kite boarding, a possible new thing to learn, we stopped at the local fish station to see what the day’s catch was. Although my buddy was disappointed to find no Dorado, I was more than pleased to bring home a few fresh tuna steaks (seen being cut). The extra bonus was that it was a rarely found bargain- about $8 for over four pounds of tuna steak.

After the fish purchase, we stopped for a brief photo shoot at the salt fields. I felt as though I was in a movie as I watched the silhouettes of men pushing carts of salt along the teetering  tracks raised high on a wood trestle. The late afternoon sun continued to drum its heat and the salt piles sparkled as if the crystals were gems. This place begs for a return with the better camera and a notebook for observation.

Below you can see some other pictures from life in town. I am happy to report that we have both purchased great used bikes. The feeling of riding around is like that of sliding on favorite slippers. Wow- we love bikes! We use them to cruise the long narrow park near our house and to get to and from school. As you pass through the park on a weekend morning there are groups of kids playing a version of baseball with a stick and fruit pit as the essential equipment. Since there is little open space, they incorporate the trees into the field. A recent favorite outing was a trip down the park to a Chinese Dim Sum place, where we gorged ourselves on dumplings and other salty yummy dishes in small aluminum steamers.

Pile of sea salt.

Strange sightings and events report: boy catching a ride by hanging on to the spare wheel mounted at back of SUV (driver unaware), our doorman taking road repairs into his own hands by mixing concrete and filling potholes (created road blocks with huge barrel trash cans), the “No guns or knives” sign at our health club, the reading of eighty-eight degrees in our kitchen every afternoon, meals with nothing green on the plate.

Just click on any of the pictures below to enlarge them.

 

 

 

 

 

Bikes improve life. The red one is borrowed. We now both have mtn. bikes to navigate the heavy terrain that is Santo Domingo streets.

Our apartment gets a bit of decoration.

Typical scooter bike in salt fields.

Shoreline of Santo Domingo.