March 13 - Santo Domingo to CONACADO in San Francisco de Macoris and on to Puerta Plata

Today was Friday the 13th and everything went just fine - we even survived the drive from Santo Domingo to Puerta Plata without hitting anyone or anything!

We piled ourselves and our luggage into our van this morning and headed out west of Santo Domingo and then turned north to go to San Francisco de Macoris where CONACADO has a cacao processing plant. The drive took about 4 hours.

Highway 1, 4 lane divided highway leaving Santo Domingo and headed north toward Puerta Plata.

Another view from highway 1 heading north.

Rice fields near San Francisco de Macoris, where CONACADO has a cacao processing plant.

Rice fields and mountains on the way to the CONACADO processing plant.

We were met at the CONACADO plant by a man named Jaime who, together with the plant manager, gave us a tour of the facility. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the plant.

CONACADO takes good care of their property - nice plants next to the parking lot.

Receiving area of the CONACADO processing plant. Fermented and dried cacao beans are delivered by truck on the ramp to the right. The beans are then loaded into the hoppers and sorted into different sizes by a shaker screen before entering the plant for further processing.

Products processed and sold by CONACADO: fermented and dried beans, cacao nibs, cacao liquor (most good quality chocolate is made from cacao liquor), cocoa butter, cocoa cake and cocoa powder. Equal Exchange in the USA buys cocoa powder from CONACADO and processes that into chocolate in the USA.

Various certifications earned and used by CONACADO: organic, environmentally friendly, kosher and fair trade - from all over the world.

In this plant CONACADO can process fermented and dried cacao beans into cocoa powder and cake, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and cocoa nibs. So, more value can be added to the cacao beans that are harvested in the DR. They have capacity for 10,000 metric tons, which is 62% of their total annual crop of about 16,000 metric tons. Equal Exchange in the USA purchases cocoa powder from CONACADO. Before CONACADO had this plant, EE purchased dried cacao beans and contracted with a firm in the USA to process them further.

CONACADO is hoping to expand production capacity so they can process all of their bean production rather than sending it elsewhere to be processed into powder and liquor. Maybe someday they will also be able to process it into final products like chocolate bars and cocoa powder for drinks.

After visiting the plant, we enjoyed a great lunch in a local restaurant and then drove on to Puerta Plata. After another 3 hours on the road we arrived at our hotel. The hotel is right on the beach with a large fresh water pool. Nice place to wind down for a day after 9 eventful days of visiting artisans and farmers in Haiti and the DR.  

When you walk into our resort you get this view - not too shabby!

View across the pool towards the mountains behind Puerta Plata.

View from the beach just beyond the pool and a row of coconut palms. If you go for a swim, next stop north is the Turks and Caicos Islands, about 150 miles. A strong swimmer could make it in a few days, provided you avoid the sharks and barracuda along the way.  Even though the water is very warm and buoyant, we stayed within sight of the beach and decided to fly home.

 Tomorrow, Saturday, we have a free day at our resort and then on Sunday most of us fly home.