Chutes & Ladders

On Monday, we took the awesome advice from a (awesome!) friend and visited the 27 waterfalls of the Damajagua River, just outside of Puerto Plata. You're given a life vest, helmet and guide, taken to the top of the falls, then jump down and slide one fall after the other, some up to 25 feet, until you reach the bottom again. Our guide for the day was Augusto, a 24-year old merengue teacher from a local resort.

 

When we reached the first fall on our climb up, we knew we were in for a great time. The river was beautiful, with crystal clear water surrounded by a lush jungle. Abra was a little nervous from warnings about needing to be an above average swimmer to be able to fight the strong river current, as well as some of the higher cliffs you'd have to jump off of, but Augusto reassured her if she didn't want to do it, he'd just push her down.

 

The river was flanked by 10 to 50 foot high walls, some of which we had to scramble up. For others, a nice ladder was provided.

 

Most visitors only make it to the first 7 falls, and so we were happy to climb all the way to the 27th. We had the river to ourselves, and when we reached the top, we took turns climbing the waterfall and jumping into the pool below.

I learned a valuable lesson from the first fall: if you land wrong, it hurts. I knew not to bellyflop, but I didn't know you could get the same pain from slapping your butt on the water. 

 

 

As we made our way down the river, some of the falls had formed a perfect chute to slide down.

The 8th fall (from the bottom) is the highest, and while most visitors slide down, others scale the cliff and jump down. Instead, our guide took me off the path to an even higher point- at least 25 (he said 30) feet above the water to jump in. The difference (maybe just 5-10 feet more than the other falls) was minimal, but the added nerves made the initial leap a bit more nerve wracking.

 

We had given Augusto our camera to protect it from the water, but also to take pictures of us. He assured us the camera would never be submerged. It was impressive seeing him swim upstream with one hand out of the water, holding our camera in 2 layers of Ziploc bags. He swam faster than Abra and I with both hands!

Once we were done, we caught a bus back to town, and meandered back through the barrio (poorer part of town, aka the ghetto) back to the hotel. Be bought some delicious rice and beans for dinner, and sweet bread for breakfast.

 

Abra loved the barrio, and took tons of pictures of the colorful houses, the people, and the still life. She loved it so much, she decided she had to come back the next morning with her professional camera.

Central Park

Getting cash out has become a nearly daily routine. Yeah for the Charles Schwab High-Investor's No-ATM fee Checking Account!!

The cheap hotel we stayed at in Puerto Plata. The owner moved here from Texas, and half his permanent clients (and bar patrons) are ex-pats from the US who have retired here.

 

Tuesday, was another get-out-of-town day, but first Abra went out on her own to take more pictures of the barrio. We left the hotel at 11am to catch a series of busses to Samana, a peninsula on the northeastern part of the island. First, we took a bus to Rio San Juan, then another to Cabrera, then another to Nagua, and lastly a bus to Samana. Apparently jam-packed local busses where you carry your luggage on your lap are more expensive than air-conditioned coach busses where you have 4 seats to yourself. We arrived at 6pm and found a nice hotel.

Posted by Hans, Photos by Abra