Hope's and Howard's Sailing Adventures

Thursday saw us renting a car and exploring around Puerto Plata. It was an easy process as the car was delivered to the marina, we paid in advance in cash so all we had to do at the end of the 2-day rental was to return the key to the marina desk and they arranged for the car to be picked up again. Driving in the DR proved to be quite an experience, especially as we neared the town center. There were motorcycles coming at us from all directions, cars overtaking when they shouldn’t; it seems the rules are somewhat lax, a bit reminiscent of Howard’s experiences in India.

Christopher Columbus recognized Puerto Plata as an important port on the North coast and named it Puerto Plata because of the silver appearance of the mist on the mountains. Sadly the indigenous population of Hispanola was depleted from over 400,000 in the entire island to less than 10,000, to disease and slavery, within thirty years after western settlers arrived and was eventually wiped out completely. Peurto Plata was ransacked by Francis Drake in 1586. We have been inspired to try picking up a bit more Spanish (using the Rosetta Stone discs that have been sitting around unused for a while) as most locals speak very little English. Of course in tourist areas it isn’t a problem but there are many occasions when it would be very helpful and enable us to learn more about the country.

We ended up having a tour guide show us around the city, which included a church, the amber museum, the fort (from which there was a good view of the port); we also sampled fresh coconut and coconut milk prepared for us using a machete. The amber museum was particularly interesting with explanation of how the amber was formed and the differences between various colors. The museum logo resembles that of Jurassic Park in recognition that much of the film was filmed in the DR. Apparently the DR is the only place where blue amber can be found. The blue color is very apparent when viewed under UV light and is caused by the inclusion of volcanic ash. Many of the amber specimens had insects, spiders and other inclusions. Perhaps the most interesting was a 30cm long feather. The other semi-precious stone in the DR is Larimar, which is a lovely pale blue color. Of course, after the tour we were encouraged to buy something…. no surprise there. Next we drove up the Isabel de Torres Mountain behind the city. Unfortunately we were in the clouds so couldn’t appreciate the view of the city but we did enjoy seeing the large statue of Christ with open arms welcoming visitors to the city and walking around some of the paths through the surrounding park.

Yesterday was a very different day; another couple in the marina joined us for a visit to to the 27 waterfalls of Damajaqua. I was a bit nervous as I wasn’t sure how safe it would be for the likes of us oldies but in the end I was very glad we went as it was a lot of fun. We were given helmets and lifejackets (well padded in the back) and then with a guide, set out on an hour’s hike up to the 12th waterfall. That in itself gave us a good workout. We then slid or jumped (for those brave enough) down each of the 12 falls until we reached the bottom. The guides made sure we were correctly positioned before letting us loose on each fall and filmed most of it. I will post some pics tomorrow from the CD we purchased afterwards to give you an idea of what it was like. The water had worn fantastic shapes into the rock, with pools, caverns and natural water slides. Included in our ticket was lunch, for which we were very thankful after expending all that energy. It was a great deal at about 590 Pesos (~$14) plus tips and much more economical to do it ourselves than with a tour that included transportation.