Just a little stroll through a forest he says. Take a few pictures and stroll back. Seemed quite simple to me. I didn’t envisage the crash helmet and life jacket being a necessary part of this outing?!
Anyway after being on board the Pacific for a couple of days we found ourselves in Amber Cove. Its part of the Dominican Republic’s Northern Coast… Just down the road from Puerto Plata (discovered by Christopher Columbus no less!) Considering it’s winter over here it was pretty darn warm. Easy mid 20’s. So although I’d only just joined this medical team I was invited out on what I thought was going to be basically a walk in the park. Here’s the whole offending medical team posing for our Christmas photo:
The sail into the port was quite beautiful. A little walk from the ship towards the terminal gave me a reminder about how small the Pacific Princess actually is when compared with a ‘normal’ sized cruise ship. Still a bit too heavy to lift on your own though.
A little walk though the terminal building and I ended up in some kind of man made village complete with a bunch of shops to keep people occupied for days I imagine. But that’s not why we came here. We wanted to see waterfalls…
I found myself at a desk signing away most of my rights to sue anyone if anything happened. That should have been the warning I needed to make my escape. However, not one to back out I dutifully followed the tour leader to the bus, and 30 minutes later we arrived in the middle of a forested area and that’s where the protective outfits were handed out and we set off on our 30-40 minute trek through some pretty amazing sites. Wading through fords and across tracks that took us to the start point of the waterfalls.
It didn’t take too long to realise why we needed the gear we were given. The water gradually got deeper and deeper until we found ourselves in what appeared to be a gorge with water pouring through and pooling in areas, large enough to swim in. The only way to get to the end point was sliding down the waterfalls with our arms crossed over our bodies, head back and a short prayer that you didn’t hit anything too sharp!
I have to say that once I got used to the fact that I wasn’t going to die in some horrible accident involving various parts of my body and bits of old rock, it was pretty cool.
Would I do it again? Nope. I still prefer a bit of solid ground under my feet thanks. Nothing wrong with biking everywhere! Why am I on a ship again…?
Cruising in a Tub 
Wow. Love to get in that water.
Was a bit chilly to start! But wizzing down the waterfalls warmed us up!