waterfalls

Last Thursday was adventure travel day. We went waterfall climbing with the crews of five other boats. A series of twenty-seven cascades along the Rio Bajabonico provide a challenging and beautiful day trip from Luperon. We arrived early by van to avoid the crowds later in the day. Everyone was surprised to be issued lifejackets and helmets. Helmets! Safety equipment is unheard of in Third World Countries. What had we gotten ourselves into?

The ascent begins with a pleasant hike through a lush woodland and the trail fords a few shallow streams. We quickly reached a primitive ranger station/ bar and where instructed to give up our eye wear unless we were really blind. It sounded like we were about to loose anything that was not tied down. Now everybody into the water to swim to the first waterfall- a chute carved into the rock by water with a drop of about 15 feet. With help from our wonderful guides (2 guides for our group of 11) we made it up waterfall number 1 then scrambled, swam and climbed our way up 6 more. Waterfall seven is a turn around point. The guides asked how many falls we wanted to do-were we up for all 27? The climb up from #7 involved pulling yourself up a step rock face on a rope with knots tied in it. Four of our group decided they had had enough. The rest of us decided to press on and see how many we could manage.

We continued up six more beautiful falls as jungle-like foliage and rock cliffs blocked out most the sunlight. The stream flows over smooth rocks surfaces carved over time into amazing grottos and slides. At cascade number 13 the trail broke off into the woods for a series of switchbacks up and over a small mountain. At the base of the hill we regained our breaths and rejoined the river. At this point, the guides in formed us that this was number 27- end of the line. We celebrated by jumping off into a small, deep pool, of now colder water.

This jump-off of about 12 feet turned out to be good practice for our decent. One down, twenty six to go. We stayed with the water on the way down so we got to see the scenery we had missed when we took the trail. We soon learned that jumping off a waterfall is a lot easier than climbing down it. We all got accustomed to leaping from 15 feet into a deep spot about the size of a hot tub. Some of the falls had an option of jump or slide. Everyone tried both - you get a good dunking at the bottom either way. Soon we rejoined our comrades at the ranger station . They took pictures of us jumping off the last (or first) waterfall- what fun!

The van then took us to the town of Imbert where a restaurant put out Domincan style buffet for us. Chicken, beef and pork served with beans and rice, salad, fruit, friend plantains and ice-cold cerveza Presidente- We ate and ate.

After lunch we were taken on a quick drive through Puerto Plato and a tour of the Brugel Rum factory. Then eleven tired gringos were taken back to Luperon to return to our floating homes.