Languishing at Luperon, Part 2
Our daughter, Andrea, arrived at the Puerto Plata Airport on Christmas Day for a five-day stay. We had a great turkey dinner aboard Francesca and caught up on all of the news. One of the recommended local attractions is a waterfall system. We had heard that the experience was similar to a salmon run (you're the salmon). At the marina there are always several cars and drivers standing for such excursions and the trip to the park and falls took about 45 minutes. Once at the park it was another mile walk, often in the stream, to the first of the 27 waterfalls. We were told that it was possible to get to all of the falls, but that depending upon the rains and because of the difficulties most visitors only explored the first 6 or 7. We didn't quite understand that, but had our suspicions. At the base and for a small fee there were self-appointed waterfall guides waiting to help folks like us. They were familiar with the depth of every pool, the force of the water and where the hand holds, ropes, logs, etc. were located. Without them or days of trial and error it truly would not be possible to proceed safely. A few days before heavy rains had made the falls impassable and they were just then returning to a lesser flow.
Getting to the top of the first 10-foot high waterfall was made easy using a rickety stick ladder. After the first falls the only way to proceed was to get into the water in the very narrow gorge. The mountain water was very clean and surprisingly not uncomfortably cool. The current was strong and progress was made with a combination of swimming and pulling oneself upstream with various handholds. The gorge was generally about 4 feet wide with larger pools at the bottom of each fall. The remaining 6 falls were 4 to 7 feet high and at some the guide would have to help each person climb against the flow up to the next level. Having reached the endpoint we had to face the return trip which was going to be fast and not without potential for injury. At each fall one could either slide or jump, but in no case was it a controlled decent and everyone spent a lot of time underwater. In retrospect, it was an interesting and "fun" venture, but had a considerable risk for injury. No one thought it worth doing again and I can't recommend it.
After a very nice stay with lots of talk, food and goodies Andrea returned to her home in Charles Town, West Virginia. After New Year's Day we were ready to continue east to Puerto Rico with the earliest weather opportunity. However, there are a few challenges in store for Francesca. The route from the Bahamas via the Dominican Republic and to Puerto Rico is a notorious part of what is called "The Thorny Path" to the eastern islands of the Caribbean. This stretch of water has been aptly named because of the trade winds, which blow daily mostly unabated from east to
west and with the prevailing current. Christopher Columbus was the first to use the trades as the driving force for exploring and for "trading" with the western world. Sailing vessels then returned
east to Europe on more northerly paths avoiding the trades and gaining assistance from
Johann at a farm near Luperon, Dominican Republic
2
Johann and another new friend
