Arriving in the Dominican Republic was magnificient by sea, the tropical green mountains are spectacular! It is in such sharp contrast to the past four months sailing throughout the low lying coral islands of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. This is a very lush tropical island and the Spanish flavor makes it all the better to enjoy! Luperon has much to offer and lots of entertainment for the boys. I don't know if the goat walking down the street eating anything in its path or the children riding motorcycles made the bigger impression on them. The atmospephere and people watching were fun. Most towns have a nice central parque with trees and fountains. The cafes get busy in the evenings and will put out plastic chairs in the street for all to sit and enjoy a Presidente and watch the crowd.I have been having great fun speaking spanish and every day in school we learn new phrases! Daniel and John quickly discovered that the local juice shop has a counter full of candies for sale, so with their daily 50 pesos ($1.50) they would buy up chicklets and other sugar filled treats!

One day we went to the Damajaqua Waterfalls. Wow! We went with Dreamweaver, Consort, Emmanuel and September Song (Sabine, Allain and little Mathis who is 11 months old!). The waterfalls consist of 27 rapids which get higher and higher. Two guides led us up the falls, helmets and life vests are required. John had to be 8 for the day inorder to climb and slide! We hiked up a river for 30 minutes through very lush jungle then came to the first waterfall. We were only going to climb up 7 of the falls. You swim in the water up stream toward these rapids then have to climb up and over the rapids!! The guides are there to pull you up and over these rapids like a rag doll! All very exciting! You continue to swim and climb up the rapids through the jungle and it is beautiful. When we reached #7 we turned around and were able to slide down the falls!! The last two falls were too steep to slide so you had to jump- 25 feet!! It was exhilirating! Daniel and John are still talking about the adventure! It was amazing and something we will never forget!

We also drove into Puerto Plata one day, an hour drive east of Luperon, to see the city. We visited a Spanish fort and went by the Amber Museum which was quite educational for all of us. Some great amber stones with lots of insects and foliage in them. This is where some of Jurassic Park was filmed. We also stopped by the Supermercado for a BIG shop! The prices are great and we needed to reprovision Eira. The laundry prices are the best so far- $3 to wash/dry AND fold! I took off all of the boat cushions in the salon and had them washed. We would have liked to stay longer in the DR but alas we had a great weather window to cross that Mona Passage...we hope to spend more time there on our way back in the next year or so....