Top Puerto Plata Day Trips - page 4

You have to walk through the port terminal to outside the exit gate, which is about a 15-minute walk. We were met by Daniella from DR Prime Tours. We sat in front of the Port Police station and waited for the rest of the guests. Once everyone was together, we walked over to the enclosed air conditioned 10-person van. We met our driver, William, and then “Chocolata” (paparazzi / photographer). It was about a 30 to 40-minute ride to the falls, with a short stop to drop-off people for the dune buggy excursion. William was great because as we approached the parking lot, there was a large tour bus ahead of us. One of the workers told William to park with the tour bus and that would be our group. William refused and dropped us off with a smaller group. Upon our arrival we walked to the lockers, life vest and helmet area. The lockers are free and good size. I had a medium sized backpack that fit in it with room to spare. They zip-tie the locker key to your vest. You are required to have some type of water shoe, if not, you can rent them for about $5.00 USD. Whatever type of shoes you have, make sure they have a good sole, you will be walking over a lot of rocks. Now starts the march, yes, I said march. First you cross over a ravine, via a metal bridge. Then you come to the jungle. Lots of trees, wild life (wild chickens, nothing dangerous) and exotic fruits (Limoncillo - slimy flesh and leaves a chalky aftertaste), beautiful. Now, the part that doesn’t get mentioned is it is about a 45-degree angle walk up the “stair” path to the summit. Your guides will tell you, it is “only” five Dominican minutes to the summit, which translates into you have 30 minutes of walking ahead of you. They stopped a couple of time at rest areas to allow you to catch your breath. Note: There is no water provided on the trip up, make sure you bring enough to hydrate. Once you finally reach the summit (no water bottles allowed past this point), it is about a 5 to 10-minute walk down to the falls. This fluctuates between 90-45 degrees on the way down. It does get crowed at the mouth of the falls and everything kind of really slows down. We were told September is not their busy season, so I could only imagine how slow it can get during the summer months. Once at the narrow opening to the first of the falls, you walk through COLD water which gets progressively deeper. Guys watch your privates as it is shockingly cold. The first natural slide is a curve into a deep pool of water. You have to swim to the end where it gets shallow enough to stand up. The second natural slide is a double curve and the water is just as deep. Next is the first jump which is an 18’ drop (it gets pretty crowded). You can either jump into the water or take the natural slide down. They tell the guys to cross your legs to protect your private parts, but my wife said the girls should do the same to prevent water intrusion. The last cliff jump is 20’, but there is also a natural slide or a wooden latter to get to the bottom if you don’t want to jump. We jumped both cliffs. I don’t like heights, but jumped both and it was great. At this point we were done and helmet/vest are off. There is plenty of time for pictures and videos. You then have a 10 to 15-minute walk back to the starting point. This is where good soled shoes come in to play. We walked through a rocky ravine, jungle, rocky ravine, jungle, rocky ravine, jungle (that was not done by mistake, it was back and forth) and then back over the bridge to the starting point. It is worth mentioning, the whole time “Chocolata” was there taking our pictures and videos on his GoPro. We loaded up and headed to our lunch spot. On the way there I would like to thank William for his defensive driving skills. Driving in the Dominican Republic is crazy. As we were coming around a blind corner, some moron was trying to pass a truck. The car started flashing his lights and William came to an abrupt stop, thus avoiding a head-on crash. We arrive at Topic Gourmet, a small mom and pop place on the side of the road, for a 30-minute lunch. It was a small buffet with fried chicken, pork chops, plantains, salad with salsa dressing and beans with rice. We were provided with a soda or beer with our meal. It was delicious and full of flavor. My wife is a foody, with a love of Spanish style foods and she was impressed by the amount of flavors. Afterward, we arrived at the “plantation”. It was a small spot where they showed us coca pods, tobacco leaves and a monster mango tree. They hand rolled their own cigars and they have two gentlemen show you how they create one. There is a small shop with cigars, jewelry, hand crafted items, coffee and snacks. Now we headed back to the ship, it was about a 10 to 15-minute drive back. On the way back, “Chocolata” downloaded all the pictures and videos he had obtained onto my wife’s phone. It was approximately 150 pictures and videos for $65.00 USD. My wife was shocked; she was expecting $200.00 USD. My wife even told "Chocolata” he should ask for more, he just smiled and said he did not want to rip-off his customers. What impressed my wife is that he did not just take pictures and video of us. He also captured the beauty of the jungle and of the water fall formations. We want to thank Viator / DR Prime Tours for the great experience. Not a bad excursion for $60.00 USD each. Danellia, thank you for all your knowledge and pointing out all the various spot on our trip and your friendliness and smile. “Chocolata”, thank you for the great videos and pictures. You were very friendly and always had a great ear to ear smile. William, thank you for your driving skill and friendliness. Sidenote: Do not get “Chocolata” and “Choco-latte”, also known as “Blondie” confused, they are two different people.