Dominican Republic, Damajagua Falls, Neptune, Puerto Plata Beach, Fun Day at Sea, Acting Skills, Making a Fool of Ourselves

The last stop of the cruise before it ended was the Dominican Republic.  When we got there we decided to try out the 27 Charcos or Damajagua Water falls.  When we got off the boat we secured two different taxis for our big family and set off to drive over to Puerto Plata.  Thankfully, again, we had two Portuguese/Spanish speakers so communicating with the taxi drivers was a bit easier.  We paid for their services for all day so we set off.  27 Charcos or the Damajagua Falls are a naturally formed waterfalls and waterslides that you climb up, jump off or slide down.  It was awesome.  It is a National Park in the Dominican Republic so once we got there we paid our entrance fee, got set up with helmets and life jackets and set off.

There is about a mile hike which is uphill most of the way to get to the start of the 12 waterfalls.  (There hadn't been much rain so we weren't able to do all 27.) Anyway we crossed a bridge and set off up the trail.

Here's the sign in Spanish:

Our nice sunscreen faces--haha!

The hike to the start was uphill so our guide had our group stop and take a few breaks on the way up.

We did see a cocoa tree as well as a banana tree with a pretty blossom:

We made it to the start of the 12 waterfalls/pools and started wading down the river:

Then we hit the first mini jump/slide into the river:

More jump/slide later in the trail:

Wading/walking through the river.  Sometimes you couldn't touch the bottom other times you were waist or chest deep.  It was a bit chilly, but pretty cool:

Our camera had a hard time taking video so I will show a link to my brother's huge jumps into the pools:

Bryan's Family big jumps

Our family had a bunch of fun this whole day!

There were a few jumps that were pretty tall--over 25 feet tall.  I chickened out on the first huge jump along with Sarah and Noah, but I did the rest of them.  Here's Josh doing a huge 25 foot fall/jump from a ledge:

It was a beautiful area.  I was grateful for the life jacket because you couldn't touch in some areas:

The slides were pretty fun.  Here's Sarah going down the slide and Noah waiting for his turn:

Wahoo!!

The last slide into the the bottom pool had a free fall at the end of the slide. Here's Sarah taking her turn:

We made it.  It was a lot of fun!

It was so pretty!

The hike back to the beginning wasn't bad and gave us time to dry off a bit.  We had some fun guides, too.

After leaving the waterfalls we asked the taxi drivers to take us to a nice beach.  They drove for a long time.  We were getting nervous about where they were taking us.  However, the one taxi driver kept trying to catch up to us since our taxi driver was not trying to stay together.  Anyway, once we got both taxis back we decided we didn't have enough time to go to the beautiful beach so we settled for the city beach instead.  Getting out of the taxis the one taxi driver had stopped and picked up some local delicacies for their car and had some left over which they shared with us.  We got to try some lemoncillo fruit aka Spanish limes.  It was sweet, but made your mouth feel really weird.  They were about the size of some large grapes--this is what they looked like:

They also shared some local cheese.  It had the consistency of ricotta, but a pretty bland taste.  However, it was fun to try.  It looked a bit like this:

When we got to the beach I took the kids into the water.  Aaron went over to a local grocery store with some other people from our group and picked up some cheap, delicious vanilla.  I had never tried this type of vanilla, but now I have I am hooked!  It is amazing!  Aaron picked up some white and some black vanilla.

We only had about 30 minutes to play in the ocean and we made the most of it.  When it was time to get out Aaron picked up a local papaya to try.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a way to cut it up.  Gratefully the local outdoor bar was willing to cut it up for us to try.  We only had enough time to take a few bites each and then we had to throw it away since we couldn't bring it back on to the boat with us.  It was interesting to see and taste:

We were at the beach that had the statue of Neptune--I think it was the city of Puerto Plata.  Here's Neptune:

Here goes Neptune as we drove away:

We were pretty jammed into the the taxis, but luckily all of us had seatbelts because the driving there was crazy.  Here's some selfies of half of us in one of the taxi vans:

Here was the beautiful sunset as we were pulling out of port in the Dominican Republic:

The next day we had a fun day on the boat the entire day.  The kids spent the morning swimming and going down the slide.  Aaron and I just kicked back and relaxed while we watched them:

 Here's Josh getting ready to go down the slide:

While the kids were swimming they started playing the Cupid Shuffle.  Since Josh learned that dance in 6th grade he made his way down to the deck so he could dance, too.  He really got into it--haha!

Michael's craft store did a make and take a few of us participated in.  We made some Mardi Gras masks.

 Here's Sarah and my masks:

That afternoon they had a movie trivia game.  I actually answered all then questions right so I got to go up on stage to participate in an activity.

 Josh won on the other side, too:

 They kept everything a surprise.  They showed the crowd two movie clips (Josh and I didn't get to see the movie clips, though) and then had us pick two random people of the opposite sex we didn't know to come help us get dressed in our supposed movie clip costumes.  After getting dressed in the costumes Josh and I had to guess which characters we were and the movies they came from.  The 'random guy' I picked was a guy from an LDS family that lived in Colorado that we had met earlier on the cruise.  He picked out all my clothes and helped me get dressed over my regular clothes in my 'costume'.  Josh had a really random lady help him get dressed in his 'character'.  We then had to guess who we were supposed to be.  I guessed right off the bat that I was Jack Sparrow.  Josh had some trouble guessing his character since he has never seen Mrs. Doubtfire--haha!  Here we are all dressed up with our random people who helped us as well as the cruise director:

After we guessed who we were, we had to act out scenes from the show.  Josh had to act out the scene in Mrs. Doubtfire when she is cooking and catches her fake chest on fire.  Josh really played it up and was quite hilarious:

I then had to act out my scene on the ship while different things were happening.  I couldn't quite hear what the cruise director was asking me to do so I looked like a complete idiot---basically business as usual--haha!  Here I am trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing:

They then had the audience choose who acted the part best.  Josh beat me hands down, but it was still fun to do.  

The next activity they asked who wanted to be a contestant from the audience.  I guess Sarah and Daniel were acting the craziest so they both got picked.

 What they had them do was a game of memory.  They got to view a board with different actors/acresses faces for 30 seconds.  Then the actors/actresses faces were covered and they had to try and match them up.  Daniel did really well and got 6 matches.

 Then Sarah got a turn.  She got 5 matches which is still great.  Daniel won that, but they both got prizes.

 Next they had a green screen opportunity.  They asked for participants from the audience.  Noah got crazy so he got picked.

 He had to lay down with another girl from the audience.  They were told what to do on the green screen and then the audience had to guess what movie they were acting out.  Here's Noah getting into position with the help of the cruise director:

 They acted out the famous scene from ET.  Noah was supposed to be ET in the bike basket--haha!

 For everyone who participated in the movie trivia we all got a cute little movie thing:

Aaron felt a bit left out, but he was fine because he was glad he didn't have to make a fool of himself like the rest of us did--haha!

After the movie trivia game we split up and did a few different things.  Aaron took Noah mini golfing while I and a few others played a card game.  It was a fun afternoon.

 That evening for dinner the kids decided to try some new things.  They ordered some Escargot aka snails.  This is what they looked like:

 They were just chewy garlicky, buttery tasting blobs.  Not our favorite, but worth a try.  All the kids tried it out, but weren't fans.

 Earlier in the cruise the kids also tried out some ox tongue and rabbit.  Daniel and Josh actually liked the ox tongue which was surprising to me.

For the last dinner night they brought out a special 50th wedding anniversary cake for my parents while we sang Happy Anniversary with the tune of Happy birthday.  What a great accomplishment!

 Later that evening they had a Lip Sync contest.  After that they let a few people on stage to dance.  Adrienne and Daniel got up and danced:

Later that evening they had a family friendly Mardi Gras party.  They played Cupid Shuffle.  Josh got up and danced.  He really got into it so they asked him to get up on stage and do his thing.  He went to town--haha!

They even complimented him on his moves after the song was over--haha!

It was a really fun last two days of our cruise.  My family had a fun time participating in the actives and occasionally making fools of ourselves, but it was all in good fun!