Damajagua Waterfalls - Dominican Republic
Last month my family went on a 5 day Carnival Cruise in the Caribbean and our first port of call was Amber Cove, Dominican Republic. My parents decided to stay at the cruise terminal and lounge by the pool, my cousins went on an ATV excursion and my sister and I decided to brave the Damajagua Waterfalls! (pronounced dama-HA-gwa).
The description of the excursion was pretty straight forward: a 40 minute hike up to the 7th waterfall and then return through each level by jumping, swimming, and sliding down natural waterslides. SIMPLE! Here's my candid experience.....
We set out around 10am to join the 11am tour. The drive from the cruise terminal was about 30 minutes and then it took about another 30 minutes to lock up our valuables and get outfitted with our vests and helmets. We started by crossing over a small suspension bridge and an open field then the hike began. Look how happy everyone was to start! (me - 10 minutes in and I'm already taking breaks and holding up the group LOL!).....
Now, we did not hike the entire 40 minutes straight. We took several breaks to catch our breath and drink water but by the time we got to the last leg of the hike we all were struggling a bit. I'm literally dead last and you can see me stopping again just as the clip ends! You ever think to yourself, 'I could stand to workout more but I'm in decent shape' and then an event proves you all wrong? This was that event LOL.....
We finally made it to the 1st waterfall (hallelujah) and the options were A - take the stairs on the left or B - jump from the landing on the right. Ya girl can't swim and I was not ready to jump off a cliff RIGHT away! Can I test the waters first, SHEESH? So I took the stairs. (NOTE: Our guide Nelson was the best! He knew I could not swim and made sure I was good when we were in deep waters).....
We spent the next 30 minutes or so making our way back down the mountain. Here are 2 clips of us sliding down a couple of the falls My sister was graceful like a pro and I was super slow and awkward but I did it.....
After the last fall we had about a 10 minute walk back to the locker rooms. There we showered and changed clothes. We had a little bit of free time to hit the gift shop and the fruit stands outside but we just got back on the bus.
When it was all said and done I was so glad that I did this excursion! Yes the hike was brutal and yes I needed help at times but it was so worth it. If you are looking for a one of a kind adventure in the Dominican Republic I highly recommend Damajagua Waterfalls. The total excursion time was about 4 hours. Cost was about $100 and for $50 more you got the thumb drive of all the photos and videos! Pretty good bargain.
And let me go on the record saying that my sister did jump, but they didn't get her on film :( So I will close out this blog with a clip of some random guys in our group taking the plunge.
Thanks for reading and until later - Mo
