Charcos!

Let's start with this: www.27charcos.com

The Friday after our weekend in Constanza, we headed north for a day trip to the 27 Charcos near Puerto Plata. "Charco" translates to "puddle" or "pool" - as in the pool beneath a waterfall. So the 27 Charcos is basically a connecting group of 27 waterfalls and the "charcos" beneath them - all of which are a part of the Río Damajagua that runs through Puerto Plata.

Anyway, we brought our river shoes, got our life jackets and helmets and started our hike to the first waterfall. There are no pictures from this excursion, unfortunately - we had to do a lot of swimming along the way and no one's camera would've survived. But the pictures on their website give you a good idea. It's also hard to capture the terror you feel when standing almost thirty feet above a pool you're about to jump into to in a picture. Yes, thirty feet. (Well, I think it was more like twenty-six.) That was the highest jump we made of the day and it was pretty terrifying. And awesome. It's a weird feeling, that moment before you jump, because it feels so against your human nature to just wildly jump off of something when you know you're already safe where you are! But it was still very, very fun.

We also got to slide down some of the smaller waterfalls, which was also amazing. (Even though I hit my head on the last one...) Afterwards we headed back to the visitor's center for a fabulous buffet lunch (all the food here is incredible, all the time in case I haven't made that clear) just as it started to rain. All in all a pretty amazing day. The first of many more awesome excursions.

Unfortunately, the next week's excursion I wasn't able to go on because I was sick...This one was to another waterfall/charco, actually - Charco de los Indios.

Stolen from Cricket.

Cricket went and said it was pretty sweet - and it looks like it. There's a big reddish colored rock in the center of the photo that archaeologists believe is was remains of a face sculpted by the Taínos, the native people of Hispaniola. I wish I had more to say about this place but I just don´t know much else about it unfortunately - I missed the lecture everyone got on the way there....but I know it sure looks interesting!