Voyage to Dispatch Channel (Part 1) – La Cantina, Dominican Republic

After spending the previous day within the protected bubble of our all inclusive resort. It was time to venture out. I’m not really sure where to start with today’s blog….. yesterday was one of the most terrifying days of my life….. Some background. Jill likes to venture out of the protective cocoon of resorts which I support but many times details of outside adventures in third world countries are sketchy, that combined with her trust of human and my distrust of same makes for more adventurous adventures….. In short, I feel much safer on the top of a mountain than deep in the third world. First up, when Jill signed us up. She said the drive was only this far on the map….. turns out it was that far. The driver said it was 2 hours when he picked us up. After stopping countless times to pick up others, i shot this image from our one and only rest stop which was two hours after he picked us up. My hand was shaking pretty bad so I’m shocked the image wasn’t blurry. Turns out that our driver is part time because I’m guessing his full time job is a driver in NASCAR. Rolling through the villages at 100 KPH A peaceful flower. Thinking of peaceful thoughts and wishing I had spent more time back home getting my affairs in order. Right about 3 hours later we arrived at the boat dock. Whew, I’ll worry about the drive back later, it’s time for a relaxing day of organized adventure! Seems nice enough. It’s a cute village. The bay, and now information coming from our presume guide is that another van of people is coming and our driver need to go pick them up because their van broke down. Should be 30 minutes. We asked if we could walk around the village. The apparent guide said “yes, walk around but for safety you should stay in view of these two policemen”.

I just stayed close and shot some nearby subject matter.

After about two hours the other van arrived and we were on our way across the peaceful bay. It was only going to be about 6 miles to the whales! Keep in mind, we were at least 2 hours behind schedule so as you will learn, we have to make up some time! The planner in me worked hard not to think about the math of an all day adventure followed by a 3 hour ride home and being at least two hours behind schedule….

We soon left the calm bay waters and entered the teeth of the Atlantic and huge rollers with stiff chop. Finally about an hour later and after that uncomfortable ride, we spotted other boats that had left harbor now well ahead of us. These must be the whales! There were about 25 people on the boat and many were now feeding the marine life by retching over the sides and into any available sack or bag. Oh the humanity! Come back soon as the adventure continues!