Luperon - Puerto Plata day trip

On Wednesday we got together with two other couples (Roger and Andy on "Oma & Opa" and Mike and Gail on "Wild Rover") to rent a van to head into Puerto Plata, a larger town about 30 miles away. Our first stop was the Fortaleza, a well preserved fortress overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. While we were there we saw huge waves crashing offshore. At least we thought they were waves until we saw a massive body fling itself out of the water. Turns out they were humpbacks! Of course Murphy's Law dictates that they jump out of the water to attract our attention and then refuse to surface once we finally have a camera pointed at them. So no pictures, but hopefully we see some more while we are in this area - it's the mating season and the majority of the whales have migrated to a spot just off the northeast coast of the DR.

Next on our list was a tour of the Brugal Rum Factory. In Spanish the word for rum is "ron" pronounced just like the English word "run". The sugar cane is harvested and distilled elsewhere on the island, but they bring it to the Puerto Plata plant to be diluted and bottled. The assembly lines were something to see -- in a space of about 200 feet the bottles go from being completely empty to full of rum, capped and sealed, labeled, and packed in cases of 12. I half expected one of the Dominicans to put his glove over a bottle and wave at it a la "Laverne and Shirley". And of course after the tour you get to sample the product. It was still before noon but we didn't let that stop us.

Those were the two highlights of the day. There was an amber museum that wasn't super exciting, and then we stopped off for a really nice lunch at a restaurant near the beach. We also hit the fruit market and the supermercado which was just like a supermarket in the US (the stores in Luperon are much smaller with less selection). After lunch we attempted to ride the cable cars that go up the mountainside and are supposed to give a great view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately the cable car was closed for maintenance. Of course looking on the bright side, I'd rather they close the thing and not let us on than defer the maintenance so that we could have a ride to the top.

Today (Thursday) we are planning to depart Luperon bound for Puerto Rico. The forecast is for mild conditions for the next several days so we are planning to go all the way to Boqueron on the SW coast. It's about 250 miles and should take us 40-48 hours, making landfall Saturday afternoon sometime. It's a long passage, but we will be within sight of land most of the way for a change. (our return from the Bahamas last year was 335 miles) The first 150 miles we will travel along the north coast of the Dominican Republic, then we will cross the Mona Passage which is the body of water between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.