Kidoctr's Progress Notes: Day 4 – Celebrity Summit Thanksgiving Cruise - Tuesday 26 November

Meeting up at Fort Young Hotel

We had breakfast in our suite and then headed out to meet our tour guides for our Dominican excursion. We followed the directions to the Fort Young hotel – you actually see it very close to the dock as you made the right turn, but you have to turn left and continue walking up the hill and then make another right to get to the front of the hotel where the 2 brass cannons are. When we arrived, there were already quite a few people waiting for the same excursion.

We learned that morning that the locals refer to the country as Dom-i-NEE-ka – not the way we were originally pronouncing it. There were about 20 of us signed up to go canyoning today, We met a couple of college guys who had also booked this excursion on the recommendation of Trip Advisor. We boarded some standard tour vans and were taken to the Extreme Dominica office where we were given instructions, received our wet suits, jackets, rappelling gear, and life vests. We signed the typical waivers and were told that we would not need sunscreen, sunglasses, etc. - we were going where the sun didn't shine. The owner was a little concerned about my shoes and Amina's shoes – we were just wearing water shoes – and he looked around for a pair of old tennis shoes for us to change into but there weren't any our size. He was worried about the soles of our water shoes being torn off during the climbing, etc. In retrospect, if I were to do it again, I would go ahead and invest in a good pair of Teevas or Keens. There were more than a few people who were wearing Teeva sandals (open-toed) and they didn't seem to have much trouble but my preference would be the close-toed shoes.

After getting completely outfitted, we went outside and took turns practicing on their rappelling platform where they stressed to us the correct techniques (legs apart, knees locked, brake hand, etc). It was just as I thought – harder than I figured it would be but the brakes were also being controlled by the guide at the bottom.

We hopped back into the vans and took a short ride to where the tour would begin. We walked a brief distance across a bridge and soon got to the first rappel site where we went 2 at a time down into the canyon. It was hard to peer over the edge and see where we were going but we could hear splashing as people were being dropped into the water below. I could hear Amina instructing the guide that I didn't want to be dropped into the water so the guide lowered me down a bit...and then I dropped into the water – there really was no avoiding it.

As we waited for the others to make their way down, the kids climbed up the water fall and had a blast just jumping off the rocks into the water. When everyone had rappelled down into the canyon, we got to our first of many jumps that was probably close to 15 feet into another deep pool of water. The water was cold and although we were all getting warm standing around in wet suits before the tour, the wet suits were perfect for the time that we spent in the canyon – I never felt like I was cold.

There was a lot of climbing, jumping, and a few of the climbs were tricky where we had to use a rope to pull ourselves across or over something. A few of the water pools were more shallow and we were instructed to jump either cannonball style or belly flop. I am so very happy that I opted to get a Lifeproof case and Life Jacket for my iphone – it was great to be able to take so many pictures while we were in the canyon. Extreme Dominica did offer rental of a Go Pro video camera which I considered buying before our trip, but I was very happy having my iphone with me with which I took both still pictures as well as a few videos.

First Jump - probably close to 20 feet

I really can't say enough about how professional and fun the guides were from Extreme Dominica tours. There were 4 of them for our group and they were very patient with us since so many of us had never been rappelling before. I know that on many occasions I was being lowered down rather than truly rappelling down but it was just as fun and exhilarating. It was just about as safe as humanly possible and I don't believe anyone in our group was injured – maybe just a few scrapes here and there. I started sliding down on the rocks at one point and caught myself but skinned my thumb in the process. Not a big deal – there were more injuries after a Tough Mudder than there was after this excursion.

Actually, the toughest part was at the end which they didn't mention and probably for good reason. We were lowered down into the canyon and jumped/rappelled/climbed around for about 3.5 hours but to get back up to where we were dropped off, it was a pretty rigorous climb back up. We absolutely loved this excursion and I'm sure it will be the highlight of our entire trip.

We piled into the vans and went back to the office where we had the opportunity to dry off and change out of our swim suits. After we were all changed and dressed, they took us up the hill to their bed and breakfast that they ran as well. The owner's wife had baked us some rum muffins and made us cocoa tea which we ate and sipped on in their open kitchen. They also sold chocolate that they made there on their property from their cocoa trees. This is where we were able to pay for our excursion with a credit card.

We did a little shopping in Roseau near the dock and then returned to the Summit. Seth and Amina went to the grill for burgers since we hadn't had lunch and then they were both asleep until dinnertime. It felt good to get showered and cleaned up – you know you've had fun when you have to use a q-tip to dig gunk out of your ears.

Tresceviches

We had dinner in Qsine again and got to try the dishes that we didn't get to finish at the first round - including dessert. The Tacos Royale were my favorite of the evening – we got to mix up our own guacamole. The dessert menu was a rubik's cube like toy. Wade and Amina decorated cupcakes. The beignets were good. After dinner, I couldn't wait to get to bed and totally forgot to order breakfast for the morning.