Para-what? | rachael

Good morning,

This morning Rod and I are enjoying our coffees in the bird-filled quiet as the children sleep peacefully.

Yesterday's rafting adventure was a party; it seemed like every person had a blast, mind you, this isn't difficult when we have the guides that we do. They're absolutely hilarious, even with recycled jokes. At one point our boat (me, Alexa, Billy, Josh, Brian) were on the calm rapid-less water when our guide, Carlos (who was born in Germany and moved to the DR when he was 12) told our boat to get down! This isn't the first rodeo for me or Brian so we stayed up but Alexa, Josh and Billy promptly listened and got down. He said, "watch your head for the bridge above you!". We laughed. Before the next tidbit you should know that parts of Jurassic Park were filmed in the Dominican Republic. Another boat (or two or five) had guides who pointed out a mountain and said, "see that mountain over there?" The boats replied, "yeah". "You know Jurassic Park?" "Yeah". "That mountain has nothing to do with it."

We rafted for about two hours and headed back to the Ranch for lunch where we watched a video that was made of our morning adventure. Promptly after lunch we finalized (aka organized, talked to our guide and within half an hour we were gone) paragliding. 17 of us hopped into vehicles for our "20 minute" drive. Those were Dominican minutes and the drive ended up being an hour. We hiked a bit to the top of a mountain. By the time I got there Marieke was already strapped in to her harness yelling "how did I end up being first?" with Derek beside here wondering the same thing. There were many on the sidelines waiting for there turn. They made a pact: "okay, if anyone pees or craps their pants, we will not judge and it is our secret, okay?" SO funny!

Essentially the adventure they were on was: we were at the top of a mountain. Each student is harnessed to a guide with a parachute/sail thing ready behind them. Students and guides need to run down the mountain and NOT stop running. As they run, the sail gets air and essentially they are running on air as they are lifted into the sky. They sailed/flew/whatever word I should use over the incredible mountainous Dominican horizon and landed a good 15 minute drive away in a large open field. What a rush! I did this in Vancouver and I can attest that it is an incredible experience. However, these students had a steal of a deal price-wise compared to what I paid to do this in Canada. So all the cheap/frugal parents out there - know that this was a paragliding adventure that was "on sale"!

Off Marieke went with Tony, the guy who owns the business. I believe he has been doing this for 13 years and, on one day, his company led 55 jumpers. He has paraglider for a five hour trip before! I trust him completely. As Marieke is floating away into the sky, Derek took his jump. Joey, Brian and Jesse were next as the rest of us watched five sails in the distance.

I watched some jumps from the top and got a ride to the bottom to watch some students land. The vibe was super fun!

Derek, Marieke, Joey, Brian, Jesse, Hannah, Mak, Rebecca, Riley, Kari, Lauren, Billy, Alexa, Shane all went. Jason and Luke "took one for the team" and went last. Although when they took off there was noone to cheer them one, when they landed we were all there cheering their arrival!

We left just after 2 and arrived at the Ranch just after 8 - it was quite a day. It is difficult to think that we rafted that morning as well. We glided from 3 until 6:30 or so! Some of our guides did 4 trips in a row (that includes 4 steep hikes, with equipment, to get to the takeoff area).

This morning some are headed canyoning. We will leave the Ranch this afternoon and enjoy our last evening in Santo Domingo. We will say our good-byes to Santo hosts and head to the market and hotel tomorrow. While at the hotel we will relax and debrief and finalize things here.

One thing I addressed with the students last night was the use of technology. There is wifi here and at the hotel. They are allowed to use it sparingly. They are NOT allowed to post anything to any sort of social media network/site. I explained to them why and they, as far as I could tell, understood the reasoning. I even got a clap after my explanation so I think that is a good sign. If students email pictures to you, please wait until Saturday, after we've returned, to post them.

Thanks,
rachael