Samana was our first stop and this was deja vu take two. It was the exact same shore excursion I had done back in 2007. Why would I do the same one a second time? Because ATVs are FUN. The nice thing was that the sun was out for the entire day and the weather was perfect with big white clouds in the sky and no signs of rain. Last time I had done it we wound up having a very muddy experience. Still fun, but I had to return my shoes to a plastic bag for the rest of the vacation. This time was different, and not just the weather. Our tour guide was just as nice, but did not seem to give off the same kind of energy as the last one had. He didn't really socialize with too many of the locals on stops and pretty much ran a by the book excursion. Chris thought that our horse helmets we used on the ATV tour were fairly amusing. The ATVs were still as fun as they always were and we went to all the same places as before with a few new additions. We got to stop at a cocoa plantation and had some fresh brewed coffee as well as a platter of fruit samplings from all around the island. This included pineapple, sugar cane, grapefruit, among others. Everything was incredibly delicious and I wound up buying a bag of their truly organic coffee as well as a bottle of Mama Juana. For those of you that don't know what that is it is a drink concocted by allowing rum, red wine, and honey to soak in a bottle of tree bark and herbs. It looks very interesting, but tastes ever so good. It is very similar to port wine and according to islanders it has medicinal value. The tour guide joked if you had the flu, drink Mama Juana. On your way to work? Mama Juana. Headache? You get the point. The fun part was trying to bring back the stuff with me without letting it fall off of the ATV.
We also did two other scheduled stops at the waterfall and beach as previously mentioned. It was explained to us that it was illegal for anybody to go in the water due to the strong rip current that could send you out into the ocean. Chris had doubts about this, but I was able to convince him not to test it out. There was a little bar as per usual for most of our stops where I had a coconut rum drink served in a giant coconut. Very yummy if not interesting to hold and drink.
We did the short hike to the waterfall as well where I was greeted by Domingo who was to be my "chaperone." A lot of the village schoolchildren will ditch class when the ships come in to participate in helping the tourists reach the waterfall (holding their hand as they go over river rocks, etc.) in the hopes of collecting some small bills. Domingo was super nice and even took off into the trees to bring me back a sweet smelling plant. The water was a little low this time so their were no island children jumping into the stream, but it was still just a beautiful and we posed for a nice couple's shot.
When you return from the shore excursions you have to go through a smaller version of customs to get back on the ship. Basically anything you carried off with you and/or newly purchased items that you are bringing back on is scanned and all alcoholic products are checked in and taken to a designated area to be given to you on the final night of your stay. The Mama Juana appeared to have some mystical properties as nobody really questioned what it was and assumed it was just some wierd little touristy thing we had decided to collect. Needless to say the Mama Juana made it back to our stateroom. However it remained unopened as you are supposed to wait two to three weeks after it is made before you can drink it.
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