Cave Diving

I'm often reminded when I visit other countries that it doesn't take a lot of electronic gizmos to be happy, or to get your groove on. The local people in the Dominican Republic love to dance and sing and they don't even need a fancy boombox like in that last video I posted. People down there were constantly breaking out into song without even being attached to an iPod. The hotel lobby had nightly hootenannys that appeared to be impromptu ensembles of those with musical talent who played and sang into the wee hours of the morning. Aside from my occasional Facebook update via my iPhone, it was good to get away from everything with an on/off switch myself, at least for a little while.

While my sister and her boyfriend were vacationing on Catalina Island out there in California, we had the other Catalina Island in the DR covered. It's just a short boat ride away from Punta Cana, which was an hour bus ride from Boca Chica, where we were staying.


Also near Boca Chica, are some fresh water caves that we dove - a first for me. There wasn't much sea life to look at other than some tiny crustaceans, but there were beautiful, cathedral-like stalactites and stalagmites, some cool fossils of shells and snakes, and a dreamy, surreal effect when the fresh water mixed with sea water in one section. Between being in a cave, the darkness, and not being able to see two feet in front of my face when it became murky, I'd say this experience was a pretty high butt-pucker factor. But the stained-glass effect of looking up at the cave entrance as we ascended out of the wet darkness was well worth it.

I tried to capture that very thing on this video but of course, it doesn't do it justice. It's a bit dark until the end but stay with it to see the grand ascent.