Family Travel Adventures: The Dominican Republic and the Silver Banks of the Caribbean

Swimming with Humpback Whales - Mothers, Calves and Escorts!

The outbound "Travel Day" of our adventures is usually fairly aggressive. This trip was no different. Up at 3am to be to the airport by 0400 (completely unnecessary) but should something go wrong, 30-45 minutes of sleep is not worth the hassle of changing flights so we played along with the TSA 2-hour arrival advice prior to departure, American was prompt in leaving at 6am and off we went. A quick 3 hours in Dallas then on to Miami for 2 and landing in Puerto Plata (POP)DR at 2320 hours after travelling back in time 4 time zones.

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic from Mt. Isabell de Torres

The usual immigration and custom activities ensued upon arrival and the stars aligned, our two bags made it! Out the door we went meeting Tony, the driver for Aquatic Adventures, who speedily whisked us the 15km (9 miles) to our Iberostar All-Inclusive resort and by 0100 the next day, 21 February, we hit the California King and passed out!

Puerto Plata is the third largest city of the Dominican Republic at about 300k; Santa Domingo is the largest at approximately 4 million (located on the southern coast) and Santiago de los Caballeros (south of Puerto Plata about 90 minutes) is numero two at 1.4 million. There is a huge population base here; this I did not expect; lack of time for research prior to the trip…I know, that is an excuse not a result!

The Island that the Dominican Republic calls home is Hispaniola (Spanish: La Española). It is an island in the Caribbean island group known as the Greater Antilles. It is the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba, and the most populous island in the Caribbean; it is also the eleventh most populous island in the world. The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern part of Hispaniola and Puerto Plata is on the north center of the country; to the west is the Haiti. The island is dominated by lush vegetation and jungles.

A view of the DR Countryside from atop Mt. Isabella de Torres

We woke about noon (8am Reno time) and then procrastinated until about 1300 before we got moving. Today, Day 1, (on this trip, not all) would be what Kim and I refer to as a “Jet Lag Day”. When we finally got out into public at the Resort, we were looking for breakfast and lunch was the only meal to be found; it was 1:30 in the afternoon. We wanted to spend the day relaxing and getting familiar with Puerto Plata. We did not make it far but we did enjoy some sun, sand, ocean, island beverages and some well deserved relaxation on the beach under our private umbrella.

The Iberostar Costa Dorada can best be described as a “cruise ship” on land. A resort of accommodation to all needs and desires. The only exception to that of a cruise ship, and I only have one life experience on a cruise ship, is that adult beverages are also included here (albeit a bit watered down). So we took the day to wind down and enjoy the warmth not present in Northern Nevada (14 degrees Fahrenheit/ -10 Celsius when we departed). We visited the concierge, Googled the area, had a fun Ichiban Japanese dinner experience (all-inclusive and dangerously salty), I enjoyed an authentic Cuban Cohiba cigar ($35) and a 12 year Macallan (not included - $40) and Kim... a nice glass of Cuarenta Tres and we called it a day about midnight.

Day 2 started with a walk to the Chocolate Factory and then moderately into town but after we realized the scale of the town and the distance to the city center from the "Resort Area", we headed back to the Iberostar and simply enjoyed the day completely understanding why the resort had so many amenities right on property.

Day 3 was tough as I got a very vicious case of food poisoning from the previous day so I was moving slow. We checked out of the Iberostar and at 1 our local driver, Tony, picked us up and in his kind and thoughtful manner, took us for a little tour of the town and then dropped us off at the Ocean World Marina where we would board our boat at 1700 for a 10:30 pm departure.

As I slowly regained some of my appetite, we enjoyed lunch at a marina side café and boarded the boat at 5. Got all sorted and dinner was served, we ate and had a boat briefing by Captain John François (JF) and were informed that the sea conditions were too rough to depart at the planned time and that we would not depart until the morning. This was good as it gave me time to catch up on the agonizing night of lost sleep the night before; bad because we would miss a day of whale watching.

Our Mothership - The Turks and Caicos Explorer II

Day 4, the boat motored up at 6 and by 0700 we were underway and what a hell that was. 5-6 foot choppy wind created seas and so as we acclimated with our sea-sickness preparations, the only thing that could be done was to lay in bed. Again, good for me but Kimble was getting a bit restless; as it turns out, all she felt she could do was lay in bed and not eat. We arrived at the Silver Banks, some 85 miles northeast of Puerta Plata about 4pm.

Here is where this story gets really incredible. Rising for Day 5, we had breakfast and were to board our daily tender (a smaller vessel holding 10 snorkelers that travels away from the Mothership) allowing us to peacefully and quietly look for the nesting areas of the mother humpback whales, her baby and sometimes, a male Escort.

Before I continue… Aquatic Adventures, its Founder and staff, along with the ships crew knocked it out of the park; I have been a part of many trips that "aquatic adventure” companies operate and this is the most educated and experienced I have encountered.

Our first close encounter with Momma and her baby! Photo: MMM Edited: TJM

Continuing…we were away looking for our Momma/Calf pairs by 0830 and spent until 1330 cruising the 25 square mile area of the Silver Banks. What a treat it was. We were spotting whales within the first hour but it took several more before we actually got wet and saw a nesting mother and calf. Not at all what we expected. The mother was hovering about 30-40 feet below the surface (about 20 feet off the bottom). She was sleeping. The Calf, just a little “mini-humpback” - at 1500–2000lbs/700-900kgs - then spent about 20-25 minutes playing; as a snorkeling group however, we only got maybe a 5 minute experience. Why? Probably because of the erratic behavior and movement of humans in the water and believe me, they know you are there. Nevertheless, it was incredible. This calf was basically doing laps. Gaining strength for the journey north several months from now. He would come up about every 2-3 minutes and then right back down to momma!

Let me try to explain what it means to snorkel with whales; the process so to say; the structure of our day. We exit the “Mothership”, the Turks and Caicos Explorer II [image above] and enter one of our daily tenders, the Escort or the Challenger;

The Tender "Escort"

identical at 28’/8m these tenders are custom designed fiberglass hulled boats. We then, at the experience of our guide, pick a direction looking for whale “blows”, one big and one small. They truly are all over the place you just have to look. Harder to spot if it is windy and choppy; the conditions we experienced during our days on the Silver Banks.

Just a BABY!!! About 14'/4m in length and 1500 -2000lbs/700-900kgs
Photo: MMM Edited: TJM

Once someone spots the blows, the tender slowly, no wake speed, moves in that direction. For the next undetermined amount of time, could be an hour, could be three, we wait for our Guide and “Scout” (highly experienced whale experts) to do an initial recon in snorkeling gear. This will determine if the momma has settled, “nested” and begins to hover at depth and take her nap. Once this is determined, the Scout, now in the water above the nesting momma, raises his fist to let the snorkelers know that the momma is in fact nesting. The snorkelers then must enter the water, quietly (which most of them didn't) and then slowly and quietly (which most were too excited to do), swim to where the Scout was positioned. At this point, we all line up, not going ahead of the Scout (which some had difficulty with) and then simply "float" and watch one of the most incredible shows on earth. The momma, hovering about 30-40 feet, about 20 feet off the bottom and the calf, tucked under her belly or chin, simply emerge from this massive female and slowly rise to the surface, take a breath and then move back down.

The calf moving toward the surface as momma rests/sleeps nested about 50'/15m
Photo: MMM Edited:TJM

This happens about every 2-3 minutes as the calves at this time are only about 2, maybe, 3 months old. As the migration season progresses, the calf breath-hold time may extend out to 5-6 minutes before the calf must surface to breathe. Remember, they are strengthening for the long trip north which may take them to Canada, Newfoundland, Iceland or even to Norway! Now, If, and this is a huge if, everyone of us humans is quiet, settled, making no noise in the water with fins or screaming into a snorkel, we might experience this calf do several laps back and forth to his momma. So far we have only had one experience where we saw the calf do two laps. Once the momma needs to breathe or she gets startled, she comes up and they move; hopefully close. The snorkelers then exit the water, and the tender moves to where the momma and calf have moved and we enter and do this again. The hopes are that we gain the confidence of the momma and the experiences get longer and longer; has yet to happen. Inexperience in the water and making too much noise at this point but it is only our first day with the whales.

This process goes on for at least 5 hours. Momma and calf are spotted. Scout enters. Snorkelers enter and observe from the surface. Momma gets anxious or needs air and they move. Snorklers exit the water back onto the tender and we follow the pair until our guide deems it no longer successful or healthy for the momma and calf pair. We then spot for a new pair (which may take several hours just cruising along in the tender) and start the process over again. It is not an “X” Sport but the anticipation and excitement of the encounter certainly is. [Note: One must be very sure that they are able to manage sea sickness as we dealt with wind and choppy seas of up to 5 feet daily during our tender excursions.]

To provide some perspective, we spent 32-hours cruising topside in our tender boats with about 1-hour total of in water experience and 4-5 total hours of observing, closely I might add, whale behavior at the surface.

A calf breaching about 100'/30m from our tender.
Photo: MMM Edited: TJM

Understand however, being at the surface on the tender is not boring. There is tremendous activity occurring topside. Males breaching and huge splashes. Sometimes close and sometimes on the horizon. There are mother and calf pairs traveling where the calf is amped up on mommas food and is breaching and carrying on for extended periods of time. There are rowdy groups slapping fins and flukes. There are pods surfacing and blowing. It is crazy active at the surface and at times, 10'/3m away from our tender. All part of the experience. Our patient effort cruising around in a 28'/8m tender, pitching, rolling and yawing, is the gratitude we present so that we may be allowed by these gracious creatures an opportunity to interact with them personally in the waters they call home.

A mother breaching with her baby 100'/30m from the tender.
Photo: MMM Edited: TJM

About 1330 – 1400 we head back to the Mothership for lunch, a quick break and then depart again for a couple hour afternoon adventure ending around 5:30pm. Fifteen hours later, we would start again; however, due to the bad weather at the beginning we had only 4 of these wonderful days instead of the 5 we had expected.

Day 6, Day 7 and Day 8. Simply spectacular. Only the images herein truly tell this story. Our Guides, Tom on the Escort and Megan on the Challenger were incredible. Each day we swapped guides and scouts but they were all “Whale Whisperers”. There were times when each of our guides would say, “now the mother is right below us so slip in quietly” and we would be amazed at their ability to put us on such a majestic opportunity and most of the time we were not even aware that the mother and calf pair were below!

Each day, the daily schedule was the same but the experiences were widely different. Here are just a couple highlight experiences:

The Mother and calf surfacing within 20’/6m of us at the surface in a human eyeball to humpback eyeball lock the whole way.
Watching a calf surface and swim completely around our group at the surface within 20’/6m, give us a wink and a spin and then submerge back to momma.
Getting the opportunity to experience a calf complete 3 full laps from momma to the surface.
Traveling over a mile on the surface while watching a calf, just after feeding, go crazy and with a full breach at the surface to begin, the little guy/gal breached for an additional 20 minutes, each breach lower and lower than the initial full, while the momma traveled along side (sometimes at the surface and sometimes below) less than 70’/21m from our boat.

And yes…experiences 1 – 3, we were IN THE WATER with these astonishing mammals. For 4 exciting days we saw and interacted with the Humpback's of the Silver Banks!

Sadly, instead of having another opportunity to enjoy the whales on Friday, the boat traveled back to Puerto Plata. And thus, all great adventures must come to an end; an end allowing us to plan, organize and experience our next adventure.

As the boat entered the marina around 3pm, Kim and I were ready to sleep on land so we contacted our resort, Casa Colonial, and they had an available room for Friday night; our expectation was that we would not get back to the marina until Saturday morning so this was an on the fly adjustment. We packed, called Tony, said our goodbyes and headed for the life on the land that we humans are accustomed; it truly is hard to sleep on a rocking and noisy boat so we were looking for a good nights sleep.

Now don’t get me wrong, the Turks and Caicos Explorer II, was a top class liveaboard ship with a top shelf crew but nevertheless, accommodations are small, beds are simply a twin sized pad (not mattress) and for both of us, difficult to get a good sound sleep upon.

As we departed the Ocean World Marina we pondered what was next. Not knowing what to expect, because we booked this accommodation with our AMEX points, I had no idea what its cost was (not typical of me), we arrived at the Casa Colonial and WOW, way above our “pay-grade”. Just spectacular and first class all the way. We sat down with the Concierge to check-in and were instantly introduced to the “First Class” aspect of this resort. What the hell, we were 3200 miles from home and now was not the time to go “Motel Hell”.

Christ the Redemer atop Mt. Isabella de Torres, overlooking Puerto Plata.

After we got settled, we explored the resort. It was small (50 rooms), quite luxurious and comfortably designed. Had great outdoor spaces on the beach and plenty of lounges and umbrellas to enjoy; tomorrow we would check these out more completely. Now, dinner and we headed to the resort’s 5 Star rated restaurant; oh boy, what have I gotten myself into – I am gonna go over budget for sure! Again, now is not the time to go cheap. However, we were blown away – this meal in the states at a fine steak and seafood house would have been $250. Here, at the Lucia (formal attire – which meant I had to put on a collared shirt and closed toe shoes – as you know, Kim is always "to the nines") our meal was $100 including 28% tip and tax! It was mind-blowing. What would tomorrow bring.

Saturday! A bonus day for Kim and I (because we departed the ship early) brought nothing but R & R at the resort. Early, we took a walk into the “mall” area of the “resort” area but found nothing but the usual touristy gift stores and were approached by every store clerk to come in and look, “its free”. The economy of the DR is very depressed and the present tourist dollar is not going far enough; everyone is fighting for their share - aggressively. The area also hosted a golf course and we watched a few shots fired into the greens along the walk and eventually ended up at the Jack Tar Beach and Kitesurfing bar (on the beach!) where we stopped and began our day of R &R as I initially mentioned; some island drinks (rum oriented is the best bang for the buck) some munchies and after, we wandered back along the beach to the Casa Colonial and just hung out.

The two things we really wanted to do during our extended stay in Puerto Plata was to do the Teleferico Puerto Plata Cable Car which traveled up to the top of Mt. Isabel de Torres.

A mountain, bordering Puerto Plata to the south which sat at an elevation of 2600’/800m above the city. The other was the 27 Charcos (Waterfalls) hike and swim out in the jungle to the southwest of the city center.

A cool pool of water and jump site along the Damajauga River

We called Tony and Sunday we did the cable car adventure and some city sightseeing and then on Monday, we headed out to the waterfalls (which there were none due to the drought-but no-one told us that. ) for a really enjoyable hike and swim in the pools that remained from the flowing Damajauga River (Go early! We did. Our group had 6 with two guides. When we returned about 2 hours later, the groups were 12-16).

Continuing our Monday adventure and after the waterfalls, when we got back into Puerto Plata, we did a tour of the Monsenor Cigar Factory, where we observed the creation of cigars by a “Torcedor” – a master cigar roller - and even got to make a couple ourselves. After we had lunch at a very close friend of Tony’s, Polanco,

where we enjoyed with Tony as our guest, grilled lobster tails, sea bass, shrimp, local rice 'n beans and a few island beverages - not Tony of course...he was driving. We then did some additional sights and shopping and then back to the resort around 1600 to hang out and ready for our travel day home the next day.

This was an incredible adventure for Kim and I. There are many peculiarities to enjoying a land like this so if you ever plan a visit, let us know, we would love to share what we know. The highlight, and main purpose for this trip, was our time with the whales but remember, air travel is not inexpensive so we always try to squeeze out the most at our destinations; in a term I am familiar, "dollar cost average" your travel and accommodation expenses in a the most adventurous manner possible, allowing you to maximize your days of fun for the best value.

At this point in the story, we have to mention how our entire trip was enhanced by the experience, knowledge of the area, professionalism and love from our driver and friend, Martin Antonio Peralta Fernandez (Tony for short). Here, once a driver greets you at the airport, his efforts are for you to call him exclusively. His care and concern for our enjoyment allowed us to feel comfortable and safe while traveling all over the area – "THANK YOU, TONY! Your efforts to speak English and my limited ability to speak Spanish made for a great time"!

As I end, I want to also thank our very good friend, Susan Bird. She and I have dove together over the past 15 years and her involvement with Aquatic Adventures is the reason we even knew of this incredible opportunity and were able to share in this experience. At her recommendation, I put the camera away after day two and Kim and I simply enjoyed the interaction without technology; that was a great reco. As a treat, Sue, who has spent countless hours with whales in their environment (her site - Way of the Whale) provided us this video of our last encounter with the Humpback's of the Silver Bank; we were off to her right staying out of cameras view. I share with you a small sample of her imagery...Enjoy and thanks for reading!

More Images 'n Captions

An incredible photo showing just how close we were to these magnificent animals!
Photo by Deanne Nezas; one of the other guests on our adventure.
Thanks Dede!!!