brodie mcculloch » Dominican Republic

Cayo Leventado…….again

Brodie McCulloch — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:54:21 +0000

Because we tender in Samana I have to work until about noon, after that I am free to do whatever. So I sent Shagun an Kylie to see the caves and mangroves in Samana and I was going to meet them on Cayo Levintado.

Shagun with nicole

So I met them there then had some rum in a pineapple and coconut. We were lucky because I was able to get them on the sea lion encounter which I had done the previous call but it was still fun.

Team Sealions

We were the last ones on the beach and caught one of the last tenders back to the ship. It always seams to be nice on that beach and I think I would go there every few weeks because there isn’t much to see on the Samana main land.

There are a few more pictures here and all my photos are on flickr.

swimming with sea lions in Samana, Dominican Republic

Brodie McCulloch — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:06:59 +0000

We have just started running a tour in Samana that involves going to Cayo Levintardo (an island of Samana) and then going swimming with the trained Sea Lions that they have there.

Cayo is one of the best beach escapes we have and probably the only really good thing worth doing in Samana. I have put up stuff about Cayo before here, but they hadn’t started the sea lion encounter before I went on holiday.

Sea lions are really cool, they are sort of like dogs but they swim more I guess. It was good fun to get to go swimming with them as I don’t think I have ever done that before.

The count of animals that I have been swimming with is on the rise so that is good, I don’t think there are any others. From my count it is Sting Rays, Green Turtles, Sea Lions and Dolphins.

They gave us all the photos they took on CD so we got some good ones. I have put them up here and you can see all of my photos on flickr.

drinking from a coconut………enough said for Samana, Dominican Republic

Brodie McCulloch — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:40:38 +0000

Samana was way cooler than I even thought about imagining. We had been setting up for a disaster of a day but it is one of the coolest islands I have been to (which is saying something because I have been to a few now).

working hard for the money

Samana is the port replacing Roseau, Dominica from the last season. Now Samana is in the Dominican Republic which everyone is mixing up with Dominica, they are in fact completely separate countries and not very close to each other.

seals are funny

The Norwegian Pearl stopped at Samana once before I got on board, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong, so Ian had been setting us up for a crazy day of crazyness.

To my surprise everything went preity much as planned, all the tours went out and then we got to have a look around the town which was…..small. But then we got on a boat and shot over to a coral island which had one of the best beaches I think I have ever seen. It had everything and looked amazing.

trees and the beach

The people who run our tours there showed us around, we go to get up close and personal with a seal that they are still training for a seal encounter excursion they are proposing. We then had lunch at the buffet they have on the island, I opted for the lobster, as they say, When in Rome.

ok, so from left to right – Jeff (room mate and shore ex), Patrick (tv tech), kara , Chris (IT), Ryan and Erica (Second City – comedy people), Matt (shore ex).

We then got the best things I think I have seen in a long time, rum in a coconut! they cut the coconut with a machete in front of you then let you poor your own rum (CRAZY IDEA). We then migrated down to the beach were we went swimming for two hours with some of the youth counselors, IT and Second City (funny people).

rain in the distance

If I get kicked off the ship I hope it is in Samana, I am sure it would cost a lot to get home but it is the coolest place I have been to in a while. Great place.

All the photos from Samana can be found here, or on flickr (with all my other photos).