wyattsailing: Zip, Zip, Zippin' in the Dominican Republic!

The countryside of the Dominican Republic is so beautiful, we knew there had to be some fabulous zipline tours. I researched Trip Advisor and found
the top-rated tour closest to us in Puerto Plata, Yasika Adventures.

We contacted Toby, our taxi driver, to take us to the village of Yasika, located about one hour away from Puerto Plata. The ride to the site was a tour in itself, traveling through farmlands and hillside villages.

We arrived at the tour site and were promptly greeted by our guides, Jose and David. We registered, paid our $75 fee and we were ready to get started. We had our own private ziplining experience.

David fitted LA with his ziplining equipment which consisted of a helmet, a harness with a pulley attachment, leather gloves, and safety lines.

All geared up and ready to go! Our guide, Jose, checked our gear before we left the tour site.

Smiles all around as we get ready to depart. This is LA's first ziplining experience and he is ready to get started!

We got in our taxi and drove about 10 minutes to go further up the mountain to the first zipline platform. The platform had a beautiful view of the mountainside.

We climbed up to the platform and received a demonstration of how the zipline worked. There was a small zipline inside the hut for practicing.

The zipline is a steel cable mounted on an incline. Gravity propels you from one platform to the next. You wear a leather glove which has a very thick patch of leather on the palm. You stand up on the platform and your harness pulley is clicked onto the line, along with a safety line. You place one gloved hand on the pulley and the other gloved hand behind you on the zipline. When you want to slow down, you squeeze the line, and to speed up, don't hold on so tight. We practiced zipping on a line on the first platform so we could get the hang of the braking.

Braking is very important!

One of our guides, Jose, went first. He would be at the next platform to signal us when to start braking and help us land safely. LA's off on his very first zipline!

Here's LA... zippin' across the countryside!

The canopy tour was 10 platforms and 8 cables. We were suspended in the air from 300 to 600 feet, and traveled at speeds up to 30 mph. Our views of the mountainside were spectacular!