20 minutes east of Las Terrenas on the Samana Peninsula lies the little town of El Limon that we were told offers access to a beautiful waterfall, and after three days in our overly sedate beach environs, the time has come for some adventure. "Some dudes on motorcycles will just see you coming and will guide you to where the horses are," rings in my ears as the guy on a white bike makes eye contact with me and asks "El Limon?" to which I nod. We follow him to the south and soon we are pulling onto a steep, narrow road, rolling past a number a little farms with more chickens than seem plausible. We then see groups of horses that are being draped in plastic sheeting as an afternoon cloudburst opens up. We are ushered into a parking spot just past the horses and the guide group's leader just nods at me and says "diez minutos, no problema." Sure enough, 9 minutes later, the rain stops and we are negotiating a price for our crew. Each person is assigned a horse and a guide (ranging in age from 14-67) and then the clip clop of trotting is all we hear. The trail is rocky, uneven, and so steep at in sections that one of the horses in our group falls to all four knees but the guides assist it in standing and is thankfully uninjured. We stop about 1/4 mile from the waterfall and we finally catch a glimpse of it and understand what the recommendations were all about: rather than a more or less "solid" stream of water pouring off a cliff, this is broken up into a hundred fingers that trickle over the moss and jutting rocks. We leave the horses and with the help of the guides and a shakey handrail, we make it down the last few feet of the slick trail to the base of the fall where many visitors are taking a swim in the spill pool. I join in and am treated to an amazing sight while floating on my back of gallons of water falling from 60 feet above me. You can also swim behind the fall and duck into a little cave and enjoy the sound of all that water coming down. The nag of responsibility tugs at me as I remember the evening's scheduled fish fry and our as yet unbegun contribution to it, and realize it time to head back. After we clamber back up to the horse post, we see that our mounts are rested and fed and we let them confidently return us to the car.
