More Real Life Disney Princesses

More images of real life Disney Princesses from the blog of Jirka Väätäinen, an artist from the United Kingdom. Well he calls them "Real Life Disney Princesses" - I am going to call them "Real Life Disney Characters." :0)

Alice from Alice in Wonderland

(January 2012)

Jane from Tarzan
(February 2012)

Tinkerbell
(June 2012)

Wendy from Peter Pan
(April 2013)

I don't think he is really doing these much anymore, but I hope he does break one out every now and then. I realize that none of these women are actually "Disney Princesses" and even if Jane isn't actually a Disney Princess, I think she looks amazing. I see a little Jennifer Aniston in her but other people were commenting saying Ashley Tisdale (what!?). I love that he is doing this little project - it seems fun to him and it sure is fun for all of us who enjoy them :0)

Yasika Adventures Zip Lining the Dominican Republic

Zip lining in the Dominican Republic? Why not? I heard about zip lining and that was it. I wanted to do it. There are a few different places we looked at and we narrowed it down to Yasika Adventures Zip Lining and the Monkey Jungle Zip Line Adventures.

The Highlights of Yasika:
- They come pick you up and drop you off
- 10 platforms/8 zip lines
- Reach heights of 985 feet above the ground (speeds up to 30 mph)
- Fruit Cocktail at the end

The Highlights of the Monkey Jungle Zip Line Adventures:
- They come pick you up and drop you off
- All proceeds go to charity (100% of your purchase goes to an on-site medical/dental facility)
- 7 Stations, 3 suspense bridges and a descender into a cave
- If you are worried about safety, this is the only ACCT certified zip line on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic.
- For a combined donation you get to visit the Monkey Jungle & Zip Line Adventures which means you get to feed monkeys and check out that area.

As you probably guessed from the title of this post, we ended up going to Yasika Adventures Zip Lining because it fit into our schedule better. But I would love to go back and check out the Monkey Jungle Zip Line Adventure sometime. It just sounds awesome. Descending into a cave!? Feeding monkeys!? It all sounds super fun to me.

The Yasika Adventure team came and picked us up in a Safari truck and drove us approximately 30 minutes to their course where we suited up and headed to the first zip line.

I love riding in Safari trucks. No windows is my favorite thing ever!

The ride up to the Yasika Adventure Zip Line Course was beautiful!

10 Stations and 8 Zip Lines

Me and Jen suited up and ready to go.

First person to test out the zip lines and make sure they are safe ;)
(nobody else wanted to go first so I didn't even have to fight for it) I was stoked at this point!

Mike giving it a go!

One of the 10 platforms on the Zip Line course.

The engineering behind the zip line course.

I really wanted to zip line backwards or something and add a little more thrill to the ride.
Most people have something like Jiminy Cricket in their mind telling them what to do and what not to do. I have Mike to tell me what's safe and what's not.

Home Base aka the Last Platform

Our mouths are open and it's the only group picture we got. This is an example of why you should say CHEESE when someone tells you to say ZIP LINE.

Mike was awesome! He does not like heights yet he did every single zip line like a champion. No hesitation just maybe closed eyes ;0) He said it wasn't too bad - he just didn't look down a lot. Before we went I asked him on a scale of 1 to 10 how excited he was. He said a 0. I said, "Mike! You have to at least be a 1 or a 2 because you are doing it and you know you don't have to do it!" I don't know if he will ever zip line again - but I think he enjoyed it this time around.

This little Yasika Adventure helper climbed up the passion fruit tree to get us some fresh fruit. It looks shorter than it was because I was looking down on him, but it was a pretty tall tree and he scaled it like it was nothing. (To be young and live in a jungle.)

The fresh Fruit Cocktail at the end of the course.

We laid some fruit on the bar of the hut and lizards(?) started coming out of the woodwork to eat it. (Seriously in a 5 foot span I counted almost 15 lizards at one time.) In the top right picture, can you see all three lizards - they are awesome at camouflage.

The course went by super quickly! I feel like all 5 of us did it in around 30 minutes. I was bummed. I wanted to go again. I am excited to try out other courses though because I will be zip lining again :)

Dominican Republic: La Toma

A fantastic activity in the Dominican Republic is La Toma. I don't think San Cristobal gets as many tourists as Puerto Plata so it wasn't crowded and it was a great chance to go hang out with the locals and experience something unique!

La Toma is a natural spa pool-type swimming hole which is formed by the river Nigua. La Toma is located about 6 miles north of San Cristobal. It was the first dam built in America by the Spanish conqueror Christopher Columbus around 1520’s. La Toma has a significant source of pure, crystalline water and is much visited by many locals and residents of the southern region of the island especially during summer time.

First view of La Toma swimming hole (dam in the background).

Me and Jen were the first to get in the water while the guys... who knows what they did.

So funny, let me just tell you. They have like 4 cement stairs taking you down into the pool. You step, step, step, step, and then you take one more step and  boom - it's a big step down onto the river bottom. It tricked me and I basically fell in. After Jen & I swam for a while I was happy to see Mike coming to get in. I said, "Jen! Watch Mike! Let's see if he falls for that final step too." Sure enough - step, step, step, step, boom! He went down into the water. (Not so much that it covered his head.) It was funny. If I was a local I would hope that new people came to the pool every day ;) 

I was like, "Mike, please, please, please, please, please get your picture with me by the kissing sign..."

(He absolutely detests any sort of PDA.) He was like, "No, Jen. I don't want my picture taken."

What's that you say? Let me snap one anyway! (Just to prove I can get my way ;0))

 Thankfully, Jen & Stalin were willing to pose for the picture I wanted. (Thanks guys!)

NO KISSING!

Actually, it's okay to kiss. The sign says, "Couples are not allowed under the bridge." Go figure.

Playing ball. (So much fun!)

The hole in the dam wall which let water into the swimming hole and kept it filled since water was continually running out and flowing on down the Nigua River.

Jen, Stalin and Randy

Mike & I

The water slides are just plastic slides. There isn't actually any water flowing down them to wet your bottom.

Little boy swimming in his underwear. LoL. There were lots of them running around. (Swimming in jeans and in underwear.)

 We had an amazing time at La Toma. I would definitely go back. It was a very unique set up and I really liked the natural feel of it - like I was out in nature. There was cement surrounding the pool but the bottom was actually dirt and rocks - like any river bottom would be. I kept my Chaco's on the whole time - but I think I was the only one that did. It was fun to see the water flowing through the dam, into one pool, into another pool and on down the river. Very awesome.