SHIPWRECKS & SHARKS! Diving in the Dominican Republic GRAND FINALE!
A first-person vlog-style account of a multi-day diving trip in the Dominican Republic by Nate and Kara Buchanan. The chunk covers land excursions (ATV/river), a coral nursery visit, changing resorts and dive operators, a deep wreck dive at the St. George wreck, shark and marlin sightings (including nurse sharks encountered during the safety stop), and final reflections recommending La Romana for divers.
Chapters
What an incredible way to end our week of diving here in the Dominican. After six dives in the very last five minutes of our last dive, we saw.
Today is day three in the Dominican Republic. We are here working with Patty. So we spent the last two days exploring the beautiful underwater world of the Caribbean.
But we're switching it up today and spending some time on land.
Concentrating.
It's a very unique way to see the local towns. Everybody's, like, on their front porch and we're just driving by in a big group on four wheelers.
It's so cool over here. Though it seems like a very slow pace of life on the river. Chickens walking around everywhere has very much.
The island life vibe. Yeah.
Whoa.
Well, that was exciting.
Wow.
Look at their ears.
So we just drove down to this river and they told us that it's the river where they filmed the movie Anaconda. And they gave us the option to swim, but for some reason.
Nobody'S getting in.
They said there's no anacondas here, but this is as far as I'm getting in.
Quick snack break.
Bread's cooker gang. Thanks.
Favorite.
Also, the go karts are a lot dustier than the four wheelers.
A little bit dirty.
Oh, my gosh.
Just covered. Just completely covered in a layer.
I think we need to jump in the ocean.
I really like your dirt mustache.
It suits you very well. Do I look like I'm. Do I look like a raccoon?
Good morning, Dominican Republic.
It is day four and yesterday, after our muddy adventures, we switched resorts. So we have a new dive bas for the rest of the week called Vivo Window.
We even had time to squeeze in an afternoon dine.
And it was super interesting because we went right out in front of the resort to a coral nursery that they've planted, and we got to dive down and see exactly how it's growing.
It's one of the most unique dives we've ever done.
They're growing new coral that can be planted all around the island to help keep the reef alive and healthy. We learned that it's important for the reef to be made up of corals with different strands of DNA, because if all the coral in an area has the same DNA, it can all be wiped out simultaneously. So they actually have marine biologists who are testing the coral's DNA around the island and using the coral that they're growing here in the nursery to promote DNA diversity within the reef.
It's a super cool project, and we're so happy we got to see it firsthand.
Okay, time to go. Gear up for today's first dive.
Okay. Since we've switched resorts, we've also switched dive centers, which means that we have a new dive master. His name is Miguel, and he is a shark whisperer, AKA one of the coolest guys in the world. Hello, guys. We've been told that there aren't a lot of big sharks here in the Dominican, but this is what he does with his free time when he's in the Bahamas.
Yeah, I spent two and a half years in the Bahamas. It was many sharks. You can find, like, five or six different type of sharks there.
And how does it work when you're actually, like, trying to put them to sleep?
This is something that somebody discovered in Puya Lorenzini. It's an electric field detector that sharks have in the front of the head and they use to detect the electric fields. Somebody discovered that when you do a special massage in this area, they get hypnotized. So in that moment, when they stop to swim, they sink. And then you can do things. You can take DNA samples or whatever you want to do.
Absolutely crazy.
It's amazing.
It also works on me when I.
Give her a massage.
I'm improving this.
Okay, so we're about to start our first dive of the day. And what's the site that we're at today?
We're gonna dive. First dive in St. George, Czech rec in 30 to 40 meters depth, 85 meters long, full of life. And today we're gonna have for ourselves. So fantastic.
Excited to be diving with you. So I actually read online that the wreck that we're going to be diving today was an old ship that transported barley and wheat between Norway and the Americas. It ended up here in the Dominican Republic about 20 years ago. It was abandoned. It was renamed for the Hurricane George. That went through and then eventually they decided to sink it to create a reef for the marine life.
St. George.
It'll be our deepest dive of the trip. And also it's just super unique. I love, love when we get the opportunity to dive.
Rex, I'm so excited.
It.
I don't know why we thought that filming on the front of a speedboat was a good idea. Here is what we sound like.
Like.
That sound is so awful. So I will fill you in on what we tried to say here. The wreck dive was incredible. Getting to swim through it was one of our favorite diving moments ever. We couldn't believe how many fish there were. It was so warm and clear. We could have stayed down there a lot longer if we had more oxygen. And we are now en route to our last divide dive side of the trip. A 45 minute ride to Sauna Island.
Okay, that's all.
Wow.
Can we just stay here forever? You can come pick us up tomorrow.
Awesome.
Thank you, guys. Okay, goodbye. Ciao, ciao. Wow. What an incredible way to end our week of diving here in the Dominican. After six dives, in the very last five minutes of our last dive, we saw two huge sharks.
It was crazy. First we were just swimming along, no big deal, nothing crazy had happened. And then Miguel went like this, which.
If you don't speak dive language means shark.
And I started like freaking out in a good way. I wasn't panicking. He's the shark whisperer. So I wasn't that nervous because I knew that he would be in control of the situation. We follow him around this rock. And then there sat this massive nurse shark.
How many feet? Six. It was huge.
I feel like it was at least eight. And we just sat there and looked at it. It was beautiful. It was so cool. And then we saw another one after we swam away.
And as if the dive couldn't get any better, we're doing our safety stop, sitting just about 15ft below the surface of the water, waiting to go back up to the boat. And three huge blue marlin just peacefully swam by.
It was so beautiful. We all just sat there. And Miguel had never seen one before.
He like spends his life underwater and he had never seen one while diving.
So it was so cool to see him get excited because he's like so calm natured. And he went like this and I was like, this must be a really big deal.
It was like our parting gift from the Dominicans since we were done with our diving.
It was like the grand finale. And then one minute later, we surfaced and all the waves were splashing us in the face. It was super windy, which is just one of my favorite parts of scuba diving is you're on the boat and everything's like banging against each other. You can't get your balance. Then you jump in and then the waves are everywhere.
And as soon as you let the air out of your bcd, it's just complete calmness. Everything is in slow motion. All you can hear are your bubbles.
It is. It's such a good feeling. It's like 12 inches from chaos to calmness under the water.
I love it. I can't believe it's over. And now we've been dropped off on the beautiful sauna island with the widest sand and the bluest water, the greenest palm trees is gorgeous.
It is one of the most beautiful beaches in the entire world. And we're gonna have lunch here and then just spend the rest of the afternoon so soaking in the sun and enjoying the beautiful views.
Wow. Life is good.
We're very lucky.
This is awesome.
I mean, this has just been like a week of paradise.
Sadly, our time in the Dominican is coming to an end. We just watched our last sunset on the beach from our resort. It's been such a good week.
Before this trip, the only holiday destination that I knew of here in the Dominican was Punta Cana. So I feel like this week we really discovered a hidden gem with La Romana, especially if you're a diver.
Seriously, the water here is so warm and clear and beautiful all year round. Plus all the dives that we did were within like a 30 minute boat ride or less from our dock. So it's just perfect. So easy. So if you want to learn how to dive or if you're already an experienced diver, come here.
We've already been doing a little bit of research. It turns out the Dominican Republic is only about a three hour flight away from Nashville. So I'm sure this will not be the last time that we're here.
We will be back. Kind of makes our last day look bad when I think about it like that.
It's really hard to be sad right now. Yeah.
You couldn't film and drive at the same time. So I'm putting my life in Kara's hands this morning.
She's usually big bump.
She'S usually not the driver and she's usually not the filmer. Hola.
I'm useless. Look how wide my eyes are.
Oh, look at that.
He's so dirty. Wow.
Look at my hair.
Good times.
This kid may never be the same.
It's probably good for you.
I'm sure people have noticed how perfect my diving bun is in all of our videos so far.
Just kidding.
But I do think there is an art to diving here. The most important thing, you have to get all the little hairs as tightly pulled back as possible because if you have little hairs in your mask, water can get in, pull till it hurts. Fun part. I like to make it very perky and desirable because I think it attracts more fish.
