Saltos de Damajagua!

Today we went to 27 Charcos, Damajagua, Puerto Plata, a tourist attraction a couple hours from our accommodations. Many of us were extremely thrilled to go hiking and swimming since natural beauty is a highlight in this country. At the location we jumped off of waterfalls which made many people step out of their comfort zone since many of us were scared of the heights or the water but the encouragement of our peers led us to make the jump. After jumping off of the waterfalls, a lot of us felt empowered and felt like we could do anything life threw at us. It was a good break from all of the heavy realizations we are making about our lives and just the United States. Even though today was obviously a tremendous physical challenge, we had our fair share of mental exhaustion too. Many of us had to deal with our fears of swimming, heights, and even traumatic experiences with similar situations, but overcoming that anxiety was our biggest achievement. Today was fun and an adventure but it still taught us many things such as how pushing yourself out of your comfort zone can positively affect you. As Líderes Del Día, we were most proud of our peers for cheering everyone on and saying they can do it when they were nervous to jump since it shows that we still care for each other like a second family despite having only been with each other for 6 days. I think many of us can agree that we learned that even though sometimes we’re afraid of stepping out of our comfort zone, we still have to do it in order to conquer our fears.