While on vacation in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, we decided to sign up for a Jeep Safari tour sold by Alegria Tours s.a.  Our vacation was a 7 day vacation, January 2nd to 9th, 2005.  The tour took place on January 5th, 2005.

The tour was to travel the countryside and finish at the highlight of the tour which involves climbing and jumping off waterfalls.  I wanted my 3 children to experience how 3rd world children live so they could appreciate what they have.  The tour was advertised as being fun and safe for children.  The tour was run by Alegria Tours and was to visit the Damajagua waterfalls, in Imbert about 20 minutes outside of Puerto Plata.

It was a 20 minute walk into the jungle to get to the first water fall.  First we had to cross a good size river in waist high water.  It looked dangerous, but we saw other people crossing it, laughing, so we thought this was normal and part of the trip. Groups of 5 maximum, would hold hands with one instructor. I held onto Adam’s hand, I was at the end of the line.  At one point the current was so strong Adam’s feet were off the ground.  I held on tight to Adam, Livia holding Adam’s other hand tightly.  He laughed, and the people on shore laughed. This was so much fun.

We crossed other small streams and sagged barbed wire fences.  Eventually we arrived at the base of the first waterfall.  Another group was on their return from the second waterfall and jumping into the base of the 1^st waterfall.  Our group walked up to as set of rocks at the based of the 1^st waterfall where from that point we had to swim counter current to the rock wall beside the first waterfall and climb up the rock wall assisted by the guides.  I remember my wet running shoes weighing me down and how at one point my arms were moving and I wasn’t moving and getting tired.  I barely made it to the wall just in time for the guide to grab my arm and pull me up. Adam and Nicolas swam across no problem, so did Marilena.  Livia and a smaller boy rode on the back of the tour guide.

We all eventually climbed up the rock wall, and then another 10 feet onto a bamboo ladder and waited at the base of the second waterfall.

At the second and last waterfall we swam below was very turbulent, it had rained for several days. A smaller group of around 10 people would be pulled by the instructors and a knotted rope to the base of the second waterfall , off to the side of the waterfall in a small cave. I was in the second group and Nicolas and Adam were in the first group. Livia was scared and said she wanted to stay back, and Marilena said that she would stay back too. I did not want to do it either, but the boys were already ahead of me, being pulled into the cave by the instructors.

 My son Adam was next in line to sail downstream with the current with a smile on his face only to be sucked in under water. He seemed to be pulled into this hollow area, at the exit of the hollow just to be sucked under. Adam was a strong swimmer.

I was standing on the opposite edge of that hollow and watched Adam be pulled to the opposite side of me and then go under.

 Nicolas followed behind but shot straight through. Later Nicolas told me that he felt the pull into the hollow but used his feet to push off the rock wall and stay straight. I guess I should be thankful that he too did not get sucked under, and thankful that I did not jump in after both of them and drowned too. 

I hollered to the instructors to rescue Adam but they spent many minutes arguing with each other. I know for sure the lead instructor told one of the others he was supposed to be watching. I was praying that Adam would pop out somewhere. I thought of jumping in but the water reeked of death, I feared that whatever pulled Adam in would pull me in  and I was sure I would not surface, and thought that my familiy did not have to see me die in front of thier eyes. I am not a strong swimmer, I struggled through the first water fall crossing, and I had cut open my knee. Everything got darker, I cried I screamed but no one would help. Nicolas, Livia and Marilena screaming frantically.

I walked to the outlet of the waterfall, hoping he would shoot out.

Finally a 21 year old  woman, Mia from Ontario  took charge.   She is an angel. A total stranger risking her own life to save someone she didn't even know. She asked the guides to cut the rope, they reluctantly cut the rope. Because the rope was so thick and rough she asked one of the guides to take of his shirt so she could wrap it around her waist so the rope would not cut her skin. I remember her saying to the guide “you better hold that fuckin rope”. She took the plunge. She said she touched Adam, but then felt the under tow pull her under and thought she was not going to make it either, until finally the lead guide pulled them both out, with Adam’s limp body on his shoulder. What a brave and wonderful woman.

I knew Adam was dead; he was under water too long maybe 10 to 15 minutes. I felt him dying inside me while he was under water. Everything seemed to get dark, the water seemed to turn dark, it was all of a sudden very cold. At one point when he was under water, I thought his body was lost in some underwater cave or tunnel, and I was no longer worried about whether he would survive, I already knew he was dead, but worried that we would not have a body for his funeral. I knew he was gone. It was amazing how many thoughts and emotions went through me during this real life nightmare, amongst the screams and cries of my family and tourists

They brought him on shore. But I held no hope, I knew he was dead. There was a reason that I did not jump in after him, why no one else did, why the tour guides did not jump in. It was like someone put the movie on pause or slow motion, nothing was happening, a force was holding everyone back. Was it his time to go? There was a doctor in the tour group behind us and he and this other lady did their best to resuscitate him. Marilena held everyone’s hands and started to pray, I sat back, knowing it was all over. What lied in front of me was his shell, I knew God had already taken him. With one last gasp of hope

I shouted “c’mon Adam” and then the group of on lookers cheered with me…”c’mon Adam, you can do it”.

Marilena got the group together, held their hands and prayed the “Our Father” hoping that would bring Adam to life. I stood next to the people trying to resuscitate him; holding little hope that he would wake up and cough up the water. His finger tips were purple, his lips were purple and his eyes half open. Mia after almost losing her own life stuck with the horror, and was cradling Adam's head in her hands as others tried to resuscitate him. At times I thought he awoke because his head sometimes would fall sideways towards me  and I thought his eyes opened but they were only still half open. I was hoping he would cough out some water and start breathing. At one point I laughed inside, and said to myself,” I knew it, it finally happened, my worst fear came true”. Many thoughts went through my head when they were trying to resuscitate him, including a happy thought that he is now safe and that I no longer had to worry about his death anymore, that same thought that consumed me so many times before. Up to a year before Adam's death, especially the summer of 2004 I would have panic attacks of Adam dying.

Attempts to resuscitate him failed. Livia begged them to “keep trying, keep trying”. Nicolas looked on in shock. My poor children, to have to see their brother die in front of them.

The guides laid Adam to rest on a bench at the base of first water fall, wrapped in blankets, with his head exposed. I went up to him, kissed him and hugged him.

My happy life had just ended. I was finally living the nightmare I had feared so many times before.

We then had to make the long 20 min journey back to the parking lot, over barbed wire fences, my dead son on a stretcher with his head wobbling on the stretcher as the tour guides gave him little respect. Mia, again, noticing thier lack of repsect for the tour guides caught up to them and held his head as they marched through the jungle. Again, she was a stranger, having almost lost her own life, but she still  cared for Adam as if he was hers.

Adam’s body was laying in the back of a makeshift Ambulance. Marilena collapsed and cried frantically. I went into the Ambulance, sat with Adam, hugged and kissed his cold body. Marilena joined me. He looked like he was sleeping. This would be the last time we would see Adam until his open casket at the funeral home.

The official ambulance arrived from Puerta Plata to transport Adam to the hospital and my wife and I were driven in one of the tour trucks to the hospital, a sad 20 minute drive and very dangerous drive into the City.

Mia and her father, mother and brother took Nicolas and Livia back to their room at Jack Tar, took care of our kids and fed them, played cards with them,  total strangers that we entrusted our kids with. They soon became our family.

We were immediately met at the hospital by the tour operator lawyer who said he was there to help us through things like this. I was immediately suspicious. I know he was there to cause interference, but what could I do being in a foreign third world country.

He took me to the police station for questioning. The power was off at the police station, I did not know where I was walking down long dark hallways, until we came into a dark room with 2 candles melted into the rusty steel desk. I noticed the filing cabinet being rusty. We sat on old wooden chairs.

They did not ask me any questions and the lawyer did all the talking to the so-called officer, it was in Spanish.

The lawyer said we could go back to the hospital and said I was lucky to have him there because he said the officer wanted to keep me there for questioning all night so he told him it was only an accident. A few days later the police report indicated that Adam died while in a swimming accident with his father, failing to mention anything about the tour, a total lie. The witness statement said that it was impossible for other swimmers to rescue Adam, failing to mention the incompetency of the tour guides, plus they did not interview any of the people on the tour with us since they were herded away on one of the tour trucks and taken away.

I then commenced my own crusade. Can you believe that the day after Adam's death, that very same tour was being sold and still being advertised as being safe for children, (many of the adults in our group had difficulty battling the currents)

I have video footage of my discussions with these tour operators telling me the tours were safe. Also, I intercepted many families with kids warning them of these tours. One family told me they were just told the waterfalls were safe for their 6 yr old son who could not swim. I immediately tracked down that tour operator and gave it to him verbally in front of a crowd of tourists.

I believe Adam’s death on that tour and my crusade to warn families saved other lives that week.

Later, a local Dominican told me there have been many broken bones on these tours in the past, and reluctantly told me there were a few deaths. The Global news reports confirmed this.

Getting Adam’s body transported to Canada was another ordeal. The hospital in Puerto Plata had to complete their paper work so that Adam’s body could be shipped to Santo Domingo for an official autopsy. He died on a Wednesday. They warned us that the entire process could take several days, and with the following Monday being a national holiday, it may not be till the following Tuesday or Wednesday that he would be shipped back. It’s a third world country and things don’t move fast. We were devastated to here this. We did not want to leave this country knowing Adam was still here, yet we didn’t want to stay another week. What condition would his body be in? Could we have an open casket?

Fortunately my boss pulled some strings and got the local Liberal riding of Walt Lastewka to work with the Ministry of Foreign affairs. They pulled staff off the tsunami relief project to help push through the necessary paper work. By Friday afternoon the paper work was cleared and Adam was shipped out of the Dominican on Saturday and returned to Canada on Sunday.

My boss was amazing. Knowing that we had to stay in Puerto Plata for 4 more days, he insisted and then sent to Puerto Plata, my brother, Marilena’s sister and our two best friends to spend time with us . Although we told him not to, I must say that it was very helpful to us. They met our new found friends in Jack Tar and for the next four days we became one big family.

We worry about whether we stay at a 3, 4 or 5 star resort. All of these resorts we  get  the comforts of the first world , but little do we think about the dangers of vacationing in a 3^rd world country, and the danger that lurks outside the walls.

Economic incentives far outweigh safety and human life in these countries. Money is being poured into these resorts by vacationers and going into the pockets of their rich owners. Why can’t some of this money be put into the local communities that these resorts lie in, improve hospitals, health and safety, police forces, ambulances etc etc

Oh well