Road Trip Time Again! Continued… Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic

Jarabacoa is a village in the central mountains of the Dominican Republic. It’s popular for tourists of course…that’s why we went there but it is also a popular location for rich Dominicans because of the cooler climate and it’s central location to lots of fun stuff to do!!

If you like horseback riding, canyoning, hiking, (Pico Duarte is a popular mountain to climb. Located in the Armando Bermudez National Park in the Cordillera Central is the highest point of the West Indies at 3087 m that’s over 10,000ft!) There is also white water rafting, off road riding, anything that you can think of to do where there mountains and rivers and BIG waterfalls you can do it here. I was excited to find that there were good restaurants too… the best we’ve found since we’ve been here…yum!

Burr…it got so cold that we had to put our jackets on…what a nice change from the heat!

We had the chance to use the internet in our hotel in Constanza so we had a better idea of where to look for hotels when we arrived. We checked out 4 places and the last one was the winner. Ok, check this out…it was called the “Hotel California” and it was such a lovely place just as the song says.

Pretty courtyard at the Hotel California

Gorgette pushing Brian into the pool…I’m sure that he deserved it!!

Cool gourd lamp light up at night…pretty!

Eat more Beef!!

Yup, you guessed right…we like it so much here that we built a store and decided to stay….LOL!

Our first night there we bought sandwich stuff and were eating by the pool trying to figure out what to do the next day when out of the blue a guys walks up and says “ I hear hill billy’s down here!” Now that might have been an insult to some but we did not mind. (Bob is from Oklahoma, has a strong accent and a great sense of humor and being around him brings out our PCB twang) Freddie was the guy’s name and he was a local staying at the hotel with a friend of his Terese visiting from the states. We got to talking to them and they said that they were going white water rafting the next day. We thought that this was too cool and decided to join them on the adventure.

Getting ready to go whitewater rafting…all smiles 🙂

OMG…if you have never been white water rafting you should!! What a blast we had! We went with a outfitter called Rancho Baiguate down the Yaque del Norte (that’s the name of the river). For $50.00 US, the morning started with a nice breakfast and safety instructions. We then climbed into a truck and rode to our starting point. Once on the river it was on….swift running and lots of drops, class 4 rapids and lots of big rocks in the way that we had to navigate around…thankfully we had great guides on our raft that made it all possible for us beginners!

Woo….Hoo….rafting fun!! We were not able to take a camera with us on the trip but this was a picture taken for us. Brian and I are on the right side….me with the really BIG smile 🙂

There was a stop about half way down the river where they passed out sandwiches and juice and then it was on again until we reached the bottom. It lasted longer than I thought it would but I wished that we could have gone further too…we are definitely taking Rachel here when she comes…she is going to love it! We rode the truck back to the ranch where we were served a nice lunch buffet style (actually healthy food too…yum!). There we watched a video of the trip and savored our memories of the day.

Our cool biker dudes.

Salto de Baiguate waterfall

The next day we visited two different waterfalls. First was El Salto de Baiguate. We rode our motorcycles there then walked a beautiful trail to the top and then to the foot of the falls. It was so nice and we had the place to ourselves.

Me standing at the top of the Salto de Baiguate falls

Salto de Baiguate

We swam under the falls and in the pools that surrounded it. We could see gold flecks in the water and we tried to find a nugget or small chunk but no luck…maybe next time when we take Rachel with us we’ll get lucky.

Metamorphosis…

After we left the falls we headed to the Confluence Spa where the Yaque del Norte and Jimenoa rivers meet together as they head towards the Caribbean sea. These rivers join the city from the east and west.

Confluence Spa where the Yaque del Norte and Jimenoa rivers meet together as they head towards the Caribbean sea.

We could tell that this was a popular spot to hang out. When we arrived there were several guys on horses offering us rides and lots of hustle and bustle going on. There were lots of people enjoying the cool waters of the rivers as they flowed by. We quenched our thirst and headed out to see one more waterfall.

Pretty butterfly at the falls

Last stop of the day was Salto de Jimenoa Dos that is reached via an interesting trail that takes you through a canyon and along suspension bridges. The bridges were a bit scary swinging around when we walked on them and not looking like they were built up to any standards that we’re accustomed to. The waterfall was beautiful but more of a tourist attraction then the others that we visited and there was no swimming under the falls but there were a couple of swimming holes on the trail up that we could have used. We liked El Salto de Baiguate better just because we could get in and really enjoy it rather than taking a picture from far away like here.

Salto de Jimenoa Dos…as you can see there was not much water running when we visited.

Big rocks on the river at the Salto de Jimenoa falls

We all had a blast in Jarabacoa and although none of really wanted to head back home we knew that we would have to. We once again packed up our bags and got on the road this time heading back to Luperon and our homes.

Suspension bridges along the canyon side going to and from Salto de Jimenoa dos

Brian on one of the many suspension bridges leading to Salto de Jimenoa Dos

What a blast we had on this trip. We have memories that will be with us forever. Not sure if we’ve mentioned …lol…but Rachel is coming to visit us soon and lucky for us we get to do all of this again soon…it’s coming…here it comes….Woo Hoo!! We’re ready!!

Take care all,

Jennifer and Brian