Hello everyone…sorry for taking so long to make a post but we’ve been having lots of fun and taking lots of photos to share with you so you can see what we’ve been up to. As you know from what we last wrote, Rachel came to visit us so we’ve been busier than ever! She was here for 10 days and we packed in as much as we could and even had to dodge a tropical storm. We’ve already written about a lot of the places that you’ll see on this trip in previous posts so we’re going to mostly going to share pictures with you this time.
There is so much to share that we’ll break the days into three parts…make sure that you check back every day or two to see all of the fun that we had. We haven’t seen Rachel in a while so I’ve gone a bit crazy with the pictures….
Hope that you enjoy!
Day One Rachel in the DR
Woo Hoo!! Rachel arrives…and yes that’s her plane behind her too! She says… are you taking pictures all ready?? She still smiles for us though!
The trip started off with a bang right from the start. Rachel arrived in the early afternoon and as soon as we got to the hotel Brian asked her if she wanted to ride around on the motorcycle to check out the town. Of course she did! Little did she know what he had in store for her…he wanted to explore the Salto de Jimenoa Uno waterfall…they say that the opening scene of the movie Jurassic Park was filmed here.
Salto de Jimenoa Uno involves a 15min descent down a steep path into a ravine and therefore a longer, tougher climb back out. It’s an impressive sight as the water drops 75m from a hidden lake above and thunders into a huge pool at its base. The spray creates delightful rainbow patterns on the rocky walls and it’s easy to see why this was chosen as a setting for a scene in Jurassic Park.
View from top of Salto de Jimenoa Uno
River flowing from Salto de Jimenoa Uno
It is a 60m waterfall pouring from a gaping hole in an otherwise solid rock cliff. There’s a sandy beach and nice swimming hole, but the water is icy cold!
I had heard that it was a steep climb down to the fall and then a very steep hike back up so I had already told Brian that I was not not hiking it. Rachel had no idea what was in store for her. Rachel said that on the way down that they were making fun of all of the “rest stops” that were along the way and that they thought that it was for all of the old people that hiked the trail…but then on the hike back up, up and up they were not laughing about the rest stops anymore and were thankful that they were there! So much for the pit stops being for “old people”!!
Can you see the pretty rainbow?
After they got back to the hotel we decided to take a trip to Confluence Spa, it’s a park in Jarabacoa where the Yaque del Norte and Jimenoa rivers join.
Man on horse crossing river at the Confluence Spa, Jarabacoa. Where the Yaque del Norte and Jimenoa rivers join.
It is beautiful here and a popular place for not only tourists but locals to hang out. Brian can truly be called a Dominican now because he drove us triple on the motorcycle there. Not an easy thing to do but he seemed a natural!
Our first meal together…all smiles 🙂
Day Two Rachel in the DR
Day two started with us renting a second motorbike for me so that we could ride to the town of Constanza and Rachel could see the scenic views across the mountain passes and to visit another waterfall Salto de Aguas Blancas.
Nice grape stand that we passed on the way to Jarabacoa.
The views driving to the town of Constanza…beautiful!
Driving to Salto de Aguas Blancas
Road to Salto de Aguas Blancas
First let me say that I was nervous as he** double hockey sticks!! Yes, sorry that was for our younger readers…lol! I drove our motorcycle once but have not had any other practice riding. Heck, I fall over on my bicycle all of the time so you can certainly say I was a bit worried! Brian said that I had nothing to worry about because I only had to shift the gears with my feet and not with a hand clutch too…well, lets just say I somehow survived and made it back alive.
Houses along the roadside on the way to Salto de Aguas Blancas waterfall.
Coming back down the road from the waterfall we ran into this tractor pushing a truck down the road…we had to squeeze tightly between the tractor and the side of the mountain to get around him. Not a problem for Brian but a heart stopper for me!
I wish that you could have seen the roads/steep mountains and trails that he took us on, not for a beginner rider. I guess that he thought that I was superwoman, I sure felt like it when we got back to the hotel…but, only after drinking about a liter of rum!
The water fall, Salto Agua Blancas is 1.680 m above sea level and is considered to be the highest waterfall in the Antilles. It consists of two falls that together form an impressive height of 83 m. (272 ft). It’s so cool as you are riding to it you can see it for miles away!
Aguas Blancas Waterfalls from far away
Aguas Blancas Waterfalls
What a good looking family I have!
Rachel crossing the foot bridge to the Salto de Aguas Blancas waterfalls.
Salto de Aguas Blancas, 15 km from the town of Constanza, and located at 1.680 m above sea level, is considered to be the highest waterfall in the Antilles. It consists of two falls that together form an impressive height of 83 m. The average temperature of the water is 10°C….burr!
Constanza and the ride there was beautiful and the waterfall was a 10! We had a wonderful day!
Parque Central, downtown Constanza, Rachel and pretty mountains in the background.
Parque Central, downtown Constanza.
Pigeon condos, Parque Central, downtown Constanza.
Parque Central, downtown Constanza.
Pretty church downtown Constanza.
Dad and daughter…Parque Central, downtown Constanza.
Day Three Rachel in the DR
Our third day had to be the most exhausting or most exhilarating day of Rachel’s vacation depending on how you look at it.
Horse drinking from the river below the bridge.
We started the day with a white-water rafting trip down the the Yaque del Norte river.
Soon we will be racing down the river in one of these rafts!!
Now that’s a good looking crew!
It was the same trip that we took the last time that we were in Jarabacoa and we loved it just the same! Class 4 and 5 rapids…pure excitement…we all had a blast!
Woo Hoo…it’s on!
On our rafting trip we met another couple that tagged along with us for the rest of the day, Jason and Nor from North Carolina.
As if that was not enough to do in one day we had more to see…next we visited the Salto de Baiguate waterfall our personal favorite because the falls are a bit smaller (so that they don’t crush you to death) and the water is a little warmer you so can actually swim here. This place is heaven on earth!
Salto de Baiguate Waterfall
Rachel standing behind BIG rock at Salto de Baiguate Waterfall
Strike a pose…Salto de Baiguate Waterfall
All smiles riding back from the Salto de Baiguate Waterfall
Next was the real adrenalin producer…paragliding, yes jumping off of a perfectly good mountain, hoping that your chute stays inflated and that you don’t crash land somewhere along the way.
On our way to go para-glide…the crew is in the truck in front of us…it was pretty funny..it started out with no one in the back of the truck and as we passed the crews houses along the way the truck would slow down and the guys would one by one jump in…it was a funny sight to see! That’s Rachel and Brian on the bike.
Just got to the top of the mountain and I have mixed feelings about jumping! Look how high up we are!
Dad makes getting harnessed up look easy!
The look on their faces as the first person runs off the side is priceless!
First up were our new friends that we had met white-water rafting, next was Brian…
Just about time to go….
The chute is inflating and Brian is getting ready to run off the side of the mountain…yikes!
Flying Brian….Woo Hoo!
Then it was Rachel’s turn…there was only one problem…there was one guide that had tried to get into the air several times with no luck. He unfortunately had a broken leg and was having a hard time getting his chute inflated. This was the guide that they were going to send Rachel up with….um, no way!
This is the guide with the broken leg that they wanted Rachel to fly with…he even had a bigger helmet on than the rest of the guides…I’m guessing that he was a bit accident prone…no?
Here’s one of “broken leg guide’s” unsuccessful take off attempts….yikes! And then Rachel says…”This guy is supposed to fly who????”
We decided that this was not a good idea and that Rachel would try to fly another time. She said that when she signed her release form that the pen ran of ink and that was her first sign that it might not be right and then when she was stuck with the guide with the broken leg it was a no brainer that she was not going to go.
That’s OK because if you see the look on her face as she was waiting to go she was not so sure about it anyways!
Hmmm…I’m not sure about this….
To Be Continued…..stayed tuned for more fun…we’ll post more of Rachel’s visit to the DR in a day or two…
Take care for now…