OK so hopefully you’ve enjoyed our photos and stories so far…as you can see we were telling the truth when we said that we packed in as much as we could on this trip!
The following are more of our fun adventures 🙂
Day four Rachel in the DR
Road trip time. We pretty much spent this whole day driving from Jarabacoa to Las Terrenas. Sounds boring but the views were spectacular! The roads were a mixture of “wow this is amazing” to “holy ****, there’s no way to swerve around that pothole without hitting another one”. We rented a car for 1000 pecos or about $23.00 US dollars a day from a local in Jarabacoa…what a deal! Now keep in mind if we were to have wrecked the car then we would have had to buy the car…yikes..certainly a reason to be cautious on these crazy roads! Not a deal for everyone but thankfully it worked out for us.
Pretty church we see as we drive through the town of Moca, DR
Curving up and down winding road to Las Terrenas.
The ride to Las Terrenas is absolutely gorgeous! The views are to die for and curves all just blend one into another.
I think that he could load a bit more on there…what do you think?
We had traveled this road on our motorcycle’s last time with friends of ours but having a car meant that we could look around a bit more and I was able to take photos out the window too. This is where my camera died on our last trip so these are all new photos that we’re sharing. Pretty!!
Approaching the cave tucked into the side of the mountain that we explored.
Coming around one of the bends we found a cave right off the side of the road that we were able to explore…too cool!
Big cave on side of the road on the way to Las Terrenas.
Love it!
We arrived in Las Terrenas and had to do a bit of hotel hunting…we did not think about it but it was the weekend and the rooms were filling up fast. Luckily we found a really nice place right across from the beach that was perfect and it included a nice breakfast too, including chinola juice..known in the states as passion fruit juice…now one of my favorites!
Pretty restaurants along the boardwalk, Las Terrenas
Fishing boats Las Terrenas
Murals on wall
Local paintings on the road side, Las Terrenas
Day five Rachel in the DR
Las Terrenas is a beautiful tourist beach town on the north-east coast of the DR. Lots of shopping and restaurants but not much else do here. We got to enjoy the beach but it was mostly cloudy and stormy because tropical storm Cristobal was heading our way.
Need more sun…burr…it’s cold!
Finally we get to swim in the ocean…
OK that’s enough….it’s too cold for me!
Beach dogs followed us around everywhere we went…they were very sweet too!
Yes, that is the power line that you see in the water along the side of the road…no on seems to be worried about it though…
Thankfully we did not get anything other than heavy downpours and some thunder and lightening. Rachel was hoping to go back to PCB with a nice tan but mother nature had other ideas. Instead we ate, drank and were merry in the stormy weather.
Sandman contest…pick your favorite….one or….
Sandman contest…pick your favorite…or two
Day six Rachel in the DR
We had fun exploring the beach and shops in Las Terrenas. There is a waterfall called Cascada El Limon that is close that we attempted to explore. I say attempted because we had some bad luck with the local guides trying to price gouge us to see the falls. We drove to where we knew the falls were but before we got there we were swamped with guides on motorcycles leading our car, each one fighting to show us the way to the falls. We all ready knew the way but eventually had to give in and pick one because apparently it was going to be the only way we could get down to the falls.
Look over there!
Las Terrenas
All smiles….even in the rain….Las Terrenas
We followed him and found a parking space where he told us to park but then he told us it was $25.00 just to park the car in the lot…what?? Then he said that it was per a person because we had to take horses to the falls because of the rain we could not walk. Brian tried to come to reason with the young fellow but it was just not to be. We decided to leave since we could not come to an agreement and unfortunately did not get to see the falls.
Beautiful!!
Monkey see….
Monkey do!
La Playa Bonita
This was the craziest interaction we have had with anyone here in the DR and the whole thing was a bit disappointing. Most of the waterfalls are a couple of bucks to park and enter if not free. This guy was just trying to take advantage of us. Just sad. That’s OK though because we knew that there were lots more water falls in the DR for us to see.
Local artwork
We headed back to town and had a lovely last night in Las Terrenas before we headed out the next day.
Day seven in the DR
We’re on the road again. Slowly making our way to our next stop Puerto Plata where we would ride the cable car and check out the 27 waterfalls. The sun was shining and lifting our spirits and we were happy that tropical storm Cristobal was moving out and away from us. Yea! Finally we could see the sun and we knew that we were in store for some fun times ahead!
One stop that we made was in the town of Cabrera just to see cliffs. It’s a small town located at the eastern end of the North Coast of the Dominican Republic. The town itself is not much but the views are incredible!
Cliffs off of the town of Cabrera…can you see Rachel in the distance?
We stopped at several picturesque beaches along the way back.
Playa Grande,
Playa Grande, located between Rio San Juan and Cabrera.
One stop was Constabar Beach where we were able to search for sea-glass. This absolutely the best beach around to find sea-glass on…the beach is littered with it! Rachel had lots of luck and was able to bring a nice size bag home with her.
Playa Costambar, located just to the west of Pureto Plata. Because it was the weekend this place was hoping! This is also where we found all of our sea-glass.
Searching for sea-glass
Found some sea-glass…with the beach dogs help of course…lol!
Rachel thought that these girls had talent…if she could balance a bucket of fruit on her head she could be a Dominican too!
Local stand. The round white balls hanging are balls of cheese similar to mozzarella cheese that we are used to. They cut the balls off as needed when they sell and the cheese does not melt easily so they do not refrigerate it. Also looks like they have coco frio…Rachel’s favorite!
OK that’s where we are going to stop for now. We will have one more post after this with some really fun adventures…just wait until you see what the 27 waterfalls were like…heaven!
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…