Dominican Republic – Day 10 – Jarabacoa

Left our hotel at 715 to hike to the largest waterfall in the country, Salto de Jimenoa Uno. No guide, no detailed map necessary, we used the simple map from our travel guide. Plus Honza is amazingly good when it comes to direction; it makes me think if he does not have the map printed somewhere in his head. Moreover, the direction to the waterfall is very straightforward: get out off the city to Shell gas station, following the pavement road for some kilometers, and this road will turn into a dirt, bumpy road all the way to the waterfall. It took us 2.30 hours to get there carrying on average pace. Riding a motorconcho would have been a good option, but wanted some kind of physical activities after sitting most of the time on the bus, sampling food and relaxing all week.

The hike was for me “nice.” If you know me well, you will learn that I use “nice” quite a lot when I don’t want to be unnecessarily negative. I saw prettier landscape, interesting scenery. On the contrary, Honza liked that Jarabacoa was not overtly touristic area, and he got to see for the first time coconut trees, banana plants where he could touch hanging clusters of banana from the tree. You have to understand this: Honza is from the Czech Republic, the city of ancient castles and churches; the closest thing he has to coconuts and bananas are those sold in Tesco supermarket. Whereas I grew up in a mediocre neighborhood in Southeast Asia; my house stood by the dead end of the street, next to a coconut tree and across from an abandon garden full of banana plants. The garden later was made into my aunt house.

We paid 100 pesos each for the entrance to the waterfall, which was another 1 km hike down from the road. The fee included a free bottle of water and a Spanish speaking local guide. Due to the heavy rain a this week, the water turned dirt brown because of excess soils from the mountain. The water in the pool was freezing cold, no chance for a swim after hike; but who wants to swim in brown water anyway?

The guide offered to take us to the other waterfall, Salto de Jimenoa Dos through some shortcut, but we were not sure if we had to pay him more as we left most of our money at the hotel. We refused and hiked back to the city center.

We rested in our hotel for two hours before walked out to the central park where I wrote postcards for my friends. The Post Office closed at 4 pm. so we will send them tomorrow morning before we leave. We ate 5 deep-fried half-moon shaped dough from a street stand before coming to our favorite Internet shop at Ramon Maria Pina Equina and Libertad.

Sep 10 2008