weekend in Jarabacoa

---

I went to Jarabacoa this past weekend and had a blast. I love it up there. It brings back memories of growing up in rural Alaska with the mountains and country. Except in the bush we didn’t have a colmado on every corner to buy food at. Friday, after school got out, I had to take a guagua to La Vega and then another from La Vega to Jarabacoa. The trip was enjoyable thanks to Presidente, nothing like relaxing after a long week. I met an older man in his seventies in one of the guaguas who lives there. He was sent here in the sixties by Johnson with 20,000 other troops to settle the civil war that had developed between the Loyalists and the Constitutionalists. It will be exactly 40 years ago on the 28th of April when the troops came in 1965. We argued about the Civil War in the states for a while, which was fun because he was from Massachusetts and I had lived in South Carolina for some time. Anyway, when I arrived at my buddies house they were ready to take off camping on the mountain behind his house…it was pretty sad. We drove about 5 miles down the road, hiked about 400 yards, and pitched tents (really roughing it, ha ha). But we had some tag along kids from Kansas so maybe it was for their sakes! I found this huge tarantula under a log, which later wasn’t very comforting when I was sleeping under the stars with just my sleeping bag! We built a cozy fire and read Jack London’s The Seed of McCoy a nice little short story.

In the morning, several guys with machetes walked through our camp apparently heading to work in a nearby field. We picked some sour oranges from a tree which we used later that day to season a chicken Luke cooked on the barbeque. We knew we wouldn’t last long without coffee so we headed down the mountain and made a killer breakfast. After laying around for a few hours we headed up to the Bamboo Hole, which is a fantastic waterfall complete with pools, waterslides, and places to jump off rocks into the water. I was in Heaven. There were small caves within the huge boulders with multiple passage ways. The scenery was amazing!

---

Photos

Camping trip with Luke and friends
It's all about the muscles!

Katie and Autumn looking away
another shot of the view

TARANTULA!!
actually, later found out that there are no tarantulas here, just really huge, ugly, scarry, spiders that look like tarantulas...what a relief right?these two hobbits were getting hungry

toking
nice to have a fire. the girls brought food and the guys brought the tobacco, ha ha.very enjoyable

at the "bambu hole" or something
it's a cool spot outside of jarabacoa toward constanza.

natural water slide
it was perfectly carved by our Creator just for our fun and enjoyment, yee ha.

rock jumping
we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on this trip

and into the refreshing water
a favorite pastime. the water was perfect temp.

pirates
there be the treasure! and there be the gold! this cave was great. it had a large opening in the front and in the back there was an exit to climb out.

little people
some wet hobbits going home

Comments

[Madelim Ventura]

bangin
this places are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Davin]

I was in DR that day
I would have liked to go to La Jarabacoa. I now want to go even more, thanks to you photos.

[Kathy Mayer]

Jurasic Park
Saw your pics of the bamboo hole in Jarabacoa. Will be going there to visit a daughter in Feb. Did you know Jurasic Park was filmed at the "hole"?