Exploring Jarabacoa

To start off, this is what it looks like where I'm living this summer in Jarabacoa in the Dominican Republic. Absolutely beautiful. Green, lush mountains surround me everywhere I look. Although it may not look tropical, the weather still acts tropical: it's hot and humid during the day (although not as hot nor as humid as at the beach) and there are thunder and lightening every afternoon/evening. It cools off in the evenings, but you can still easily go without a sweater. It is different from where I was last time I was in the DR, but there are still many similarities among the two locations.

On Saturday, Marie (the other woman who was working with me from VAW) went into town. Mark had come out to the hotel in the morning, so we were able to catch a ride with him into town. The hotel we are staying it as absolutely beautiful, but it is in the middle of nowhere. It is a 3-4 hour walk to get into Jarabacoa. The closest colmado (little store) is about a 30-45 minute walk away. The main highway which links Jarabacoa to La Venga (a bigger city) is a 1.5-2 hour walk away. Anyways, I was able to get my underwear, she was able to make a phone call to her family, we both got a few items from the supermarket, and we had a nice lunch out (plus some yummy ice cream). When we were trying to decide where to eat, as well as just exploring the town, we walked around the same 5 blocks about 4 times...people started to give us funny looks.

Luckily for me, Marie was also up for an adventure and did not want to spend the 400 pesos (about 10 dollars) it would cost for a taxi back to town. So, we decided to take a guagua (minibus; really, just a big van) to the main turn off for our hotel (where the first road you take to the hotel branches off of the main high to La Vega) and then walk. The guagua cost 35 pesos each (about 75 cents), and I just had to holler at the driver when we wanted to be let off. Once we got dropped off, we started the (long) walk down the road. Luckily, it was starting to cool down because the afternoon rain was coming and the whole road is lined with big trees. Along the road we stopped at the Escuela del Medio Ambiente, some sort of outdoor education college school where people can come for a few months at a time and learn different aspects of the environment for training in different professions. We both had to use the bathroom, and the kind, older security man graciously let us do so.  

Because we were out in the afternoon, the rain started on our way home. Luckily, just as it was getting heavier, we found this abandoned house that is being built. We were able to hide out in it until the heavy rain passed. When we finally turned off onto the last road (a smaller, dirt road that leads into a "private community"), the bus that we use to take us to clinic, and that the students can call if a large group of them wants to go somewhere, pulled up and offered to take us the rest of the day to the hotel. We gratefully accepted his ride, saving us about 30 minutes of walking.

The next day, Sunday, we decided to go check out the nearby waterfall, Salto de Jimenoa. Siji, the team leader from Vanderbilt decided to join us in our adventures. It was about a 45 minute walk to the waterfall. We had a nice time walking and talking.

Once we got to the entry for the waterfall, we had cross over a few of these slightly sketchy, rickety bridges to get across the river. They weren't too bad, except when Marie would bounce them while we were walking across, just to scare us! And, they also had a sign saying no more than 5 people going across at a time.

We met another group of students from the US who were on a trip investigating the education system of the Dominican Republic (apparently it's the 3rd worst in the world! Worse even than Haiti's). They were doing researching and volunteering in some of the local schools. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go swimming at the base of the waterfall because it was all fenced off. And we didn't want to go swimming in the river because it was all brown.

On our walk back home, a couple who had also been at the waterfall and had a car stopped and offered to give us a ride back home. We all looked at each other then decided to accept their offer since it was getting pretty warm. We got into the car and all started chatting. As it turned out, they were going to visit another waterfall. So when we got to the turn off for our hotel, we casually dropped the hint that maybe we could go with them, and they happily invited us to continue on the adventure with them. We got a little lost on our way, but with the help of a few locals managed to find our way. It was not nearly as organized as the last one; we didn't have to pay an entrance fee or anything. It was called Salto Baiguate; until I saw it written down, however, I thought the lady kept saying Salto Bywater.

There was a damn-type thing above the waterfall, creating a secondary waterfall. The machinery to operate it was completely open, anyone could get to it. I'm pretty sure we could have opened or closed the damn more had we wanted to...

This waterfall (Salto Baiguate) was prettier than the other one (Salto Jimenoa), in my opinion. Plus, you could go swimming at the base of it, a big plus. While we were splashing around, another family that we had also seen at Salto Jimenoa showed up. Apparently it was visit the waterfalls day :)

The path leading down to the swimming hole. When we got back out to the car, we payed an old man who had been "watching" our car a few pesos each. Mostly because he was holding a machete and looked a little intimidating...

Because we knew we had missed lunch at the hotel, we asked the couple if they wanted to go out to lunch in town. We all decided on one restaurant that we saw while we were walking around. We all got the plato del dia which included rice, beans, and meat (your choice; or, in Marie's case, some sort of vegetable mash) and salad (which I didn't eat since I wasn't sure of the sanitary/washing side of it). I also had some delicious fresh pineapple juice. And, we were introduced to a new drink called morir sonando, or die dreaming, which is orange juice mixed with milk and sugar. It might sound a little weird, but it's really good. The woman and I exchanged emails, and she said to contact her if I come to Santo Domingo, where she lives :) Oh yeah, she's Dominican, from the southern coast, works with an NGO based in Chile called Un techo por mi pais (A roof for my country), and she told me I had a Chilean accent when I first met her! The guy is Russian, lives in New Orleans and works as a Petroleum Engineer. They met in Santo Domingo...they were very sweet together. It was funny because he would speak to her in English and she would respond in Spanish...they clearly understood each other though, but were comfortable in the different languages. After our lunch, they drove us all the way back to our hotel from town :)

At the hotel, the best internet was right in this stairwell because it was right by the router. Otherwise, you could sometimes get a signal elsewhere.

I always manage to find babies to hold at clinic. I got to hold this little guy for a while. I think sometimes the mom's are so tired, they're happy to have someone help out with the baby for a while. And that's just fine with me :)