Una Adventura: who wants see a waterfall?

"La Vega! La Vega! LavegaLavegaLavega!!" shouted a young man hanging out the open side door of a beat up old van whirring by. 
And that's how the adventure started. 

We didn't really have a plan. 
All we knew was that there were waterfalls in Jarabacoa.
And we wanted to see them. '
And well, to get to Jarabacoa, one first must catch a ride to La Vega. 
And to get to La Vega, one must find a "guagua" (bus) out of Santiago.
And we had heard rumors that we could find said "guagua" passing by Puerta 1 of PUCMM on a 15 minute basis. 
So with our hiking gear on and backpacks sparsely packed with a swimsuit and some bug spray, Lindsay, Malin, and I set out into the wild blue yonder. 

We found the guagua swinging by Puerto 1 as predicted, and  so after forking over a modest 50 pesos ($1.25) each, we crammed into the back sear for half hour ride to La Vega. 

Views from the road.
Above: Lovely little goat farm
Below: The local butcher shop, with today's specialty being leg of goat. 

Since we had really no idea where we were going, Lindsay chatted up the nice elderly lady seated in front of us to find out where we should get dropped off. The lovely lady explained that once we got into the city of La Vega, we should get off at El Quinto Parada, another bus station located there. 

So we made our way off the guagua without a hitch, but decided to mosey around town for a little bit and scrounge up some lunch, we were in no hurry after all. 

We meandered into the local "comedor" (small cafeteria-like restaurants that are super typical here) serving all the traditional Dominican staples: Tostones, French fries, Picapolla (Dominican-style fried chicken), Bolitas de yucca (fried yucca balls stuffed with cheese), a few different types of rice, and Habichuelas (beans in sauce that is served over the rice). 

Lindsay opted for the picapollo, fried rice, and a bolita de yucca. 

Then it was back to the bus station to purchase a ticket to Jarabacoa. The ticket was 75 pesos and we had to wait about 20 minutes since the bus wouldn't leave until it was full...which meant squeezing almost 15 people into a minibus that in the U.S. would legally only hold about 10. 
No worries though, a man came around selling "chicharrones", or fried pork skins, and that kept me entertained for a good 5 minutes. 

I shamelessly snapped pictures like a tourist.  And then I bravely asked to try a small piece, which he obligingly gave me for free. They were so interesting looking I just couldn't miss the opportunity!

Ok, so you might consider this delicious if you can get past all the pork fat. I could not. One little bite literally had grease dripping down my fingers in a river. (not my most flattering picture, lol)

So after another half hour ride and some more chatting with the other passengers to find out where to get off (everything is done by word of mouth here), our guagua left us on the side of the road next to a sign for the waterfalls: Salto de Jimenoa

From there we flagged down two motoconchos and haggled over the price: 300 pesos total to take the three of us the rest of the way to the falls. 

Malin and Lindsay squeezed onto a motorcycle with Jimmy, their driver, and I got to have a motorcycle all to myself with Davys, my driver. Davys and I got to know each other pretty well during our 15 minute ride, during which he proposed to me twice. Not much one for small talk, lol. I spent the majority of the ride explaining to him why I couldn´t/wouldn´t marry him and bring him back to the U.S.  God bless his soul, I can´t fault him for trying. 
The ride really was quite lovely though. 
The countryside was beautiful and the air was crisp and fresh since we were a little ways up in the mountains. It was a refreshing change from the stuffy Santiago air. Not to mention everything just seems more awesome on a motorcycle. 

Salto de Jimenoa is a pretty famous waterfall and it cost 50 pesos to enter the park where it was located. Once inside, we had to make our way across a series of rickety old hanging wooden bridges to reach the actual fall.  The creaking boards under our feet certainly did their job in adding an element of  "danger" to our adventure. 

It wasn't hard too imagine a cable snapping and the whole bridge swinging down towards the river as I bravely clutched onto it, Indiana Jones style, scrambleing to safety just before it plunged into the swirling waters below. 
Yes, I realize I have an over-active imagination. 

Really though, the whole place was very serene. 

Apparently these two lovebirds thought it was a lovely place as well. I couldn't resist snatching a pic from behind the foliage. Voyeuristic maybe? Ok, maybe, but they weren´t really being too inconspicuous. 

After chilling at the waterfall for a bit, we made our way down a trail through the "jungle" that ran alongside the river. 

We spotted an orange tree and couldn´t resist stopping to pick an all-natural snack.

We didn´t find out until later that these were not oranges at all! They were lemons! Lemons pretending to be oranges! That first bite was a doozy. 
Fruit is weird here. Nothing looks likes what it really should be. Oranges are green. Lemons are orange. You never know what you are getting. All part of the adventure. 

Eventually the trail ended at a small geenhouse (vivero) before leading back out to the main entrance. 

We called Jimmy and Davys to come get us. And then we haggled prices with them for another 10 minutes before they agreed to take us to the next waterfall, Salto Baiguate. The thing is, being obviously American, we really have to fight to not get taken advantage of on prices. So when we found out (from talking to a woman while we waited for the motoconchos to arrive) that we only should have paid 50 pesos a piece for the previous ride, and not 100, we had a little bit of a tiff with our motoconcho friends. We eventually reached an agreement: 200 pesos to take us to Salto Baiguate and then on to the bus station in Jarabacoa. 

More views of the local agriculture taken from the motorcycle

View from the top of Salto Baiguate

View from the bottom.

We threw on our bathing suits and waded into the brisk (very brisk!) waters, splashing around and exploring until our toes turned blue. That was our cue that it was time to head out.  

But before we could leave Jarabacoa, we had to have dinner of course! A typical meal of albondigas (meatballs), white rice with habichuelas (beans with sauce), and green salad. 

We caught the 5:00 p.m. guagua back to La Vega for 75 pesos and then sat at a roadside café to sip some coffee and enjoy the sights and sounds of the busy little city at dusk while we waited for the next bus back to Santiago. 
All in all, it was a beautiful day. Adventure accomplished.