I had started to describe trip to the 27 Waterfalls in my last post, however, technology and time prevented me completing it, so here is the rest of the the story. Our first foray into the interior of the Dominican Republic was via a guar guar ride into the town of Imbert, about 60 minutes from Luperon.  Our plan was to visit the 27 waterfalls, however we had left it too late in the day, so after a quick meal of local KFC and chips (staple diet here) we returned to Luperon and settled into Wendy’s bar for hotdogs (25 cents), popcorn (free) and a movie , Guardians of the Galaxy Two (boys had been desperate to see this as soon as it came out).  It soon morphed into the first movie after they had trouble downloading it from their favourite  site,  no problems as we got to see it the following night after a successful trip to the waterfalls.

The 27 waterfalls are famous – we choose to climb to the 12 waterfall mark, an uphill walk of about 30 minutes, verses the 27 which was about twice as long.  The descent was so much fun, either jumping into the pools below, or sliding down naturally carved slides in the rocks. The highest jump was 8 meters, and we all did it with no hesitation!

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Our next inland adventure was a 3 night trip away from the boat, 2 nights spent staying in a Ranch at  Jarabacoa (high in the mountains approximately 2 hours from the coast), and 1 night at Puerto Plata on the coast just south of Luperon.

The road trip to Jarabacoa was a bit harrowing due to a manic mini bus driver who did his best to beat his competitor by driving like a rally car racer. We fortunately survived.

In the mountains our Ranch had a couple of lovely swimming pools, and overlooked a rapidly flowing river that was kept well hydrated with torrential downpours each night. The Ranch consisted of 4 villas and some hotel style rooms which we stayed in.

View from our hotel window over the gardens and villas

The DR was the setting of Jurassic Park – this dinosaur was in our hotel grounds!

We had lots of fun horse-riding (Suz – you would die if you saw the riding kit – stirrups couldn’t be adjusted, no hats, and crazy locals wanting us to canter and trot all the way).   After a stop and a quick walk up a track to a famous waterfall, I requested no more trotting as all the boys had horrible grimaces on their faces anticipating another round of bouncing about on the ponies!  Despite the sore rumps it was very pleasant ride, beautiful mountain scenery and so nice to be in the country side for a change.

Next was on to Puerto Plata for the night.  We were hustled by a local at the town square who insisted on accompanying us to our choosen hotel which was unfortunately booked out (we hadn’t planned where to stay, hoping to wing it for once!).  So we followed him to his local, which actually was not too bad considering a price tag of $25 US for the night.  Needless to say, sharing 2 double, bumpy beds was not much fun!

Our day in the town was spent visiting the fort at the entrance to the harbour, visiting the Luperon Museum (Max loved hearing about the history of their most famous General Luperon), markets and tourist shops, before heading back to the boat safely anchored in Luperon Harbour.

One more night at Luperon, spent hanging as much as possible at the yacht club so boys could get as much internet access as possible, before we started on our next leg down to Samana, further along the coast and our hopping off point for Puerto Rico, but more about that soon!