Jarabacoa 12/19-12/22 Part 3 REPOST

“El Rancho Baiguate” Jarabacoa Dec 19th-22nd

(From the website http://www.ranchobaiguate.com/ ) Rancho Baiguate is located in valley of Jarabacoa, which stands at 500 meters above sea level in the CentralMountains, known as the land of eternal spring. Cool temperatures, the longest river of the Caribbean (Yaque del Norte), impressive waterfalls and the highest peak in the Antilles (Pico Duarte 3,087 meters) form a unique combination to the entire hemisphere.

We were up early again to be sure we were on time to El Rancho. The breakfast that is included with the room at Hotel Gran Jimenoa is a menu type choose what you want breakfast, no limits on how much food, just choices from the menu…needless to say, eggs, fried chesse, fruit, mashed potatoes, pancakes, bacon….and café con Leche on the Jimenoa river is a hell of a way to start the day!

My NIKA called the cab driver that delivered us to the hotel the day before but he was not working and offered to call a friend of his, “Yeah, right I thought….” Ten minutes later, a white van pulls up from the local cab company, it’s our driver!

The front desk says they will resolve the cold water in the room issue when we return, so we load up and head out to our first day of “adventure”….canyoning and the waterfall tours….cab driver gets us to El Rancho but not before offering to take us to the falls for “less money” than the company will….we decline his offer, but tell him we want a tour of Jarabacoa later and get his card. He wants $150DRP for the fare, I give him $200 and we agree to meet up later.

The cab driver is gone…we’re told by El Rancho TS OLGA has eliminated any chance of canyoning and rappelling (something I was looking forward to doing), and the bridge to the larger of the waterfalls was washed out by the storm….and they need 4 people to go to the falls anyway….the charge is $300DRP per person ($9USD), so I figure out they want $36 to make the trip with the Yeepeta….my ATF and I are the only clients for the day so I offer to pay for four people and get a private ride. The girl says, “Lemmie check,” and out comes “the boss”…he asks if I am serious and I tell him, “Sure.” So he fires back with, “Pay me for 3 people and I’ll include breakfast (which we declined).” I pulled out $900DRP before he could change his mind.

They needed a few minutes to get the Yeepeta ready so the receptionist showed us around the campo to get an idea of what El Rancho was like….the place is beautiful with lush foliage, they offer huge rooms that are basic “estillio campo”….two queen beds with bathrooms, no AC and no TV…they say because of the altitude you never need AC, and my ATF agreed…until I reminded her the whole campo would hear her in the throws of passion….and she then said we need AC!

They include ALL MEALS with the rooms, which are served at a large pavilion, buffet style….and the breakfast we saw was a good as Hotel Mercure’s. There are rocking chairs, large picnic style tables, a bar and a gift shop all close to the pavilion. There are also buildings that house restrooms and showers to rinse off in when you return from a days adventure if you’re not staying on the property. (HOT WATER TOO!)

We were then led across the Rio Baiguate on a bridge that now leans a bit to the port side from the rush of water that flowed down the mountain in this river….it’s banks and canyon walls showing the scarification of mother nature’s fury…and offering some truth to the Rancho’s canceling of some operations.

By the time we got back to the reception desk, our driver and “Yeepeta” was ready…and it was far beyond what I expected…it was not a Jeep, but a Daihatsu truck designed like the troop carriers I’ve worked from in Somalia, except it had no cover (shade) on the back….just long padded seats which me and my gal owned for the day! Our driver helped us up and we were off!

We had to go thru town and out down into the valley area to get to the falls, a drive that took us about a half hour. The pueblos around Jarabacoa’s Centro are poor, but by far cleaner than any other part of the DR I have visited. There is no garbage in the streets, which are not paved and the further we got away from the city, the cleaner the area got. There is some development being done as in “gated home communities” but the action is slow, yet the homes are very modern with barrel tile roofing, concrete block construction and carports…the downside is these developments offer no land……which is my reason for looking at property there….acreage!

We made our way down into the valley finally having to go off roading for a bit. My ATF grinned from ear to ear…..her first time out of SD in her life! (And my first time shooting a camera from such a vehicle…I’m used to framing my shots thru cross hairs…..) So we arrive at the “parking area” for the falls, duly noted by a spray painted sign on an abandoned building that says, “Pay here for parking”. The driver says in Spanish, “Walk down the trail about 5 minutes and you’ll get to the falls.”
“That’s our tour?” My girlfriend asks me. I tell her when I teach my classes and we arrive I tell my students, “We’re here, grab your gear and get the fuck out!” She laughs as we start walking….

“What about snakes?” she asks.
”It’s in my pants.” I tell her. “Keep walking.”
The trail is traveled although in some spots it narrows and the steep side is a dangerous mis-step, fuck up here and it’s 500’ til you feel the bottom. There are tons of berries and fruits growing wild so I start foraging for food….she wants to know if the fruit is “safe to eat”….I told her I’d let her know with my mouth full…we passed a spring that was shooting water from the canyon wall about a foot, I pulled a pocket straw (water filter) from my 5.11 BDUs and drank…the water was sweet!

She kept taking pictures and within three minutes of walking you could here the thunder of the falls….small falls by nature’s standards, but waterfalls just the same. As we got closer the temperature dropped by ten degrees and the plants were a greener more landscape variety….as opposed to edibles we passed.

We finally made our way to some cut stone steps…definitely a man made area to access the falls however the banister on the steps were simply tree branches nailed weakly together….and again, a mis-step would be your last…or perhaps next to last…I cautioned her on the walk down to stay close.

Once finally river side, the thunderous rush of the “small” waterfall casting a mist in the air created a rainbow in the sky that never leaves…..the atmosphere became surreal as I looked up the green covered mountain walls towards a cloudless, cobalt blue, sun-filled sky and realized… how small I really am in the scheme of things….GOD’S WORK…the beauty unseen by many is amazing…

I’m pulled from the moment by my ATF’s calls to me, “Papi, come out here!” I look and she is in the middle of the river, standing on a granite rock the size of a small car….it is at this point I realize she is part goat! She moves rock to rock, on foot, moving downstream… looking back to see if I am following her…I am, but hesitant to do so…

I fly planes, dive in the sea, drop love from above, and stalk shitheads in some scary parts of the world…being a tall mofo, my CG is high and rock walking ain’t exactly my thing, that’s 10th Mountain Division…not PCU work….so I use my asshole as a suction cup and scoot across the rocks trying to catch up….and finally do, where I find her completely nude….and looking for “love on the rocks”…..we spend two hours playing in the sun, in the middle of the river on a flat rock about 8.5 feet in diameter…a definite first for me….and I know for sure for her….

With knees, elbows and hands a bit worn, we head back up river to the steps leading to the trail…and it is here I realize the guys did not engineer these steps with any forethought…the walk up is much harder than the walk down (this is not a place for you if you’re out of shape, can’t climb, pull your own weight or otherwise not somewhat “in the game”….the steps were uneven, and in some cases required two people to work together to get to the top, at 5’2” and 115 lbs, she had trouble…while I did break a sweat, my belly dancing gal pal was huffing and puffing up the stairs and we had to wait for her to catch her breath…)

Our driver was waiting for us when we arrived back, no worse the wear for the wait….he asked what we thought as he helped up into the back of the “Yeepeta”, and drove us back to El Rancho where we caught up with our cab driver, but not before making reservations for the next day…White Water Rafting! (That report has been lost due to movement of posts, I did not save these reports and I threw away my notes...safe to say though...rafting with this company was the shit!)

Our cab driver offered to take us up the mountains to a restaurant named something in the heavens…(I did not catch the name) but he said you could see Santiago from the place….we drove about a half hour to a gated entrance where the road became steep……the guard said there was a private affair being held and we could not go up….so the driver turned around and offered apologetically to take us elsewhere…

I told him, (and these were my exact words), “I want to go local, I want to be the only gringo, the only white guy in the place…I don’t want to see another tourist.” He laughed, “No prolem”, and down the mountain we went to the Centro of Jarabacoa to a restaurant called “El Patio”….

He stops out front, asks us how long until we want him to come back, I tell him two hours…and ask how much for the ride……his response……..”You pay me when I come back.” And he leaves us at the restaurant…..El Patio turns out to be exactly what I ordered, the people are local, I have to duck into every doorway, and the open air garden with tables has free roaming chickens and a cat. Lunch was great, mero frito, salad, rice, beans, tostones….a feast with a few beers each…$720DRP…and just as promised our cab driver showed back up…he takes us to Gran Jimenoa where I ask him what the fare is…he says he’s sorry about not being able to take us up the mountain so he won’t charge for that and asks for $200DRP! I give him $400 and tell him thanks for the tour….and for how he treated me…honesty and kindness go a long way with me……

So we hit the reception desk to find out what the situation is with our room and the hot water…. “Sorry, your building has a problem” we’re told…(like I said, all that glitters, is not GOLD) We’re going to move you to another building, the pool view building she tells me. I ask her why she won’t move me to the newer river front buildings…and she replies, they have a higher tariff…

OK, no problem, it’s a room….I’m here for the fun…she hands my gal pal a key, I go to the old room, grab our bags….el burro the shit to the new room which is also on the THIRD FLOOR…and we settle in for a minute….”Check the water”, I tell my girl…..she does…….it’s COLD (cuz all that glitters don’t be GOLD)….we go back downstairs, tell the girl that room does not have hot water either….so she give us the key to the room next door….I go up and…….NO HOT WATER…..it’s at this point I go to DEFCON4……

I tell her straight…”Give me the keys to all the rooms available in this building, I paid for hot water…my girl deserves hot water and I only want what I paid for…” She hands me six sets of keys…first room, the toilet is whining louder than eastcoastallstar who called me a racist in an earlier post, next room I turn on the water and the tub fill spout shoots off into the tub, the third room the tub was separated from the wall and so gross my girl (a girl with a house with no hot water) was grossed out by it….and the next room, the tub fill spout was laying in the tub….(all that glitters, is NOT GOLD)

I go downstairs, walking two at a time…I have the downspouts from the two rooms in my hands and drop them on the desk…”Feliz Navidad” I tell her….”here’s some chrome for you….there’s no hot water”……she tries to tell me again she has to charge me a higher rate for the new building….and I tell her forget it, I’ll call AMEX, have them remove the charges from my bill and we’re leaving…….it’s at that point she says, “Wait a minute…”

Well wouldn’t you know it…she gets “executive permission” to move us to the newer building…..and wouldn’t you know….HOT WATER!