The Highlights of Jarabacoa~~
About an hour south of Santiago-- it's about 40,000ish people
My roommates and two other teachers from SCS rented a Villa with an awesome view and a wrap-around porch....
The pool area...
Friday morning was spent in the pool or reading/relaxing and then in the afternoon we headed out to Biaguate-- a waterfall that Kelsey (who had student taught here) was familiar with and had been there.
It's hard to tell from the pictures, but we climbed to the top of the waterfall, and actually got to sit on top of the waterfall!!! It had rained the previous days, which is why the water is brown from the clay and not white.
It started to rain, so we headed back into town-- Carrie and Kelsey have friends that teach at another Christian bilingual school in town-- Dulos (not sure if that's correct spelling)-- so their friend Ellen gave us a tour....
The landscaping was absolutely gorgeous- also with it raining, it seemed to accentuate the greenness of everything. The town itself has absolutely gorgeous trees/shrubbery (which I love trees), and it had beautiful scenery all around. After Ellen gave us a tour we got Bon ice cream-- and then had a Dominican food of Picco Pollo-- which is chicken and plantains.
We ended the evening with starting a fire and making smores.... as well as going out by the pool and looking at the stars and the moon which were incredibly bright!
Saturday morning, we went for a horse trail ride around the back end of Jarabocoa (I'm not sure of the directions there)-- along the riverside and through town. It had been several years since I had ridden a horse, but the horses were very gentle, and thankfully the terrain was not hilly. My horse's name was Domino.
I love the 'pony tails!'
We came back to the villa afterwards, and packed a picnic lunch to go to another spot-- a waterfall area called Jaimenoa. We couldn't get up close to this waterfall-- but did walk across wooden bridges to get there... It is a more popular area to visit as well.
That evening we met Carrie and Kelsey's friend Ellen at a restaurant called Colombianos-- we all had a corn-based food called Cachapas, along with some plantains and another food that I can't remember.
This morning we went for another hike along the river, and then headed up the mountain to the restaurant Jamaca de Dios.
While we were eating, there were para-gliders going by us...
The view was absolutely breathtaking-- and the food was delicious too.
The cooler temps felt so good the entire weekend-- and it was a rarity to actually sleep with a sweatshirt!
Salmon -- so delicious!
This evening we got a pouring rainstorm-- so much that we had rain coming in our windows. While we were in Jarabacoa it rained almost every day -- usually towards the afternoon/evening (except for Saturday)-- so we must have brought the rain with us!
I have tons of more pictures on my Flickr account which I have a link at the top of my blog...
On a school note-- My air conditioning is FINALLY working!!! So thankful for that!!
I also have realized that I am a morning person-- however I am not as much of a morning person, when I'm not able to have coffee! I was the only coffee drinker in the bunch this last weekend, so I wasn't able to have my coffee every day!
No comments:
Post a Comment