As we became more comfortable and more familiar in our new surroundings, we found that we were able to utilize many of the same skills and passions for the outdoors in our new home, the Dominican Republic.
If you are like me, when you envision a Caribbean island, you think warm, blue water and white sand beaches lined with palm trees. Well, we do have that Playa Grande, and we have enjoyed it! But actually, we are more mountain folk, and surprisingly they have that here as well. The island the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti is about the size of NH and VT combined. And it is crossed by several mountain ranges. Some are coastal and relatively small, but the central range, the Cordillera Central, is quite large and has several peaks over 10,000ft in elevation! I mean, there are pine trees up there! And with abundant rainfall there are numerous streams, a number of waterfalls, and a thick forest canopy with true jungle ecosystems in places, albeit without any large mammals.
With this natural wealth in place, but with a lack of public access, it just took a little extra digging to find places to go. Some of our favorite finds included local mountain hikes and river canyons to explore that were posted on the site previously. Since then we have added trip reports of remote beaches where we have camped and explored, as well as a reasonably priced eco-tourism coffee farm and nature preserve that became our go-to camping spot. And finally, what would a Caribbean adventure list be without some quality snorkeling at a place called "Paradise Island ".
More adventures to come in the next installment.
If you are like me, when you envision a Caribbean island, you think warm, blue water and white sand beaches lined with palm trees. Well, we do have that Playa Grande, and we have enjoyed it! But actually, we are more mountain folk, and surprisingly they have that here as well. The island the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti is about the size of NH and VT combined. And it is crossed by several mountain ranges. Some are coastal and relatively small, but the central range, the Cordillera Central, is quite large and has several peaks over 10,000ft in elevation! I mean, there are pine trees up there! And with abundant rainfall there are numerous streams, a number of waterfalls, and a thick forest canopy with true jungle ecosystems in places, albeit without any large mammals.
With this natural wealth in place, but with a lack of public access, it just took a little extra digging to find places to go. Some of our favorite finds included local mountain hikes and river canyons to explore that were posted on the site previously. Since then we have added trip reports of remote beaches where we have camped and explored, as well as a reasonably priced eco-tourism coffee farm and nature preserve that became our go-to camping spot. And finally, what would a Caribbean adventure list be without some quality snorkeling at a place called "Paradise Island ".
More adventures to come in the next installment.
RSS Feed
