Christmas with friends and family

I have just read back through the blog and it seems more like a travel blog of the Dominican Republic than a blog about restoring a colonial house in Santo Domingo but I did a few fun trips over Christmas.

It was a year ago I got married so my mum and a couple of friends from the states that came to the wedding came over. We decided to stay in Juan Dolio for a couple of weeks  so we could be on the beach. Hemingway beach in Juan Dolio is one of my favorite in the country. Its not as busy and seedy as Boca Chica - an awesome place to relax. We cooked a traditional Christmas dinner in the apartment and spent the day soaking up the sun on the beach... I am starting to get used to Christmas in the Dominican Republic! Now everyone wanted to see a bit more of the Dominican Republic so we did a couple trips:

The view from our apartment

27 Waterfalls - 27 Charcos

Now I have been to the waterfalls before and had an awesome time, so this was first on the list. As the name says there are 27 waterfalls which you can slide, jump and swim down. If you dont want to do all 27 you can just do the first 6 or 12. But I recommend doing them all - its takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

You pick up your guides and head off - it takes about 40 minutes to get to the top. The guides are less then enthusiastic when you tell them you want to do all 27, I guess they dont want to do all the walking!

The water was pretty cold as it was December and there had been a lot of rain. This made the falls alot rougher than the last time I visited but even more fun. The highest jump was probably around 6 to 8 meters high so its not exactly an extreme activity but its a lot of fun - definitely a must do if you visit the Dominican Republic.

The walk up to the falls

After the falls we headed up to Sosua, now it isnt my favorite place at all but they is an awesome local restaurant overlooking the bay which is a great place for lunch. Its quite a long day trip as the falls are about 2 1/2 hours from Santo Domingo and Sosua another 1 1/2 hours from there. What made our day even longer was that on the way back my transmission on the Jeep decided to break. Luckily it was stuck in 2nd gear so we could still drive - the bad side of it was it turned a 3 1/2 hour return journey into a 6 hour journey. But even with that it was an excellent day out.

27 waterfalls - 27 Charcos

Isla Saona

Being as we were in Juan Dolio we are only 45 minutes from La Romana so we planned a trip to Isla Saona - a national park Island south of La Romana. Now being Christmas meant it was busy... we wanted to go on the Catamaran but there was only one available for the return trip so we took a speed boat to Isla Saona stopping along the way in Starfish bay - a natural pool about 4 foot deep cover in starfish. 

On the way to Isla Saona

We then headed to Saona and spent the day relaxing in the sun on the beach, my friend Bryce even brought a Hammock. The Catamaran on the way back was good apart from it starting to rain - but even that didn't dampen the experience.

Isla Saona

So that was the end of my Christmas break... family and friends dropped at the airport - now back to the house!