My Weekend Getaway

By: Carlos Gonzalez

InteRDom Correspondent, Carlos, has completed three years of his Bachelor's degree in Political Science at St. Peter's University in New Jersey. He is participating in the 2013 10-week Caribbean Summer Program. You can read more about Carlos and his participation in the Correspondent Program here.

Whenever I plan a weekend trip to disappear from all the craziness at home, I usually carefully plan-out where I’m staying, where I’m going and when. This time, I didn’t make any plans. In fact, another intern thought it would be a great idea to go to the 27 waterfalls (or charcos) as a weekend trip. I had no idea what this was going to be like, since the intern (Krysta) had planned out every detail without my help. 

Once we got to Cabarete I immediately noticed all the European tourists. I am genuinely surprised by the amount of Europeans that come to the Dominican Republic as tourists and workers. This includes, Italians, French, British and Spaniards. Before I came to the country, I was not expecting as many Europeans. 

We arrived at our hostel, which had a cabin-like ambience, and the workers were extremely friendly. In the hostel we encountered people from all over the world, enjoying the fruits of the Dominican Republic. That same day we laid at the beach for the rest of the afternoon, were the three of us got to relax and enjoy the sun, ocean, and the scenic view of Cabarete beach. The next morning we woke up early to travel to the 27 charcos, which took around an hour and a half.

At the waterfalls, we hiked up around thirty minutes to the 12th waterfall, where Alex (another intern) and I jumped off the cliff and into the water. It wasn’t easy to get over how high we jumped. The tour guides were pushing us to jump, telling us that there is nothing to fear and that it’s safe. Alex jumped first, and then I jumped. The feeling of jumping as high as the 12th waterfall was exhilarating. The rest of the waterfalls were smaller than the 12th, yet still fun. It was nice to have the scariest one as the icebreaker for the rest of the waterfalls.

The ride back to Santo Domingo was uneventful. All I could think about was going back to Cabarete laying at the beach and enjoying the waterfalls. I suppose next time I shouldn’t plan a getaway weekend.