Dominican Republic Trip

Joy and I had the opportunity to visit my brother Regan in the Dominican Republic. He first went down there four years ago, but things had not worked out for us to visit until now. We arrived on Saturday, June 13, after a good flight with only one lay-over. Regan met us at the airport and took us to where he lives in Jarabacoa.
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It rained pretty hard after we arrived. Here is a picture of Regan's place from the side street.

Sunday, after church and lunch, the three of us, along with Leah and her son, took a walk to the Baiguate falls. I enjoyed the trail through the canyon as much as anything. Here is a tree covered in epiphytes out over the river.

The Baiguate Falls. The water was still raging from the recent rains, so we had to be cautious while playing in the water.

The canyon walls on the trail back from the falls.

Monday afternoon, the three of us took a walk in the country to the top of one of the hills overlooking town. The hills and woods were beautiful, and it was nice to enjoy the peace and look for wildlife.

Another view on the trail up to the radio tower.

Lizards were very common. Regan said that he doesn't notice them anymore, but I enjoyed watching them. There seemed to be a variety.

Tuesday, we took motorcycles up to the Upper Jimenoa waterfalls. The Jimenoa river is one of the main rivers, along with the Yaque del Norte, in Jarabacoa. It is a fairly short, but steep walk down to the waterfall from the road. It was one of my favorite places. After swimming, Regan and I climbed around on the boulders.

Wednesday, we headed up the valley towards the tallest (10,164') mountain, Pico Duarte. I would love to hike this mountain sometime. We walked only a couple miles up the trail.

Regan swimming in the headwaters of the Yaque. It was threatening to storm, so we headed back down the trail.

The trail was pretty muddy, much to Joy's chagrin. Luckily, there was a nice place to clean off our feet.

Thursday, after much hassle with our car rental, we made it to the capital city of Santo Domingo. After some obligatory stops at the Columbus related historical sites, we decided to try and find a place Regan had heard about called Tres Ojos. Roads in Santo Domingo are not as simple as the street map makes them out to be, but we found the little park in the center of town. The park was centered around a cave system that had three large sinkhole openings. It was very pretty to see the cave and jungle together.

The largest opening to the cave system.

After a long day of driving, we made it to Bayahibe, a resort town on the southeast coast. This is the view of the bay near our hotel.

There were curious lizards in the area that had a bright orange tail that they wiggled like worms.

We took a catamaran to a island off the southeastern tip of the DR called Saona. The island was a national park and had very nice beaches with great swimming and snorkling. Regan and I found many cool fish, including a stone fish.

Joy on the beach.

Saturday, when we got back from the beach, Regan took us to a great restaurant on the mountains overlooking Jarabacoa. Good food, plus we got to watch the sunset over the mountains.

We took a walk on Sunday from the Confluence along the Yaque del Norte. This orchid was growing epiphytically everywhere along the trail.

Dominican Republic Birds

Black-crowned Palm-Tanager - Common in the countryside. There is quite a variety of tanagers in the DR.

Palmchat - the national bird of the DR. These guys were fairly common, even throughout Jarabacoa. Not only are they endemic, they are the only bird in their family.

Least Grebe - This guy was swimming in the lagoon on La Isla Saona. This grebe made a Pied-billed Grebe seem to be as large as a Mallard.

Common Moorhen - in the lagoon at Saona.

Greater Antillean Grackle - Not too different from our Grackles.

Brown Booby - the birding highlight of the catamaran ride.

Gray Kingbird - the tyrant of the Dominican. These guys were the most common flycatcher. They sound like Eastern Kingbirds, too.

Tricolored Heron - This guy was hunting the area below a dam on the south coast. He was a very small heron.

A hunting technique.

Nutmeg Mannikin - at Tres Ojos.

Hispaniolan Woodpecker - They sound roughly like our Red-bellies. Very common and often in flocks. I had to work to get a picture that wasn't backlit.

Black-whiskered Vireo - I was hearing the song everywhere I went. I was sure it had to be a vireo, but I couldn't find the singer for several days.

Magnificent Frigatebird - These 'pirate birds' were everywhere along the coast.

Narrow-billed Tody - on the trail to Pico Duarte. There are two todies in the DR, the Narrow-billed in the mountains and the Broad-billed everywhere else. They are in the kingfisher family.

Broad-billed Tody - near Jarabacoa.

Bananaquit - These colorful little birds were very common, especially once their song became familiar. They are fairly tiny.

Yellow-faced Grassquit - cute, sparrow-like birds.

Antillean Mango - a very large hummingbird.

Vervain Hummingbird - the second smallest bird in the world. Very tiny, but very noisy, common, and bold.

I got to see 46 bird species in the DR. Other DR bird highlight and thoughts:

• Cattle Egret - might not be the most common bird, but surely is the most visible bird. There is always one or more flying overhead.
• Common Ground Dove - I had seen these guys in SC before, but they were in decent numbers around Jarabacoa. They are tiny, cute little doves that have nice rusty patches on their wings.
• Hispaniolan Parrot - at the headquarters for the National Park in La Ciagna, I looked up and saw a flock of parrots winging across the valley.
• Hispaniolan Lizard-cuckoo - I got to see two of these gorgeous cuckoos on the trail to Pico Duarte.
• Smooth-billed Ani - These cuckoos were decently common around Jarabacoa. Massive bills and round tails.
• Antillean Palm-swift - These small swifts were abundant, but I didn't even try to take a picture of them.
• Hispaniolan Pewee - The only other flycatcher I saw. I was a little surprised by this.
• Caribbean Martin - a pretty martin.
• Red-legged Thrush - I saw this attractive thrush about 10 times around Jarabacoa.
• Hispaniolan Spindalis - Just a brief look while driving.
• Hispaniolan Oriole - A very attractive bird.