At 530 metres in the Cordillera Central, Jarabacoa is where Dominicans go when the coast is too hot. Pine forest, a river running through town, and a climate they call la ciudad de la eterna primavera — which after a week at sea level feels like a different country.
The Río Yaque del Norte gives the Caribbean its only real whitewater: class II–III on the standard run, more in the wet season, through a boulder-strewn valley. It is short but genuinely lively, and it is the thing Jarabacoa sells.
The waterfalls are the other draw — Salto de Jimenoa Uno, reached by a suspension footbridge over the gorge, and Salto de Baiguate in a narrower canyon a few kilometres out, where the canyoning trips run.
This is also the base for Pico Duarte, at 3,098 metres the highest peak in the Caribbean. The climb is a two- to three-day trek from La Ciénaga, half an hour from town, with mules for the gear and huts along the way; a guide is compulsory and arranged through the national park office. It is a walk rather than a climb, but it is long, cold at night, and much harder than most people expect of a Caribbean island.