Published on Jun, 2024
We had the best time on this excursion. The day started early with pickup at my hotel's lobby and a short drive to the park in a medium size air conditioned van with WiFi. The driver gave us some great facts about the island and the countryside on our way.
When we arrived, everything was taken care of for us by the driver and we were hustled away to begin our journey. Bring water shoes or shoes that you can do a mild hike in and get wet. The hike was about 35-40 mins with breaks and a slow pace. It was very hot and humid on the hike, but the bugs were not too bad when we went (1st of June 2024). I am not an avid hiker, but do swim for about an 45 mins 3-5 times a week and did not find the hike challenging at all. They will take plenty of breaks and there are medic stations at points along the trail. The trail is clear, wide and has wooden/dirt steps in the areas you are going up/downhill.
The tour provides a photographer who was FANTASTIC. We really, really loved talking with him and spending half the day with him. You can bring your phone and camera or whatever, but it will get wet...there is no way around it unless you have a dry bag or a waterproof case. Even one of the other tour's photographer had some issue with his dry bag, so we were glad we left our stuff with the driver.
When you get to the actual falls, it starts with a "medium" jump of about 5 meters/15 feet into very, very cold water in my opinion. There is a ladder to descend if you do not want to jump. The river cuts through a limestone canyon and leaves very scenic and beautiful walls, waterfalls, slides, rocks and boulders. The bottom of the entire river is lined with river rocks and you must watch each step to ensure you don't roll your ankle or fall. It is not that bad and again, you are waiting for other people in the group before you move onto the next section.
There is then a couple slides and a couple more jumps. The final jump is about 8 meters/20ish feet and has an alternative slide if you do not wish to jump. I did not think it was taller than the first jump, but was told by the guid and the photographer that it was. Anyway, we all chose to jump and had an absolute blast. You could go back up and do the jump/slide again at this point as the river part was basically over. It sounds short, but probably took an hour and a half or maybe two hours.
There was a short hike back up to the meeting point and we turned in our gear, changed and had lunch. Lunch was a buffet of Dominican style food...a chicken dish, pork dish, some salads and rice. There were also some american options of french fries, alfredo pasta and I think I saw a hot dog. We were given a choice of coke, water, tea and coffee. I opted to purchase a cerveza from the bar.
Finally, we had a short drive back to the resort and we were given the option to purchase the pictures from the photographer. We reviewed them and paid the $25/per person fee to download them to our phone (or he would send them via Whatsapp if you preferred). The pictures were great, but honestly we liked the kid so much we would have bought them anyway, because it was not that much and we wanted him to feel we enjoyed our time, which we very much did so. We also tipped him, our guide from the park and the driver. None of them asked, but we had such a good time we were happy to show our appreciation to everyone that helped facilitate. Would definitely recommend if you are looking to enjoy a bit of activity that is not something which you can experience in very many places.
