Damajagua

Last Sunday, I took a trip with 4 other people to an area called Damajagua. Damajagua is a system of 28 waterfalls and countless pools up in the hills that make for a unique hike/swim/jump/slide experience. Getting there required a two hour bus ride, including a transfer half way, to the west of Cabarete. Once dropped off, there's a little shack with a group of available guides for hire for about $10 per person (for us anyway). The guide led us down a half mile path to where the river began. We put on life jackets and helmets which would become quite useful later on. From there we hiked some more through the jungle until we arrived at the first pool. From this point on, it worked generally like this: swim through the pool, climb up a waterfall, hike a little more, repeat. Each cycle was different in its own way however. Each waterfall was different, each climb was different and sometimes required ropes and help from the very experienced guides, and each hike was different. Even during the hike portions we were usually in ankle deep water or at least walking on rocks sticking out of the water. A few times there were places to jump off the rocks into deep pools. The highest one was probably about 40 feet and was a bit daunting because the pool did not look that wide from above. I was the first of my group to do that jump and, instead of jumping more straight up and down, kind of carried a little towards the rock wall of the pool. I really wasn't that close to it, but everyone else decided to bypass that jump. It looked a lot worse from above than from my vantage point in the water. The trip down was similar to the way up, with some natural waterslides mixed in. The rock base has been worn down so much over the years that they are quite smooth and easy to slide down. Once we got to the bottom we had another two hour ride back to friendly confines of Cabarete and another week of camp ahead. All in all a great way to spend a Sunday.