27 Charcos

Yesterday, my group took a trip to 27 Charcos, which is described as the "best adventure tourism site in the Dominican Republic!" on their website It was an optional excursion and it set us back 1400 pesos ($37.58) each, so I was really hoping that it'd be worth it. And yessssssss it was.

Like, I cannot even describe how awesome this place was. I've traveled a decent amount in my 20 years... the Grand Canyon, the Vegas Strip, Versailles, Niagara Falls (overrated.), the Eiffel Tower, Neuschwanstein Castle, New York City, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Catacombs of Paris, Disney World, LA, blah blah blah. But I've never, ever seen anything as cool as this.

How to describe 27 Charcos? Well, okay, to start off... "charco" means pool, or puddle. But these charcos were definitely not puddles. And there were 27 of them.

27 Charcos is on the way to Puerta Plata, and is about an hour north of Santiago. We got out of the bus and headed over to rent shoes. For 50 pesos, you could rent a pair of nasty, probably fungus filled Keds for the afternoon. I did it, because you weren't allowed to wear flipflops and I didn't want to ruin my running sneakers or Converse. My Keds had holes. I think it gave them character. Anyway, we were also told that we had to leave everything in the bus- weren't allowed to bring anything with us to the Charcos. "Even sunscreen?" "Even sunscreen." "But I'm going to burnnnnn." "No sunscreen."

We were given helmets and lifevests, then were lead by our two guides into the woods. We walked for about 15 minutes through a few creeks and some forest before arriving at the first charco. Helmets went on, and we headed in the water.


The first charco

So just imagine that... times 27.

Pool after pool after pool. This one had a latter, but a lot of them involved being pulled up a cliff by a guide, or having to pull yourself up with a rope, or both. In between charcos there were often large/deep canyons that you needed to swim through to get to the next one.


Tunnel/canyon thing

And some of them were connected by shallow creeks, so a lot of careful walking on mossy rocks was involved. It reminded me a lot of when I would play in the creek/woods by my house with some of the neighborhood kids and my sister. Coll, if you're reading this- when I was here, I just kept thinking how much you would absolutely love this place. When/if you come to visit, we're going.

And just to be clear- these charcos weren't just all next to each other in a line. No. We were hiking up a mountain, mostly through a river. Para que sepas.

Have I mentioned yet that there were 27 of them? This was quite a workout. After about 2 hours we got to the top of the mountain. But then how do you get down? You jump, slide, or you cop out and climb down a ladder. Needless to say, most of us jumped or slid. Each charco is a different height, but the tallest one was about 30 feet high. So it's pretty much cliff jumping on steroids, because you do it 27 times in a row.

I can't really explain it any more that how I already have- you really just need to go to experience it. None of these photos are mine- they're from online- but here's a video from the website that has some footage of the charcos.



And here's a small review of the experience from Wish You Were Here:
"If one waterfall is awesome, then what do you call a couple dozen of them? In a row?
In Puerto Plata, the Damajagua river flows down to the ocean through a network of 27 waterfalls no more than about 30 feet high.
Stop by a hut in a sugarcane field for gear (lifejacket, helmet) and a human guide (or two), and hike up to where the first of the falls begins, passing plenty of gorgeous scenery en route.
And begin your day of gliding down limestone slides, cannonballing into turquoise water, bobbing in cool whirlpools, and floating along until the sound of rushing water tips you off to the next waterfall.
Note: It's worth investing in some sort of waterproof camera before hitting the 27 Charcos. Just saying."

Annnnnnd I guess that's all I can say! It was just such an awesome, sometimes painful, but always exciting experience. Good luck finding something like this anywhere else in the world.

PS We didn't even have to sign a waiver. I couldn't help but think that if we were in the states, we would've had to sign about thirty.