Los Tablones to La Cotorra (4Km, 1200M to 1750M): Awakened
by the brisk air, and our guide, we arise before dawn
for a nutritious breakfast and "campesino coffee"
made on the open flame of the fogon. Following the Tablones
River for .5 Km, the trail begins a rapid climb up some
of the most eroded and technical parts of the trail. The
surroundings give way to a new life-zone of vegetation
featuring Lirio, Myrtle Laurel Cherry, Copey, Pasture
Fiddlewood, West Indies Laurel Cherry, and Sierra Palm.
Our resting-place for a short break, La Cotorra, is aptly
named for the Hispaniola Parrots that congregate in the
area in the late afternoon.
La Cotorra to La Laguna (2 Km, 1720M to 2100M): Climbing
away from the broad views of the La Cienega Valley, the
trail follows the natural ridge-line. Once again, new
flora greets us as West Indian Sumac, Palo de Viento,
Wild Brazilleto, Krug Wild Avocado, and Tree Ferns decorate
the thick forest surrounding us. A fresh-water spring
is our reward at La Laguna.
La Laguna to El Cruce (.5 Km, 2100M to 2200M): The trail
climbs steeply to the intersection where the path to Pico
Duarte and picturesque Valle Tetero, featured in our 7-Day
Family Vacation Mule Trek, separates. The northern slope
is blanketed with green ferns.
El Cruce to Aguita Fria (5 Km, 2200M to 2600M): Climbing
the natural ridgeline, the vegetation makes its final
Caribbean Alpine change before reaching the barren-rock
top of Pico Duarte to Creolean Pine, Lyonia Heptamera,
Myrica Picardae, and low-growing bushes, like Garrya Fadyenii,Satureja
Alpestris, and Baccharis Myrsinites. Our resting place
for a refueling snack at Aguita Fria is just beyond a
wet bog. It is in this place that the headwaters of the
two longest rivers in the DR, Yaque del Norte and Yaque
del Sur, subtly bubble up from the ground.
Aguita Fria to La Compartición (3.5 Km, 2600M
to 2350M): Dropping down the natural ridgeline, pine forests
welcome us to our cozy cabin in La Compartición.
Excellent views of the mountain range are in all directions.
Day 3
Trek: La Compartición to Pico Duarte to La Cienega
de Manabao [28 Km, 2350M to 3087M to 1000M]
Transport: La Cienega de Manabao to Jarabacoa to Cabarete
[4.5 hours]
La Compartición to Pico Duarte (4 Km, 2350M to
3087M): Beginning with a steady climb hours before dawn,
we follow a switchback trail through pine forests along
the wide ridgeline to an open meadow at Vallecito de Lilis.
We can catch a breath enjoying the view of La Pelona,
the second highest peak in the Caribbean at 3070M, before
beginning the final push to the summit. Sparse pine forests
give way to rock and boulders at the peak with origins
dating back 60 million years to the Cretaceous period.
On a clear morning, with the sun rising over our path
back down the mountain, there is truly no doubt that we
are on the Roof of the Caribbean! Given reasonable weather
and a good pace, we should be back at the National Park
Headquarters in La Cienega de Manabao by 3:00 p.m.
The Magical, Myth-laden,
Shape-shifting Quality of Pico Duarte
Excerpt by celebrated author Julia Alvarez in The New
York Times-The Sophisticated Traveler (May 1997) on her
Iguana Mama hike to the summit of Pico Duarte
Pico Duarte looms in the Caribbean imagination like a
tropical magic mountain. In the heart of the Cordillera
Central region of the Dominican Republic, it is the tallest
point in the Antilles, taller in fact, than any mountain
east of the Mississippi on the North American continent.
Intriguingly, its height keeps shifting, depending on
what guidebook or map you look at.
Its name has also shifted. When I was a little girl growing
up on the island, it was known as Pico Trujillo. All our
grandest natural and historical locales had to bear the
name of our megalomaniac dictator. The story goes that
one of the regime's geographers, worried that the peak
might not prove to be tall enough, went ahead and added
almost 100 meters to his measurements. And so, to this
day, many maps falsely claim that Pico Duarte is 3,175
meters (10,417 feet) high instead of the more accurate
3,087 meters or 10,128 feet - about one-third the size
of Everest. After Trujillo's assassination the peak was
given back its original name of Duarte, for Juan Pablo
Duarte, one of the founding fathers in the 1844 struggle
for independence. Bt these stories of a changing name
and variable height are emblematic of the magical, shape-shifting
quality of the mountain." --- J.A.
Comments
by former Iguana Mama owner, Tricia Thorndike de Suriel
Last Winter I made my eighteenth trek into the desolate
and lush wilderness of the Armando Bermudez National Park,
where Pico Duarte is located. This time with my own three
and five year olds, three high school girls that Iguana
Mama has been sponsoring, a volunteer from our Dartmouth
program, and another family of friends with children,
seven and nine years old. Needless to say with that rag-tag,
honky-tonk, Sesame Street gang, we did not push for the
summit…not even close. The adventure is as much
in the JOURNEY as it is in the DESTINATION. I was kindly
reminded of this while watching the veteran national park
guide balance my sleeping three year old daughter while
riding a mule down a 9% grade!
Regardless of the height, 3087 meters or 3175 meters,
Pico Duarte and the Armando Bermudez National Park is
a magical "right of passage"-just as Julia Alvarez
wrote. Be you a sleepy three year old catching a free
ride just inside the park entrance or a seasoned mountaineer
pausing to catch your breath with the summit in sight,
these ancient mountains will capture a part of your soul
to keep locked away in their rugged "myth-laden"
terrain for eternity. My soul will be all the better for
it.
---Tricia
The
magic begins almost immediately. We set out on foot through
the rain forest. Lush giant fronds and waving palms grow
side by side with bamboo and banyon trees that seem to
have their root systems above ground. Sometimes, we skirt
small settlements just outside the park borders. Villagers
everywhere stop what they are doing - washing clothes,
driving a team of oxen, pounding coffee beans - to look
at us. We keep fording the same serpentine river, which
seems not to want to get out of our way as though it,
too, is curious as to what we might be up to."
