We spent the final two nights of our journey at Sonido del Yaque, an eco-tourism complex in the mountains outside of Jarabacoa.

The community of Los Calabazos, made up of 36 families, built 10 rustic cabañas to host visitors and help fund community development projects. In one of the photos Doña Esperanza is showing us the hydro-powered electric plant purchased with funds raised through the eco-tourism project. Since our last visit the community has improved the safety of the hammock bridge that provides access to the road for about half of the community.

Visiting Sonido del Yaque allowed our group to support the ‘responsible’ tourism described in one of our texts, Last Resorts: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean. Our experiences there contrasted sharply with what we saw of the new all-inclusive resorts in the Rio San Juan region.

After a restful couple of nights listening to the sound of the Yaque river rush by the cabañas, we visited the organic farm of Doña Nati and Don José. We toured their farm, learned about the production of organic coffee and enjoyed a lovely lunch. Don José taught us about the economic potential for organic agricultural production here in the Dominican Republic.

Our final excursion for the water-filled weekend was a climb into the Biaguate waterfall. Students ‘billy-goated’ up the rocks leading to the fall and sunned on big rocks in the river. It was beautiful!

The photos posted here show some of our activities at our mountain retreat including singing and playing all kinds of games, hiking, singing and praying at the river, skipping stones, crossing the hammock bridge and hiking, and, of course, swimming!