Dominican Dreams Part 3 (27-28Dec2024)

The day after Christmas was essentially a repositioning day, where we took our time checking out of Encuentro Lodge and then drove the 2-3 hours up to Jarabacoa to our AirB&B.  We had a really nice place about ten minutes drive outside of Jarabacoa which is a small city.  

The view from our bedroom.

Our community was gated but I did get out of it and explore the roads by foot despite being a bit apprehensive while toting around a camera with a big lens.

Zenaida Dove

Hispaniolan Lizard-Cuckoo - many of the species I had on the coast were also common up here.  So if you are traveling to DR for birding exclusively, I would definitely hit up the hotspots on the birding circuit and not follow my more family oriented route.

Broad-billed Tody - I again mistakenly thought I had Narrow-billed Tody but again the elevation was not quite enough.  Jarabacoa is surrounded by mountains that are high enough for Narrow-billed but the town itself is in a valley.

Palmchats were still very common up here.

Vervain Hummingbird!  Finally a new lifer.  This was a heavily cropped shot but diagnostic.  

Its kind of difficult motivating my family to all get moving but we finally did move around 10am and went  driving down the road to a nearby waterfall, Jimenoa #2.  Many of the falls around town were closed because of the excessive rains.  This was a common theme in DR, many of the "parks" we went to were cerrado (closed) despite workers manning the entrance.

I will have to post this gecko on iNat for ID.

Luke at the falls.  There were tons of red flowers at the falls so I knew if I waited a bit a hummer would show.

Hispaniolan Emerald!

This is the middle sized hummer of the three Hispaniolan endemics.  The base of the bill is reddish.

After a delicious lunch in town, I walked a bit around the AirB&B surrounding roads.

Village Weaver - this African bird has established feral populations in several Caribbean islands including Puerto Rico and DR, but it was a lifer for me!

Later that evening we tried going to some other falls but it was cerrado again!  However, I did pick up this Stolid Flycatcher in the parking lot!

Stolid Flycatcher - a Hispaniolan endemic.  I got more of these later.

So even though the falls were closed, it ended up being a happy accident because we decided to visit a restaurant nearby that seemed to have some good reviews. It ended up being the best meal of the trip and maybe the best meal I have had in a long time!  We didn't know it at the time but the restaurant called Balcon has a chef that has worked at multiple Michelin starred restaurants and worked with chefs like Alain Ducasse.  He came out and chatted with us and provided us with some other things to do while we were in town.  He married a Dominican chef and they opened the restaurant together.  Here is the Insta page: https://www.instagram.com/balconrd

This is the view from our table on the eponymous balcony. 

Some Amuse-Bouche and cocktails.  I think Luke even took advantage of the lower drinking age.  George's was a mocktail. 

I neglected to take photos of the main courses because I was still kind of not understanding how good this place was, but luckily Melissa took some pics of the desserts which were delivered by the chef.

An amazing chocolate creme brûlée with locally sourced chocolate.

Strawberry Mousse shaped into a strawberry!

The bill was over $200 but it was worth every penny.  I would go back to Jarabacoa just to visit this restaurant again.  By the way, the birding from the balcony was insane although I didn't get anything new to add to the list and the light was horrible so I didn't attempt any pics.

December 28 dawned as a very wet and rainy day.  

I took this Red-legged Thrush photo from inside my bedroom window!

The family wasn't into hanging out in the rain so I went by myself back to Jimenoa #2 and although the trail along the waterfalls was closed, I just birded the entrance area which had a nice covered verandah where I could bird and not get wet.

Stolid Flycatcher again.  

I saw three Hispaniolan Pewees on the trip and non of them gave me any good photo ops.  This one stayed back in the understory where the light was minimal and it didn't stay long.

Another Hispaniolan Lizard-Cuckoo.

We made another attempt to visit the Baiguate Falls but it was again closed.

Vervain Hummingbird - as many birders know, the best birds are usually in the parking lot!

It seemed strange to have a Mangrove Cuckoo up in the mountains, but apparently they are all over the DR.

We had one more full day in the DR and I will save that post for last.  The only real birding spot we visited the whole trip was on that last day, Ebano Verde Scientific Preserve.

Stay tuned!