Dominican Republic North Coast Adventures

Posted: November 05, 2020
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Caribbean Islands, Location Categories, Travel
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When: Dec 6th thru Dec 13th 2015

What: Explore the North Coast of Dominican and then head to Punta Cana for a wedding

Who: Andy+Caitlin joined with Bret and Matt for North Coast. In Punta Cana we met-up with ~15 friends!

Trip Overview:

North Coast of Dominican is way too much fun and full of adventure. We went cliff jumping at 27 Charcos which was crazy + fun + scary which is always a great combo. Huge ziplines at Monkey Jungle which allowed us to explore the island in a different way (not to mention the cute monkeys when we were done). Crazy culture everywhere with brightly colored houses, insane motorbikes, and lots of locals trying to enjoy the good life!

4 nights in Cabrete
3 Nights in Punta Cana for a friend’s Wedding!!
- Full day of driving from Cabrete to Punta Cana along the North Coast

Cabarete:

Enjoying a coconut drink on the beach at Cabarete:

Monkey Jungle Zip Line and Monkey Park:

Way too much fun especially when you finish zip lining and play with monkeys for a couple hours. It was a quite day when we were there so the only ones zip lining and then the only ones inside the cages at the Monkey Jungle. Don’t miss out here:

Our awesome guides:

One aspect which was interesting was talking to a number of people who were displaced due to the earthquake in Haiti back in 2010 and now many of them are working in Dominican Republic. Several of our guides were from Haiti and many vendors were as well; you could tell the struggles that they had endured over the past few years.

27 Charcos: 27 Waterfalls of Damajagua

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147290-d627325-Reviews-Damajaqua_Cascades_27_Waterfalls-Puerto_Plata_Puerto_Plata_Province_Dominican_Repu.html

Teleferico Cable Car in Puerto Plata:

On the way home from 27 Charcos we stopped and rode the Cable Car up to the top for some beautiful sights. Some free-lance tour guide accompanied us and we really didn’t realize what was going on until we were in it; however, at the top in this unique forest, he showed us many interesting plants, leaves from grapefruit, etc, and told us a bit about the history of the area. Great pit stop:

Staying in Cabarete in an AIRBNB:

Favorite part about the North Coast of Dominican is that all of the hotels are small and boutique and there are a lot of rental houses. We stayed in one that was ~10min walk from the beach in the middle of what locals called the “barrio” where all of the local houses are. The neighbors were all really friendly and the canal behind the house you could paddleboard and canoe on!

Driving from Cabarete to Punta Cana:

Exciting. Dominican Republic is like a video game with your life when driving 🙂

Punta Cana Wedding:

Punta Cana is beautiful but a complete 180 from the rest of the island. If you enjoy American style, isolated resorts with minimal dining options this is your place. I preferred everywhere else that we went due to the cultural elements which make the Dominican special, however, the beauty and practicality of location made up for the tourist feeling!

Posted: April 20, 2016
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Location Categories, Mexico, Travel, Water Sports
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When: Depart Denver on a plane at 9am Friday April 17th, Arrive 1am to the Beach in Cabo (direct flights kick ass!), 3 nights in CABO

What: Andy’s 30th BDAY (I once heard it is best to celebrate a 30th out of the country…I couldn’t agree more!)

Who: Andy+Caitlin

A quick weekend trip to the less explored East Cape of the Baja was a perfect adventure for my birthday weekend. While Cabo San Lucas is know for tourism, and cruise-ships, it is beautiful but usually crowded (we have visited Cabo before!). The other city, San Jose Del Cabo is known for Art and traditional plazas. We were about 25 mins outside of town staying on the road that turns into the East Cape. A place that is usually reserved for Surfers and Divers heading into Cabo Pulmo National Park and the remote lands. Our trip was focused on seeking deserted beaches and delicious seafood!!

This was our 2nd trip to the Baja area and you can read about the 1st trip here with additional photos here.

Food was devoured (in order of consumption): As always food in Mexico is the best!

Lunch: Buzzards Bar and Grill; Fish Tacos
Dinner: Meson del Angel; Tuna Steak + Crazy traditional stuffed pepper + blueberry mojoitos + Ice-Cream “sushi” roll + Marachi singing Happy B-Day (we ate here before!)
Breakfast: Mango Margaritas + Mexican Pastries + Sunrise
Lunch: Flora Farms; Seafood Pesto Pizza + Pork-link sandwich (all food grown on the farm locally)
Dinner: Tequila’s restaurant; Fresh Fish + Shrimp + Octopus appetizer + more Marachi singers
Breakfast: Pastries + Sunrise
Lunch: on the beach in the middle of nowhere: Chips+black beans+cured meats+margaritas+plums+avocado+cerveza
Dinner: La Palapa in Cabo Pulmo; Aguachili Scallops (huge plate of scallops with lime+chili), Two Lobster Tails, Seafood Tacos, and another order of Scallops for dessert (because they were that good!). This seaside open air restaurant is right in the middle of Cabo Pulmo and delivered the best seafood of the trip!
Breakfast: remaining tequila+fruit+pastry+ Final Sunrise
Lunch: Jumbo plate of ceviche, Red Snapper fried whole+Jumbo Shrimp

Sunrise was epic every day as it rose over PUNTA GORDA!!:

Exploring the East Cape of Cabo:

Cabo Pulmo Marine Park, Los Frailes Snorkeling, Dirt Roads, and Deserted Beaches. That pretty much sums up our amazing experience.

We took the coast road which was no problem in our little rental car. The road was full of beautiful overlooks and interesting sights along the way. While worried a little about this road it actually was in top-notch conditions and was easy to travel on for what it is.

East Cape Cabo San Lucas Highway Driving

Los Frailes (link to MAP) was the beach we stopped at in Cabo Pulmo Marine Park. Snorkeling Saw some cool fish; Parrotfish, Scorpionfish, Cornet Fish, and schools of lots of colorful fishes.

It was a Sunday and the beach was 100% deserted. A couple sailboats were moored offshore, and fisherman were 1 mile+ away. It was very enjoyable!! There was amazing covered shade PALAPAS on the beach for use making it really practical.

Looking back on the Beach from where we went snorkeling:

We spent all day at the beach enjoying the sun, snorkeling, and quite time. Lunch was snacks we brought along. For Dinner we decided to drive a little further up the coast to the city of CABO PULMO (maybe 15 buildings big) where we ate at the La Palapa and had amazing scallops, lobster, and shrimp!

We arrived home in the dark after the drive home, enjoying a few stops for the sunset:

San Jose Del Cabo:

We spent a lot of time eating at the many unique restaurants in the area. Flora Farms stuck out as being such an unique spot with incredible food.

We had one run-in with the law which ended with no problems. Apparently bumping down the pot-hole strewn road as fast as you can is not generally looked highly upon. After some exchanges in our poor spanish discussing why we were here, that we were from Colorado, that they acknowledged there are a lot of Mexicans in Colorado, that we had a rental car, and that we were going to a local farm for lunch (less then 1/4 mile away at that point), was enough to let us away with a caution to drive slower.

YUM Fried Snapper:

TIPS for Cabo San Lucas or San Jose Del Cabo or East Cape:

MEGA Supermarket: As you come from the airport and hit HWY 1 the MEGA store is awesome. Bottles of top notch tequila for ~$13USD, pasteries, food, dried meats, beach stuff, fruit, booze mixers, etc. Load up here once and be happy!

Accommodations:

We found a beautiful casita to rent from Kim on VRBO. Amazing views. Such a great deal in a very private neighborhood with 24/7 security:

https://www.vrbo.com/642197

One of the most beautiful places to watch sunrises as we enjoyed them from the house and also on the beach. The guard looked at us funny each morning as we strolled past him down to the beach before sunrise, enjoying the calm only a deserted beach can deliver.

Sea Shell Hunting:

Until Next Time MEXICO!!!

Bishop California Bouldering, Hot Springs, and Camping Adventure

Posted: December 18, 2015
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, California, Camping, Location Categories, Rock
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When: November 11th, 2014 thru November 17th (barely enough time)

Who: Drove to meet-up with a crew: Mr Chris Storms + Sasquatch driving in from Oregon, Dirtbag AL: new friend roadtripping all over US and friend of Chris, Teresa: dirtbagging it with AL, and of course Caitlin + Andy driving in from Colorado!

Bouldering Areas Visited:

Catacombs on the Sherwin Plateau
Happy Boulders
Buttermilks
One lone boulder in Mammoth Lakes on a cold, windy day

Camping Locations:

Side of I-70 at 2am just past Moab turnoff (Where caitlin and I slept due to late departure from Denver)
Catacombs Bouldering Area = amazing free camping location with beautiful views. Large area to camp in with numerous options.
Hotsprings Parking Lot
Forest Service Land just past the Owen River Gorge Sport Climbing Area. Drive as going to 3rd parking lot but continue on dirt roads until you find a suitable dispersed camping spot.
On way home stopped at Bryce Canyon for a night of camping and a surprise sunrise engagement PROPOSAL!
Our three vehicle crew all had vehicles we could sleep-in making it easy to set-up camp anywhere, protect us from the constant wind, and be mobile as we explored the numerous unique stops in the area.

View of Mt. Whitney and the Eastside of the Sierra Mountain Range (from Catacomb Boulders):

Bouldering at the Catacombs in Bishop California:

Bishop’s least known climbing area was easily one of our favorites for our crew. Hiding in the shadows of the heavily publicized Buttermilks and Happy/Sad Boulders, this bouldering area would be the crème de la crème in other locations. A short walk from the parking lot (and camping zone) and you encounter dozen of heavily pocketed walls, 15 ft tall, with perfect flat landings. Beautiful lichen covers the walls with an incredible backdrop. This was a great place to get into the mindset of the highball bouldering that was coming and stretch out after 20+ hours of travel.

Caitlin all smiles after hitting the top jug:

Chris working on the moves “I am a Beautiful Man”:

Located a short-drive outside of the town of Bishop, CA it sits high above the Owen River gorge with impressive views of the Sierra Eastside. There was no one else out there but us!! Below is the view from where we were camping:

A few more shots from this great full day of bouldering. We spent 6-hours on the rocks (it helps when the cars/campsite/lunch are no more than a 5 min walk away):

A Day Exploring the Happy Boulders:

After breakfast at the Catacombs and 2nd breakfast at the world famous Schat’s Bakery, we made it to the trailhead of the Happy Boulders. A quick but stout hike in the already warm temps landed-us in a paradise full of mammoth boulders. Walking down the trail and passing hundreds of climbs that are recognized from countless videos, magazines, and website posts, I was very excited to be in the Mecca.

Dirtbag Al and Theresa quickly took off and were ticking every highball moderate they could find.

Caitlin stepping outside of her comfort zone with the highball Duck Soup on the Savannah boulder:

Dirtbag Al with a long reach to stick the crux on Ketron Classic v4:

The last light fades over the Sierra’s as we watch from the rim of the Happy Boulder’s:

A few more photos from the day (hover over for descriptions):

Teresa on the crazy pockets of Sixty Foot Woman:

Hiking out and Dirtbag Al spots one more highball he couldn’t resist and sent it in the dark:

Wild Willy’s Hot Springs:

Dirtbag Al was given some directions to these hot springs and after a hard day of climbing in the Happy Boulder’s, we followed his seemingly random turns in the middle of the valley until we arrived at a sizable parking lot with numerous cars in it. A quick hike down the boardwalk and our crew found ourselves bathing in our own hidden pool while all of the other visitors were in the main, larger pool. The stars were unbelievable that night as we sat for as long as our bodies could stand it, basking in the moonless night.

6:30am Sunrise at Wild Willy’s Hot Springs: while not well publicized the BLM does an great job with the boardwalks and conservation. Also it was getting pretty cold overnight.

Dirtbag Al and Tersea enjoying the 8AM morning dip before heading out for the day:

Of course the local custom is to bath au naturale…which is a great reason to get naked in the wild!! We were pretty beat from the last two crazy days of climbing and the long drives to get there, so we headed-up to the city of Mammoth Falls, relaxed, saw a lot of ducks, found a boulder, and did a little outdoor hiking. That evening we drove down to just outside the Owen River Gorge sport climbing area and camped for the night.

Buttermilk Country:

Our last day in the area and we headed to the world-renown Buttermilks for some serious ass-kicking. The sendage was extremely low that day on these stout boulders, however the stoke was high being in the presence of monster boulders.

This problem called the Buttermilk Stem being sent by Chris below (and Al Photo #1, #2, #3, #4) is an example of the crazy types of climbing in Bishop. What feels like a impossible start and moves can quickly be sent with the right technique and beta and shows that something rated only a V1 can be a classic for anyone:

The Buttermilks were crowded as it was a beautiful fall Sunday and attracts climbing tourists from around the world. Once early afternoon happened it quickly cleared-out as it seemed most people were driving back to LA. As it calmed down and after we had our fill of attempted sendage, we had an enjoyable stroll through all of the boulder field sightseeing the famous lines (that literally had 20+ people standing around earlier) and watching the hardmen/hardwomen work these massive, beautiful boulders strewn across the hillside. Also standing underneath the famous PeaBody boulders made your sphincter tighten-up with just the thought of climbing something that big.

Sunset happens quick this time of the year when you are this close to the mountain range. By 4:30 the sun had already been gone for nearly an hour as we took one last look at this amazing place:

At the end of the day we all said our goodbyes with Chris heading north towards Oregon with Al and Teresa following and Caitlin and I made a long journey to Bryce Canyon to spend the night. Hint: arriving at 1am in the morning on a freezing cold Sunday night means free entry and front-row parking for the morning spectacle.

Bryce Canyon Surprise on the way home:

Sights on the Drive from Denver to California: Pictures from: 7am, 8am, 10:30am, 11:30am, 3pm, 6pm, Star Trails that night.

Group Photo at the Catacombs:

Whistler – What to Do When the Snow Sucks

Posted: December 18, 2015
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Canada, Location Categories, Snow, Travel
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When: Jan 28th, 2015 thru Feb 2nd, 2015

Who: Andy+Caitlin (we celebrated Caitlin’s B-day on this trip!!)

Trip Details:

Fly from Seattle to Denver
Rent Car and Drive the Amazing Pacific Highway
3 Days of Skiing at Whistler/Blackcomb
Hiking to several waterfalls in the area:
Afternoon, Evening and quick morning in Vancouver

The skiing was nothing exciting as Whistler area/Pacific Northwest had been under quite the unusual snow-drought. The best snow was usually around 3pm every afternoon as at that time it had warmed-up just enough to soften, unfortunately the resort closes shortly after that. Skiing outside of groomed runs was not possible due to the hard-pack snow-ice (something I have not really experienced before!), but luckily we were greeted with beautiful skies that allowed us to soak in the landscape views of this amazing place.

Shannon Falls at Squamish, BC was a perfect pit-stop along the Sea to Sky Highway:

Whistler was a lot of fun and we ate a lot of great food such as Sushi, Australian Meat pies (with kangroo!), brown-sugar glazed smoked salmon bits from the grocery store, and numerous other delicacies. At the time the Canadian Dollar was about 20% less than USD and allowed us to continue to indulge in nice restaurants since everything about 20% off!!

It was the Whistler PRIDE festival while we were there and really the best part of that was meeting an very eclectic group of people every night at the hot-tub. Otherwise it was not really crowded.

Morning Hike on the Trainwreck Trail in Whistler:

After realizing we couldn’t really ski before 11am due to the hard-icy conditions we started looking for other activities. We were looking online for other outdoor activities and found a unique looking trail that seemed to be low enough in the valley to be relatively snow free. Granted these trails are supposed to be buried under snow this time of year we instead encountered mostly dry paths that you would expect in early fall or late spring.

Hiking into the Trainwreck area on dirt (eerily missing any snow):

After a short hike we made it to the Train Wreck which is literally just a bunch of trains that had derailed a long time ago, fell down the hill, and now are overgrown with trees, lichen, and graffiti.

A waterfall was also along the hike making a quick pitstop on the way back. We had started early in the day and on the way back ran into a number of groups also making this hike. Luckily for us we had the place to ourselves.

After skiing one day we noticed the sunset was looking pretty and headed-out to a better vantage point to soak in the colors:

Brandywine Falls Hike in the Winter:

We had looked at the internet to see if this was possible due to the low snow, people had pictures of years past with 15-20 ft snowdrifts covering the entrance to the park. Instead we found pavement and dirt trails. Short hike to a really cool formed waterfall which is tough to photograph.

The drive back down the Sea to Sky highway reminds you of the quickly changing weather. This sign was in front of a beautiful mountain range on the way into Whistler and now you have no idea.

An Afternoon Stroll at Stanley Park, eating Sushi for Dinner, drinks in Gastown and eating breakfast in Chinatown:

In less than 24 hours we had a taste of Vancouver. Our first stop was the majestic Stanley Park with it’s beautiful seaboard trail and incredible trail through the thick forest.

The Seaboard Walking Trail is peaceful and Beautiful:

It is hard to walk by this tree’s like this and not hug give it a giant hug:

Moss Covered Trees:

We had meet-up with a friend of Caitlin’s who was living in the city and she took us to one of her favorite neighborhood sushi places. It was amazing. We followed that up by a walk to the Gas Lamp district where we cozied up for some well crafted cocktails at the Pour House. The morning was brief but allowed us a few mins to grab delicious buns from China Town and enough time to quickly walk through the area seeing several cool shops and a traditional chinese garden. Great way to end the trip!!

Andrew and Whitney’s Wedding in Wisconsin

Posted: March 08, 2015
By: andylibrande
In: Activity Categories, Events & Parties, Location Categories, Wisconsin
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Where: Chetek, Wisconsin at the Enchanted Barn

When: Oct 4th, 2014

Andrew and Whitney had an awesome wedding in a perfect country barn made more even more rustic as it was in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin. The location was beautiful, the weather cleared for their wedding day, and luckily they brought the party with them! In preparation for this day I took the engagement photos earlier in the year and then we also held a waterski bachelor party at Lake Granby.

Larger Album of Photos can be Found Here!

Keeping it short and simple but below are a few of my favorite pictures that I took from the evening. The Enchanted Barn looking pretty under the late-fall cold, clear sky: