Pico Duarte - La Ciénaga

Dogs No Dogs

Features River/Creek · Views

Pico Duarte is the highest mountain in all of the Caribbean Islands, and it is located in the central portion of the mountain range known as the Cordillera Central.

The mountain is covered with pine forest and ferns, and the mountain is a huge difference from the heat of the tropics of the Caribbean.

For a general description of the mountain see the Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_…

So there is no need to rely on this GPX track to find your way, but it will help you to plan your trip better by knowing how far the next reference point is.

There are several hotels in Jaracaboa and this is the logical place to arrange a guide for Pico Duarte. I stayed at Rancho Baiguate and made the hiking arrangements through them which they did excellently. There are plenty of other agents to make arrangements, but in case you want to contact the one I used: ranchobaiguate.com/english/… but it a simple search will show some alternatives like: jarabacoagold.webs.com/pico… (but I have no experience with this one)

Please note that several years ago, there has been a huge forest fire in this area, so there are still many black stumps around, but in the meantime new trees have grown and it's quite green most of the trip.

Camping is allowed practically anywhere inside the park that has a clearing but most people following this track over night at La Comparticion. This location has huts as well.

Most people will do this is a 3 day outing.
Day 1: La Ciénaga to La Compartición
Day 2: La Compartición to Pico Duarte and back to La Compartición (10km / 3 ml)
Day 3: La Compartición back to La Ciénaga

The more "express" route will combine day 2 and 3 in a rather long and heavy day.

As Pico Duarte is frequently in the clouds, there is a reasonably large chance that you'll not have much of a view from the summit. Therefore most visitors try to be at the summit at sun rise, where there is the biggest chance to have a good view from the summit.