The city of Barahona is ideally located near beaches, cold rivers for swims, and is less than an hour away from an array of biodiverse parks, lakes, and mountains.
A nature lovers’ wonderland, covering a surface area of 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) and 70 kilometers (43 miles) in length that stretch across the Bahoruco, Barahona, and Pedernales provinces, this is one of the country’s most valuable parks, and part of the designated Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Sierra de Bahoruco National Park is home to an impressive range of forests, from dry to cloud–rising over 2,000 meters (7,500 feet)–and Hispaniola pine forests, as well as a limestone subterrain. The greatest number of flora and fauna make their home here, including at least 180 species of orchids of which 32 are endemic, rhinoceros iguanas and the Hispaniolan solenodon. Birders flock here to see over 100 species along marked trails–spotting the Hispaniolan Emerald, Antillean Piculet, La Selle Trush, Western and Eastern Chat Tanager, the White-winged Crossbill, the endangered Hispaniolan parrot, the Hispaniolan parakeet, and the golden swallow, among others. Temperatures hover at 19°C (67°F) in this mountainous area of the Sierra de Bahoruco—a range so large it stretches all the way into Haiti.
