Pico Duarte — Local services in San José de las Matas

A great experience! Very challenging trail. Pico Duarte is beautiful and the campsite very authentic. We had no idea how to plan the trip and here's what we found out. As we could read online the trip would be three days and it was possible to preorder meals at campsite, otherwise you had to bring your own food. A guide and two mules are mandatory. So far so good. The guides or workers at the entry at the national park do not speak a word of English. We tried with the very limited Spanish we know and a lot of body language, but it was very difficult to get the plans alined. We got a great guide! We wanted an experience just the two of us and our guide was sometimes not present for hours so we could to the hike on our own. Very nice. As we came to camp after 10 hours hike up up up, we where told that we should be ready at 4 am to go up and see the sunset. We found out that the hike would be two days and not three. If you want to enjoy the experience, I would recommend you take the extra day. We insisted in staying for one more night and we really liked not having to push our limit and go all the way down on day two. Our guide was not pleased but accepted it as we also did pay him for three days from the beginning. Nice to know; the campsite does not have toilets or water - except from a spring nearby. There's a lot of toilet paper lying around everywhere - not nice. But otherwise a very nice place with campfire and a beautiful view. We borrowed the primitive kitchen to make our food that we brought.

All in all challenging but...

Great experience. I went back in 2022. Would recommend a mule to ride because you never know. In my case it was my first hike ever and really happy that I made it to the highest peak. Also, our guide was very chill and patient. We were supposed to do it in 2 days but stayed one more to rest. Was offered by the guy that is in La Compartición, tea for my stomach ache, ginger tea the night we hiked to the peak and hot chocolate the day we were leaving. Humble and charismatic people. Bring food in case you’ll do it by yourself, warm clothes as it...

Not technically really difficult but tough due to the distance and elevation. I did 47km for 3300m elevation (I also went to la Pelona just next to it). I would not recommend to take the mules but do it yourself with all equipment needed but in that case you need to be experienced with that kind of hike, otherwise you will suffer. The rain was expected all afternoon the first day so I had to stay to "El Comparticion" which is basic but has...