Sunriser

We write this post from the National Park Los Haitises already in 2025, where we have come back with the whole group to recover from the festivities in the peace and quietness of the park. We had a really nice Christmas time in the Marina Puerto Bahía of Samaná with the crews of Happinez, Tiki Más, Stone Free and Britt, all taking care that nobody would miss their families. We had Christmas lights, delicious Christmas meals, with Lindsey’s Christmas pudding as the star of the show, and even Christmas presents delivered by Santa Annemieke.

In between meals we relaxed at the infinity pool.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve we made a short trip to Santo Domingo to get to know something of the history and culture of the Dominican Republic, a country which shares the island of La Española with Haiti. This was the island where Columbus established the first settlements in the new world. In Santo Domingo we visited the oldest cathedral of America and an interesting museum about the colonization.

In the museum there are some interesting maps, like the first map including America and one showing the travels of Columbus, where we saw that our Atlantic crossing followed the itinerary of his third voyage.

We also walked through the colonial old town with Spanish looking houses but a definitely Caribbean vibe.

In the middle of the city there is an area which has been kept from urban development and comprises the national park of Los tres ojos (the three eyes). The ‘eyes’ being constituted by caves formed when the porous limestone collapsed and formed lakes fed by an underground river. The site was used by the Taínos, the indigenous people, for rites and religious ceremonies and has certainly a mysterious aura hanging in the air.

For New Year’s Eve we returned to the marina and had the most fun on the pontoon, hosted by Tiki Más who even provided Oliebollen and a ‘who am I’ game. There was double celebration with the European midnight calling the family back home and then, 5 hours later, again with the local New Year’s celebration.

Though we enjoyed very much the comforts of the marina, we still prefer the freedom of sailing and anchoring wherever we like, so we started the year by leaving the marina as soon as possible to go to the island of Cayó Levantado, also known as Bacardi island, and then return to the solitude of the park Los Haitises, making time for the whales to arrive, the big attraction at this time of the year.