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Los Haitises National Park

Posted by on November 26, 2014

Thank you all for your patience with my not so predictable posts. So is the life on the boat. We never know when we are going to get internet or if it going to last. Currently we are sitting in Samana Bay and I can get internet on the boat…well, kind of. We get a bar here and there and I’m trying to work with it so that I don’t have to lug my computer to town and carry it with me everywhere we go. I just made another post this morning about Samana hopefully you’ve read it. If not be sure to check it out. I also just realized that Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away. We can never keep track of things when we are on the move and also they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here so it’s not been a big deal. Weather looks good on Thursday and we are probably going to head out again for PR so that’s how we’ll be spending the day and night. We’ll be thinking of all of you though so know that the one thing that we are thankful for is all of our friends and family….we love and miss you all!

Finally we get to show you why we wanted to visit Samana Bay.

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We were so excited that we would be visiting Los Haitises. After we rested up and explored Samana for a couple of days we decided it was time to see the Port Captain to request a despacho so that we could anchor Moon at Los Haitises for the night and do some exploring.

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Well, there was a bit of a hesitation from the Port Captains side and he would not issue us a despacho. He said that because we were traveling alone and would be the only boat anchored for the night in the park that he worried that it would not be safe for us. What a bummer…we told him that this was the reason that we came to Samana Bay and otherwise we would not had even had made the stop here. It did not matter though he was not going to change his mind and we were not going to be able to spend the night in this magical place as we had dreamed of.

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His solution was to allow us to leave early in the morning and then return to Samana by nightfall. This would have been a good thought if we had a fast motorboat. By our figures it would take us 2 ½ to 3 hours to sail the 14 miles across the bay and then the same amount of time to sail back. This would only leave us with a few hours to explore and lots of work to get there and back. Not what we wanted to do. We left the Port Captains office bummed out.

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So we had to make a decision because we definitely wanted to see the park. Here’s where we met Joe. Joe is a tour operator that runs his boats out of the town’s main dock. Joe saved the day because we knew that our only choice would be to take a tour boat there but we did not want to go with a herd of tourists. He set us up on one of his smaller boats with one other couple. It was like our own personal tour…very nice. The boat was a smaller panga but what can you expect when you don’t want to go with the crowd? It was perfect for us!

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The tour captain came and picked us up on our boat which we thought was a nice touch. We headed out early in the morning before the weather started to pick up and we were on our way across the bay. What fun being in a go fast boat much different than our mellow going Moon.

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OK, so about Los Haitises and why we really wanted to see it. It is a mountain range not great in size (98 to 131ft) but it is riddled with caves and caverns. Its so cool to see these clusters of hills rising from the sea. The Native Americans adorned the cavern and cave walls with artwork and carvings. It also has a wonderful mangrove forest with winding creeks in all directions.

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This place is magical and being here is like stepping back in time. We fully expected to see dinosaurs with each turn we took! We explored three different cave systems each one more magnificent than the last.

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We made a short stop at a pretty beach and it had sea beans galore. (Not sure what they are really called but I’ve been told that they come from the mangroves) I had been hunting these down everywhere we had been in the DR and until we went to this beach I had only found about 4 or 5…now I have almost a gallon bag full! Yea for me…this made me very happy!

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The ride back was a bit choppy as the winds usually pick up in the afternoon but the captain handled the boat great and we had a good ride back… a bit wet, but good. Joe is the guy to call if you are ever in town and want to take a tour to see some of this beautiful country. Samana is a great jumping off point for this area and close to the all inclusive resorts that most of you like so much 🙂 Give Joe a call you wont regret it his tours are the best! 829-982-3589

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So the visit our visit to Los Haitises was not as planned but we still ended up having a great time. Still wish that we could have spent the night there. Who knows what magic we might had seen in the darkest hours with all of the history that surrounds this wonderful place?

That’s all we have for now. We’ll keep you posted and let you know when we get to PR.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Jennifer and Brian

4 Responses to Los Haitises National Park

  1. Brian Cairns

    Happy Thanksgiving!!!!! Wonderful story! Take Care, Brian

    • admin

      Thanks Brian, hope that you had a great thanksgiving too! We were at sea but Brian got to enjoy a cold Thanksgiving beer 🙂

  2. Mom & Ron

    You guys look great! Glad your enjoying life. God Bless & be safe.

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