Parque Nacional Los Haitises — Attraction in Sabana de la Mar

Haitises National Park The Haitises national park is a nature wonder, it got rain forrest, mangroves, natural caves, historical sites, Caribbean landscapes and of course the namesake islets. You need at least half a day to visit and try to digest all this not just take a selfie, even if there is plenty places for that! In order to visit the park you need to take a boat -or a catamaran- in Las Terrenas, a small city at the Samana Peninsula, 150 kmts northeast of Santo Domingo. By regulation it is not possible to visit the Park without a certified guide, that is you must join a group, but then again you could choose the size of the group and the language. Most of the tours includes a stop in Cayo Levantado, a paradisiac island near Las Terrenas, known also as “the Bacardí Island” for a marketing campaign. “Haiti” means in Taíno language “raised land” , there are hundreds of those islets around the north coast of Dominican. The weather and the protection of the park means there is a lot of vegetal species as well as birds in zone. Some species of mangroves and bromelias are unique in the world. To round the tour you visit three caves in the coast, the biggest was used as a refugee of runaway slaves during the Spanish domination. All three are very interesting to visit even for a casual traveler like me! My only complaint if that I would like more time and information in the stops, since the park if a great place itself. No need to visit just another...

The park was established in 1976 and is currently 1,242 square miles. Its name comes from the language of the aboriginal people, the Taino, and means “hilly land.” Most of the limestone keys, or small islands, are haystack formations ranging from 66 to 131 feet tall. Many are topped with trees and looking closer, Magnificent Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans were roosting on the branches. The limestone cliffs of the larger keys and how their starkness contrasted with the lush flora. More than a hundred species of birds have been identified in the park and according to my guide, more than a thousand...

We booked our tour from restaurant Santi in El Limon. They did good job taking us around. The park is pretty cool, I liked the mangroves, the caves were a bit of a disappointment to me, but I have been in some pretty amazing caves.

Unfortunately it was not the season for whales so we didn't see those and we also missed out on the dolphins. Perhaps a tour that takes you deeper to the park would be better we just explored the coast with boat from Samana. We paid 70 USD per person for our tour but needed to get...