The Dominican Republic - Samana Sunday 24/04/2011
A Tropical Paradise!?
Happy Easter!
The island in the Caribbean we visited today is made up of two separate countries - Haiti on the western side of the island and The Dominican Republic the eastern side. We anchored at the pretty little port of Samana on the eastern end of The Dominican Republic.
The first thing you noticed as you approached the port were the pam trees which gave it the air of an island paradise! It was idyllic - the palm trees swaying in the breeze, thatched beach huts on the sand, the boats bobbing on the green water, the pretty harbour scenery... it looked amazing and appealing.
A walk to and around the town uncovered a different side to life here. Ironically the people who live here are extremely poor and obviously depend on the tourists for income. Sad to see beautiful little kids with their big brown eyes and white smiles spending their Sunday trying to sell a shell for a $1. Tugged at the heart strings when they looked up at you and told you they were hungry, or they needed it for school , or for some shoes - all part of their their game to sell their shell I guess, but true or not it was sad to see.
The Tourist Bureau are very active here and had local dancers at the dock to greet us in their colourful traditional costume, and a wonderful pictorial display of all The Dominican Republic had to offer, and as we couldn’t visit all the interesting things in this little country it gave us a wonderful picture of how beautiful and interesting it is! Spanish is the local language and you can see the Spanish influence in the architecture of the old buildings. Santo Domingo, on the other side of the island/ country,is the Capital City.
We enjoyed the evenings entertainment, having a good laugh at the Comedy Hypnosis of Tim Triplett, followed by comedianDave Heenan.
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| The chef's on board the Dawn displayed their artistic talents with a beautiful array of Easter eggs |
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The Dominican Republic emerges out of the dawn as The Dawn glides
towards the harbour to anchor |
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| Tender boats were the go today! Quite an operation to get us all ashore! |
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Great, a cruise boat in town! Samana awaits expectantly for all us tourists to hit the shore -
bargain! bargain! Tourism is the main form of income for these people. |
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| Welcoming us ashore |
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| We are greeted with traditional costume, song and dance |
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| Homes peak out from the pam laden island paradise |
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| Palm fringed beaches and thatched beach huts! |
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The Dawn anchored in the harbour.
See our cabin! |
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| The pretty harbour |
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| The board walk heading into town |
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| The locals proudly display their arts and crafts along the boardwalk |
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| Local artists display their paintings |
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| Th Samana Casino in the caribbean style |
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| The best hotel in town sits atop the hill overlooking the harbour and the beach on the other side |
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| The harbour beach |
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| New Caribbean style shops - they love the colours! |
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| The favourite coal mode of transport - the motor scooter! |
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| If you don't want to walk you can take a local cart |
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| The locals fishing boats bobbin the harbour |
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| A local street of holiday homes |
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| The lovely harbour |
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| Paradise!? |
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