Samana, is both the name of a town and the name for the entire peninsula on the northeastern shore of the Dominican Republic. Far less developed than several other areas of DR, Samana is just now coming into its own. Separated from the rest of the Dominican Republic by Samana Bay, this area is rapidly evolving with new amenities for visitors constantly being developed. There's lots of undeveloped and preserved land nearby, with waterfall excursions and trips to Los Haitises National Preserve easily available. We chose a simpler excursion, avoiding the climb to the archeological cave sites due to Terry's problem knee.
Instead we spent a bit of time ashore shopping and talking to people we met, including shop owners and hawkers and the very persistent sidewalk salesmen. We got to ride in one of the "Dominican limousines", which are the typical Dominican scooter attached to a cart that seats 4-6 passengers.
We'd seen the ubiquitous scooters without carts previously on our honeymoon near Puerta Plata, often with three people perched precariously on them riding to work or around town. Terry believes they all need a tune up and was amazed at the amount of oil spewing from their tailpipes. We watched dancers performing for the the tourists and then boarded our catamaran to sail across a portion of the bay to Cayo Levantado, a renown beach. About 25 of us boarded with all the young folks sitting up front on the net to catch the splash--they weren't disappointed with the winds we had as we raced, tacking back and forth across the bay.
We stopped on a fairly deserted strand of trees and beach to try some of the local fruit and have a rum drink. Then it was back aboard, sailing to a snorkel spot where the crew loaned gear to those of us who wanted to see if we could spot turtles or other wildlife.
It wasn't nearly as good a snorkel location as we'd visited the day before in Trunk Bay St. John, but interesting to try to snorkel in such choppy water. I lasted longer than Terry did, but mostly learned how hard it is to put on and remove gear when the boat is rocking in the sea. The sailboat was delightful and the crew as friendly as we've come to expect. The Dominican people may bemoan the tourists privately (as we all do here on the Cape) but publicly they couldn't be more delighted to interact with us. Even the myriad brown pelicans around the island as we approached didn't seem to mind our company.
Last stop was at Cayo Levantado, but we had little time to wander or relax on the island due to the mix up with the tenders. We were dropped there late and together with others were worried that we'd never make it back to the ship, waiting for tenders that didn't show. I did manage to take a brief walk for some pictures.
We were eventually rescued by Benny Weidacher, the hotel director, who just happened to be relaxing on the island on his time off. He proved to be a charming, delightful man who helped explain what had happened. Unfortunately the unexpected strong winds in the bay and the equally unexpected appearance of two other cruise vessels in the harbor put a strain on the tender service and caused problems and delays. We all survived and I would love to return for a longer stay. Samana has much I would love to explore when Terry's more able to do so...horseback riding to the waterfall, climbing to the Taino carvings in the park and more.
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