Overnight Trips from Santo Domingo

Windsurfing in Las Salinas Beach, trekking in Rio Blanco, and psychedelic mosaic art in Bonao are all within a few hours’ drive of Santo Domingo. Escape the noise and the heat of the city, and take off to one of our favorite overnight trips from Santo Domingo.

Overnight Trip 1
Glistening Salt Flats, Mangos, and Windsurfing: Las Salinas, Baní

Mural of Baní

Named after a prominent Taíno cacique, Baní means “abundant water” in Taíno, even though the city sits at the edge of the driest part of the country. The city was formally established in 1764, but when Haitian General Dessalines invated in 1805, his troops burned the town to the ground. Banilejos (residents of Baní) now proudly proclaim their home as the town of liberators and poets, including Enrique Montaño and Pedro Landestoy Garrido. Among the most famous Banilejos is Generalísimo Máximo Gómez y Báez (1836-1905), who served in the Dominican army when it was under Spanish control during the re-annexation of the 1860s. Gómez later left for Cuba and helped that country win independence from Spain.

Typical Architecture in Baní

Baní is perhaps best known for its tremendous diversity and production of mangos. The season’s pinnacle is celebrated during the Feria del Mango, which takes place every June and includes dozens of types of mangoes – as well as a huge party. Salt is another major product from the area, extracted from the mines by the beach in Las Salinas.

Do: Playa Las Salinas - Salt Mines

On the way to Las Salinas Beach are a series of sand dunes, known as Las Dunas, whose unusual beauty is worth a photo. While this beach isn’t the best the South has to offer, it is a relaxing place to cool off from the hot Southern climate. From the beach, blinding white piles of salt, harvested from the surrounding salt flats, shimmer under the South’s unobstructed sun. The mine’s manager will gladly let visitors take back a handful of this crucial condiment and local moneymaker.

 To get to Las Salinas, head southwest toward the coast on Carretera Máximo Gómez. Pick up this highway by turning left at the Isla Gas Station located on the highway leading out of Baní heading west (Parador Baní is on the right). Drive to the end of the road and turn right and pass through the towns of Villa Sombrero and Matanzas. Keep going until the coast and follow signs for Las Salinas. You can also pick up a guagua (RD $ 80; 20min; hourly 7am-6pm) at the stop located a few blocks south of El Mercado Público.

Hotel Las Salinas

Sleep: Hotel Las Salinas

Right on the water, this hotel’s 35 rooms are adorned with bright white linens that contrast the dark wooden furniture, and though they come with A/ C, the ocean provides a refreshing breeze. The hotel draws both a wealthy Dominican crowd and windsurfing fanatics, who have been visiting the hotel since it held a windsurfing competition in 1988. Offering a private beach, pool, glamorous chaise-lounges, and a dock with a gazebo, Las Salinas Hotel creates an exclusive atmosphere without breaking a traveler’s budget.

RD $ 2000-3000; Puerto Hermosa; on the right on the main road through Las Salinas; 809-866-8141, 809-310-8141; hotel_salinas@ hotmail.com, www.hotelsalinas.net

Overnight Trip 2 
Bonao and the Río Blanco Ecotourism Complex  

Central Park in Bonao

Bonao is the first city on the highway north out of Santo Domingo, about an hour’s drive away. It is bounded on one side by seemingly endless rice paddies, and on the other by the rapidly rising rock of the Cordillera Central. Bonao began, like many other towns, as an outgrowth around a fort; this one built in 1495 by the Columbus expedition.

Modern Bonao is a two-industry town: rice production and mining. In the foothills outside of town are one of the largest mines in the country, with enormous impact on Bonao employing a plurality of residents, but also has environmental consequences. Bonao is also proudly home to artist and master painter Cándido Bidó, and there is a fascinating museum here in his honor.
Visit www.bonaocityrd.blogspot.com, a local website dedicated to local news, sports, and music, for updates on local happenings in the city.

Mosaic Bathroom: "The Throne"

Do: Casa Museo Tiburcio

The Casa Museo Tiburcio, known by locals as La Casa de Piedra, is worth a stop in the town of Bonao before heading to the Río Blanco Ecotourism Complex (see below). Home of the Bonao artist Cristian Tiburcio, along with his wife and three children, the house is made entirely of ceramic and stone mosaics, from the walls to the beds - and even the blender. Bright tiles form figures like fish and animals, but the house features the artist’s signature piece: eyes. Tiburcio uses eyes as a form of self-portraiture, producing an often-overwhelming sensation in its visitors.

Mosaic Bedroom:"Bosque de los Sueños"

One particularly impressive area is in the bedroom called Bosque de los Sueños (Forest of Dreams), where the bedroom’s toilet is literally a throne covered inside and out with colorful tiles. The artist studied under the Dominican master Bidó, whose influence is apparent in Tiburcio’s use of color, especially Bidó’s classic hues of blue and orange. The first floor is the only space with white walls, used to display the artist’s paintings, sculpture, and mosaic pieces. His home-as-project began in 1998, and continues to be a work in progress with plans that call for an outdoor theater and community park.

 12 C/ Los Pinos, Urbanización Falconbridge; contact Cristian at 809-525-2972 or 809-304-6510; cristiantiburcio@ yahoo.com; www.casamuseotiburcio.com

Sleep: Río Blanco Ecotourism Complex,  Hoyo del Pino

Seventeen kilometers uphill from Bonao into the deep, piney forests of the Cordillera Central is the small valley village of Hoyo del Pino. In 2004, community members founded a non-profit dedicated to the conservation of the area around a tributary of the Yuna River, one of the largest watersheds in the Dominican Republic. The Río Blanco Ecotourism Complex provides a peek into the wilderness and coffee farms around the village. Locals and seasoned experts guide hiking treks, birding tours of endemic and migratory species, and visits to mountain-cold swimming holes. Other attractions include one of the highest waterfalls in the country; coffee production, demonstrations, and tastings; and a stop at a bamboo artisan’s workshop. A natural history museum is in the works. The complex has its own kitchen and lodging, and proceeds go to ecosystem preservation efforts and improving economic opportunities for families living around the project area.

Guide service, which is required for some activities, is RD $50. 809-310-5767; contacto.coeturb@gmail.com; https://sites.google.com/site/visitacoeturb/; https://www.facebook.com/COETURB

Artisanal Jewelry in the Dominican Republic

From the shells that wash up on white sand beaches to the seeds of the fire-red Flamboyan tree, the Dominican Republic is full of natural inspiration and materials that Dominican artisans have crafted into striking jewelry.  The materials that occur naturally in each region of the country influence the unique designs of the area. Artisans from coastal towns like Bayahibe utilize shells of different colors, shapes, and sizes for their elaborate necklaces, earrings and belts; Barahuco’s creative class mines potential in the sky-blue stone, larimar, that is found only in the local hills; and the artisans of Benerito, a town nestled by the East’s grazing pastures, heat and shape cow horn to make rustic yet sheik accoutrements. Admirers of these gorgeous handicrafts take home thoughtful and unique gifts, while also supporting a budding economy of creative minds who come from humble circumstances. Below are several examples of community-based artisan groups and their beautiful products.

Playa Guayacanes, East of Santo Domingo

Playa Guayacanes, a Source of Inspiration and Materials

Les Ateliers de Chantal

At this beachside workshop, French owner Chantal and volunteers train local youth in ceramics, painting, and artisan crafts. Along with their locale in Los Guayacanes, Chantal also established her ateliers in poor barrios of Santo Domingo in order to target at-risk youth and provide them with both a creative outlet and a vocation. The beautiful creations - like intricate clay-bead necklaces and funky coconut shell belts - are for sale in the workshop’s storefront, the proceeds of which support their educational efforts.

Playa Guayacanes is located between Playa Caribe and Juan Dolio east of Santo Domingo along Av. Las Americas; 526-3077; solaidom@yahoo.com

Larimar, Found Only in the Sierra de Barahuoco

Barahuoco, West of Barahona

Larimar

The famous blue stone called larimar is found nowhere else in the world but the few hills in which it is mined in the Sierra de Bahoruco. Father Miguel Domingo Fuertes Loren, a Spanish priest, was the first to discover this semi-precious stone in the early 1900s, but it took until 1974 that Miguel Méndez and Peace Corps Volunteer Norman Rilling rediscovered the stone and brought it to wide commercial success. Méndez named the stone after a combination of his daughter’s name, Larissa, and the Spanish word for the sea, “mar.” 

Larimar is a type of pectolite, a volcanic rock. The stone’s captivating hues of blue, ranging from a light sky blue with hints of green to a deep cerulean, are a result of the existence of cobalt in the stone, unique to larimar in the pectolite family.    

To purchase larimar straight from the artisans, head west from Barahona in the Southwest to their workshops near the entrance of Casa Bonita in Barahuoco, where artisans grind, shape and polish larimar, then place it in sterling silver settings. Darker tones of blue with fewer white veins are considered to be more precious, and therefore will more expensive than the lighter varieties. Though you might need to negotiate a bit, the prices are far more reasonable than those found in the tourist centers in Santo Domingo, and interacting with the artists themselves is much more pleasant and informative than street hawkers in the city. In addition, purchasing the jewelry here means that proceeds go to the artisans, instead of middlemen.

Km. 17 Carretera de la Costa, Bahoruco

Artisans from Benerito

East of La Romana

Artecuseco de Benerito 

Located in the small, poor community of Villa Padre Nuestro in Benerito, this artisan group sprung from a few simple courses offered through IDDI, a government educational and development organization. The local women’s association formed the artisan group in 2007, and has advanced tremendously in terms of skill and design through the efforts of a Peace Corp volunteer and outside artisan teachers. 

Necklaces Comprised of  Cow horn, Seashells and Seeds

The women use natural material such as seashells, seeds, cow horns, wood, gourds (higüeros), and coconut shells to make rustic yet lovely jewelry. The pieces make excellent gifts not only for their originality, but also because the sale of such items goes directly into the pockets of the women who make them. The women are planning to construct a permanent workshop, but until then, the best way to see their creations is to contact them directly to visit one of their homes.

RD$100-250 earrings and RD$250-800 for necklaces; Contact Esmeralda, 829-741-3507 or Ani, 829-741-3509; artecuseco@gmail.com

Leni, an Artisan of Bayahibe Modeling her Work

Asociación de Artesanos La Rosa de Bayahibe

This artisan association in the town of Bayahibe is composed of individual artists who use local and recycled materials such as driftwood, seeds, and shells to make jewelry, dolls, and miniature sailboat replicas. In 2008, a Peace Corps volunteer helped the group form an association and begin marketing to the tourism industry. The group’s creations are on display in the center of Bayahibe, outside the Super Colmadón Bayahibe.

Necklaces and Earrings Made of Seashells and Seeds

Several members of the association maintain their own workshops, where visitors can see the artisans at work. Try catching the artists known as Gauba and Negro working on model boats of the traditional Bayahibe sailboats, or Leni creating her signature dolphin necklaces. If in town for Patronales, be sure to stop by the artisan booth, where artisans from Bayahibe as well as from Padre Nuestro’s Artecuseco in Benerito display their wares. Find the group on Facebook under the name “La Peresquia de Bayahibe”

833-0017/829-520-9154; larosadelbayahibe@gmail.com