entering the bay of Samanápassing the small island “Levantado”only half a mile from Puerto Santa Barbara (Samamá town)the bay of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara
sitting in the Moto taxi to ride to another ATM, still a bit tired from our tripstreet vendors everywhere as well as small moto bikesamazing, this old guy could hardly walk but managed to sit on the back of this bike; the other man helped him and handed over his sticka stream in the middle of the town with horses grazing – so nicea fairly modern churchtwo Ovni’s in the same anchorage – that doesn´t happen often; of course we had a little chat with the ownersworking close to a church maybe helps to survive scary jobs?saddle on a fence in the middle of the village – I liked thatthe farmers market was great, the products all came from just around the corner, the DR produces a lot of veggies and fruitthis guy was cutting cabbage in an unbelievable pacea typical store and everywhere moto bikesLos Puentes de Samaná or the Bridges of Samaná, are three pedestrian bridges that are linking the town of Samaná with the islands Cayo Linares and Cayo Vigia; one can see only the longest bridge here
Los Haitises , the national park
Bahía de San LorenzoAltimate all alone in the big baythe river mouthing the entrance of the mangrove trail it was veeeery special!I like those spooky mangrove rootson the way we saw horsesheadless cowsand many, many tiny crabsthe dock from the water sidehere the dock from ashorepaddy fields, they do look cosy don’t they?no photo shop!the eco lodge, in front one of the poolsanother pool areait all looked so giant we needed a rest after some exploring of the lodges premisesthe lodge was built to fit in the hills and nature; we had a great view from the top areasthe lodge had many natural details and was as well decorated with them, here leaves were used to improve the floorsthe lodge premises were perfectly adapted to the naturewe felt a bit like being in the Alpsnot the best focus but one can still see the mast of Altimate in Bahía de San Lorenzo, the vast bay of Samaná and the hills of peninsula SamanáI like lilya sleepy pig on our walk exploring the surroundings of the lodgewe kept seeing animalssorry more paddy fields, I thought they were very beautifulI don’t know what these leaves were but they were hugerelaxing, warming up and waiting for lunchI was amazed that the work in the woods seemed to be exclusively done with horses; this fellow brought a lot of cabbage in the bags of his horsethe buffet area almost ready for serving
Cueva de la linea
the other anchorage just closer to the caves and closer to small rocky isletswhile trying to find the entrance of the river to the cave we passed those clipsfinally we found the entrancethis tourist boat overtook us last minute before the dock area for the caveinside the cave, an opening which created a nice atmospheresome pictographs of the Tainoa close upjust in case someone is interested in the pictographs then we were heading to the next cave
Cueva La Arena
the hidden beach, even though somehow with the dock it doesn’t give the impression of a special beachI should have taken a pic from the seaside it did look super cosythe entrance of the cavethis little fellow didn’t dare to come out completely, we were far too scraryone of the waterfront cavernsthat does look a little like the shape of a bat doesn’t it?ain’t that pulchritudinous? 😁El Capitano – the wild man
Some last few pics
raptors circling in a thermal and looking for preyit did rain quite often and heavy, the pic doesn’t show it but what the hell believe it or not😉the pristine beachwith its many many biting sandflies and a wreck bye bye sweet beach
SY Altimate 
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