Over the Christmas break, my family and I took a vacation to the Dominican Republic. We stayed in a town called Samaná. We stayed at the Grand Bahia Principe Cayacoa. The Resort was excellent, it had amazing rooms, great service, the food at the buffet was much better than the food at the A La Carte restaurants did. The pool and the beaches there were excellent as well.
Near the resort, there were two islands with walking bridges connecting them to the mainland. There was really no purpose to go to these islands as there was nothing to see but it offered nice views of the hotel and the town itself. The first picture is of the path through the Island leading to the next bridge. It looks like a miniature jungle in my view. The next four pictures are showing off how the bridge looks and the architecture. They are also showing off the islands and how small they are.
I didn't get many pictures of the resort itself but the following four pictures are of the resort. The resort was built on the side of a hill which means that there are a lot of stairs if you want to go down to the secondary beach, which is where my family normally went as the main beach was often crowded. The first photo showing off the resort was taken from the balcony. The red building at the tip of the picture is one of three A La Carte restaurants. The following photo is just of one of the paths around the resort. The next picture is taken from my parent's balcony, it is showcasing the town of Samaná and the surrounding hills which are a lush jungle. The final picture is overlooking the bay that the secondary beach is located on and was taken from one of the paths.
The next set of pictures are from the national park excursion that we went on. We got on a boat in Samaná harbour and it took about half an hour to 45 minutes to get to the park itself. The park is known to be a breeding ground for numerous bird species because it is dotted with islands that have no predators on them, which allows the birds to nest carefree. The first picture is a pelican that was resting on one of the smaller islands, the boat went near the island and I managed to snap this picture with my 18-140mm. The following picture is of mangroves that were on the way to caves where the native people had drawn pictographs. I didn't manage to get any pictures of the pictographs because I wasn't permitted to use my flash inside the caves. This was the first time I had seen mangroves and they are really spectacular trees. The excursion then left the national park and we went to an island where a beach was located. The next two pictures are of the beach, this beach is your dream Caribbean beach with the white sand, palm trees, and crystal clear water. There is also a mini reef off the beach with huge fish that was amazing to snorkel on. It was my best snorkelling experience yet.
The last picture is just of a turkey vulture that I took from my balcony. I also went on an excursion with my brother to zip line but I was told not to take my camera as it would have gotten ruined but I wish I had taken it as it was in the middle of the jungle and at the bottom of the zipline there was a waterfall. We also got to try native delicacies after we had swam in the water and the fruit down there is amazing and so fresh. I highly recommend eating passion fruit.
That was my trip to Samaná in the Dominican Republic. I highly recommend going there as it is off the normal tourist trail and the local people there are very nice and polite and you won't feel unsafe there at all.
