Do you know the way...?

....To Santa Barbara de Samana?

Traveling North from Santo Domingo, the scenery changes dramatically. In what seems like the blink of an eye, the big city life in the capital vanishes and is replaced by a sparsely populated agricultural society. Hills soon emerge in the distance and groves of date nut trees and rice fields appear.

Trucks laden with pineapples and bananas head to market. Fruit and veggie stands can be found everywhere, in many cases just trucks moving around from corner to corner, and they sell the usual: Bananas, mangos, eggplants, and oranges. None of which are native to the Island, but introduced by the Spaniards. When Columbus arrived he found bountiful crops of pineapple, coconut, sweet potato, corn and avocado.

The people live in small clapboard houses, often windowless with sand floors, clustered along the highway and the countryside. Some look as if the next tropical storm would blow them over. A lucky few boast concrete block homes. This is a third world country, something a person can easily forget while knocking back a few frosty beverages in a sidewalk cafe in Santo Domingo.

On the day I arrived, the small town of Santa Barbara de Samana was a tranquil town on a beautiful bay. The sound of moorings creaking with the tide, the glint of the sun on the water, coconut trees everywhere reaching for the sky...

And then..they...arrived....

During the months of Jan-March, Samana is a popular stopping place for tourists and cruise ships hoping to get a close look at the Humpback whales who travel here every year from the North Atlantic to mate and birth their calves. It's big business. So big the government built this new, pastel colored, facade of shops along the waterfront to hide the real town just behind. That way the "travelers" on the ships that never get off, or when they do, don't venture very far...would have a nice impression of the town. They're really just props and I never saw one open. Just like a movie set.

Not that the "real" town is so bad, or so unattractive to warrant the expensive "facade". It's just a normal, functioning town, with everyone just going about the business of life.

Cruise ships never turn off their engines. Even at anchor they need to provide all the amenities, electricity, etc, for thousands of people! Would the constant hum of their motors make the whales wary and illusive? I've traveled a long way to see them and I'm now a little wary myself.

Next post....In Search of the Humpback Whale. If you are interested in some info on these endangered, gentle, giants and other whales look here http://www.whalecenter.org/