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Tuesday, August, 29, 2006, 18:09 UTC
Samana, Dominican Repubic
Chapter 10. Samana. Part I. Leave for Samana about 2 am and I end up sleeping most of the way as trip was uneventful and conditions calm. We have doubts about going to Samana as it has a poor reputation in the cruising community (largely due to 1 guidebook) relating to dinghy and outboard motor theft. As we enter the harbor, we are waved to the municipal dock where the harbor's unofficial representative, Phillipe (who speaks excellent English), greets us and promptly proceeds to manage our arrival. We thought for sure we would have to lug jerry cans of diesel out to the boat, but, lo and behold, there is a pump on the dock. Other than having to run across the street to the ATM for money, we are able to quickly fuel up which is good as the electricity is scheduled to go off within 30 min of our arrival. Phillipe, in a very upfront way, guides us through the whole process of checking in, including who and what we have to pay, which is a real difference from other places we have been in the DR. The officials begin to arrive and with Phillipe's help, we quickly get through the process in exactly the manner he has described. We question him about the reputation of Samana and he very honestly admits that until a few years ago the theft problems existed. However, a change in the local government has lead to a real crackdown including nightly harbor patrols and a new attitude to try and encourage boaters to visit. From what we see throughout our stay, this certainly seems to be the case and our qualms at coming here were completely eliminated.
The town of Samana sits nestled on a hillside overlooking the harbor. We can see 1 large, modern hotel, but most of the resorts are apparently scattered further along the shore line. It's a small, but very busy, town with probably about 20 restaurants and the usual accompaniment of other shops and stores we have seen elsewhere. The surrounding area has a national water park, some lovely bays and inland, mountains all of which make this a unique geographical area in the DR and one frequently visited by both native Dominicans and tourists. Whale watching from boats based here also seems to be a significant attraction. We decide to have breakfast in town before moving to the anchorage and crashing for some sleep. While eating, one of the officials from the port authority tracks us down to hand deliver our harbor permit. We invite him to join us for coffee and he turns out to be a delightful person and provides a wealth of information. Joe is one of the few Dominicans we have seen who is clearly of recent African decent in contrast to most Dominicans who are relatively light in color and have fine bone structure. We guess that most Dominicans trace their ancestry to native Indians. Joe explains that his ancestors were slaves who were released and settled here. His family tree has very Irish sounding surnames like Kelley and Green and this lineage has produced a significant local population with a basically English-speaking background. Mark later finds out that a similarly large number of Jewish refugees who were refused entry in other countries during WWII also settled here, making this a rather unique population. Joe gives us a complete run down on the local effort to help Samana grow into an attractive area that people will want to visit. Very positive and an excellent salesman for his community. We had noted on entering the harbor an interesting and attractive steel trestle bridge which is at least 1 mile long, starts on the mainland, spans 2 small islands and terminates at a third, larger one. This could easily be in an Ansel Adams photograph from anywhere in the US as it is so typical of river bridges in the US constructed in the 30's and 40's and so out of place here in the DR. When I ask Joe about it, he laughs and calls it the 'Bridge to Nowhere' so I assume it must have been built by the US Congress. He assures me that no, it was built by one of the DR strongmen on a whim and has never served any function. See, all of the idiots in the world are not in the US Congress.
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