Port 34 Catalina Island, Dominican Republic
Hola!
We had a leisurely morning at sea before pulling in to anchor in front of Catalina Island on Friday, Mar 11th, 2022. This is a change from the itinerary due to high winds and seas at Punta Cana, DR. Whirled!
The Destinations staff had to scramble to line up tours for this location, and we jumped on one since we have never been to DR. Interestingly enough, none of the tours involved Catalina Island other than it being a transfer point from the ship’s tender to a ferry to the main island of DR. More of those details later!
Catalina Island – not to be confused with the one off the California coast! – is a relatively flat reef island with several lovely white sand beaches, and some pretty decent reefs for snorkeling. A lot of the ship’s folks either stayed on the ship or stayed on Catalina Island. Only about 100 folks chose one of the four tours.
Catalina Island and this end of the Dominican Republic island are relatively flat. In this photo the DR island is on the left and Catalina Island in the darker strip on the right.
I mentioned anchoring, so you know this requires tender operations. The water is still a little rough, so I’m glad we didn’t have to try this at Punta Cana if the water is rougher!
Approaching Catalina Island on the tender I can see it has a couple of beautiful beaches! I’ll show more pictures later.
On the oppsite side of the tender dock is a different story. No beach – just a shear coral wall that has been undercut by centuries of waves. This is one of the snorkeling sites, protected by the buoy line you see. We step off the tender, walk across the dock, and board a ferry for the main island.
We have a rough 40 minutes of hammering waves going from Catalina Island to the dock at La Romana, DR. The coastline takes on better definition as we get closer.
Then we see this factory belching smoke. We learn this is one of the largest sugar processing facilities in the world! The tour guide, David (pronounced dah-VEED), seemed to be proud of the belching smoke. But he was quick to note the factory is owned by an American!
As we turn up the river to the ferry dock these lovely homes come in to view!
But this train and cargo cranes remind us this is a working port area. Maybe those homes aren’t in the best location after all…
This family seems to think hanging out by the docks is a good think to do!
We disembark by walking through another ferry to get to the dock. Hmmm, I’ve heard the riverboats in Europe often do the same thing!
We board a bus that takes us to the boat for our ride on the Chavron River. Here our bus crosses the bridge over the Chavron River. David explains the bridge is relatively new. It was built by the government because the old bridge was called their “nightmare.” The old bridge is a single lane road across the river, and so low that is often was underwater and impassable. We’ll see it in a moment. The new bridge is four lanes with no flooding threat!
Here we are down near the river. You can see the old rusting “nightmare” bridge across the middle left, and the new blue bridge high above on the left.
We climb off the bus and board the boat for the river tour. We are on the Princesa de Chavron. The river is the Chavron River.
There are a couple of other things going on in this picture. The gentleman with the multiple hats, right hand full of lanyards and left hand full of cigar boxes is trying to sell his goods to us. The gentlemen on the far left is a “Politur” – he is a special policeman who is specifically charged with protecting the tourists! This is our first encounter with a Politur, but will not be our last!
The bus takes off for a while, and the Politur and salesman wait. We’ll be back in about 45 minutes.
The ride down the river is peaceful! The boat’s motor sounds more like a washing machine motor than an outboard, so it’s relatively quiet considering the size of the boat it has to push!
Our hostess on the boat shows us a traditional outfit. You can see it mimcs the colors of the Dominican Republic flag that is hanging on the front of the counter next to her. They told us her name is Chorita, but then they called her something else, so I don’t know if they were joking with us. But we’ll call her Chorita for this post. David and Chorita tried to teach us how to dance the merengue, salsa, and bachata dances.
We pass by several sites that have interesting equipment set up. David explains this is the set for one of the popular reality TV shows. Can you say “Survivor”? There is a crew here getting it ready for the next filming session. (Thanks to Mary A for confirming this is a Survivor set!)
There are a series of obstacle courses to be negotiated.
The sections are a little disjointed so these must be separate trials to be completed.
I liked the look of these two trees at a bend in the river, and I was surprised how much the background changed in just a few seconds, going from a tree-filled backdrop to a rocky backdrop! Compare the next two photos. These are the same trees! And you can see the little fence on the left is identical.
Here is a view of the “nightmare” and new bridge as we approach the end of our boat trip. Big difference, eh?
We jump back on the bus and head to the VegaFina cigar factory!
It’s cute that the checkin counter at the front is a cigar box!
May I help you?
Inside there are a couple of walls explaining the history of tobacco here. But the real works are in these cubicles! There are four guys rolling and sizing cigars, two women finishing the cigars, and one man on the far right inspecting the final product.
The guys roll and cut the cigars to length, then the women do their magic in putting on a final layer of clean tobacco and finishing the tip of the cigar, rounding it out. They say this crew puts out about 450 cigars each day.
Back on the bus, David takes us to the Casa de Campos district – a very wealthy part of the island – to see the Altos de Chavron 16th century designed artists community.
This is a map of the village of Altos de Chavron. It clearly shows a tour path, but I know we didn’t follow this. This village overlooks the Chavron River, hence the name.
Lovely coral rock paths lead us in from the parking lot. There are a lot of coral walls and paths in this neighborhood!
The tall walls give way to short path border walls.
There are numerous gates. This one has a small drinking well.
Apparently many artisans set up shops in here. This is a very eclectic community with a variety of nice restaurants!
As we approach the far end this lovely fountain appears. Behind it is the valley down to the Chavron River.
Here is the river behind the fountain. It’s a long way down!
This sweet ride is parked in front of the fountain! A Plymouth Fury!
Adjacent to the fountain is this amazing sight! A Greek theater! Today they are preparing for a wedding reception!
This is a restaurant. The entrance is lined with roses and lights! I don’t think this has anything to do with the wedding.
I hope this is their regular decor! It’s fabulous!
This one struck me as interesting since the column drops into the middle of the staircase!
And behind the restaurant is this view of the Chavron, underneath the golf course. That is one nasty out-of-bounds shot!
More shops appear on this side, on our way to the church. The architecture really appeals to me!
There are a couple of locations where the trees are integrated into the architecture. Here the tree’s roots appear to have melded into the rock wall!
I was going for a shot of the bell tower when I realized the bougainvillea over my head was actually the centerpice of this little plaza!
Joy spotted this lion on the wall adjacent to the tree root shot above!
We come up on the backside of the church.
The front is stunning! and the wedding decor is in full swing with the flowers completely outlining the church entrance!
As we leave Altos de Chavron there is one more building that looks like an old castle! Gorgeous!
We hop on the bus for the short ride back to the ferry, then back on the ferry for the 40 minute ride back to Catalina Island
Here are the three Catalina Island beaches I promised you at the beginning of this post!
Back in our cabin we watched the motorboat leave after relasing our aft line from the mooring.
And Catalina Island quickly disappears on the horizon!
La Romana can no longer be seen, and Catalina Island is fading as the sun begins to add color to the clouds!
Its a beautiful sunset disc as we head for our next port.
Goodbye, Catalina Island, La Romana, and Casa de Campos! Next port of call – Santo Domingo, DR!
