ON THE WILD SIDE

On the Dominican Republic’s Samaná Peninsula, innovative eco-lodges are highlighting the region’s untamed natural bounty. LEBAWIT LILY GIRMA goes on a swing around one of the country’s less-travelled corners.

Innovative eco-lodges are tapping into the scenic and untamed natural beauty of the Dominican Republic’s Samaná Peninsula.

“IT’S SURPRISING THAT in a country so commercialised, you can still find places like this,” Noemi Araujo said as we passed a ‘For Sale’ sign on a fenced, wooded lot. The owner of Clave Verde Ecolodge (doubles from `6,557; claveverde.com), where my partner, Luis, and I were staying, was also our guide for the two-hour hike down the uneven road that begins near the hotel and leads to the stunning shoreline at Playa Morón. Cicadas buzzed in the thick tropical forest around us, piercing the humid afternoon air. Seconds later, she told us to look up: speckled brown palmchats, the national bird of the Dominican Republic, were flying in and out of their three-storey nest at the tip of a royal palm.

We saw more goats than people until we reached a roadside stall, where a couple was selling fresh coco bread outside their home. We bought two oven-warm bundles for `91 each. Soon, a shortcut through the forest led us to the secluded golden beach we’d been seeking. A handful of teenagers were swimming in the turquoise water. At the end of the sandy stretch, a steep, forested trail led to another beach, Playa Limón—miles of virgin sand lined with coconut trees. A fisherman dragged his net out of the water as his canoe approached the shore. Next to a solitary shack, a woman tended to her fogón, the outdoor hearth where she would soon prepare the fresh catch for lunch. The three of us waded into the cool, shallow waters where the Limón River meets the sea.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve explored more than 20 islands in the Caribbean, but no place grabs me quite like the over-the-top tropical splendour of the Samaná Peninsula: scenic coves, craggy cliffs, seemingly endless coconut groves, just 160 kilometres from my home in Santo Domingo, where I’ve lived since 2016. Humpback whales visit Samaná every January to mate and calve. The area’s beachside resort towns—Las Terrenas and

Las Galeras—are popular escapes from the capital, both for locals like Luis and me and for travellers in search of a quieter alternative to Punta Cana.

But the hills and valleys of the peninsula’s interior were harder to get to know—until now. Dominican-owned eco-lodges are opening up in these rural communities, honouring nature with their use of locally