Thursday 12 February 2015

Los Haitises national park

A sail across the bay brought us to what our cruising guide describes as the best anchorage in the Caribbean, if not the world. Well, it ain't half bad anyway.

We're the only yacht. The soldier guarding the park showed no interest in our despachio, despite the time and effort we'd put into securing it. Nearby is a tiny island, or a big rock, full of birds - big white egrets, a grey heron, a couple of turkey vultures, a couple of frigate birds, and an osprey. Swifts that nest in the nearby caves flit about the trees on the rock. Quite an eclectic collection of birds! The osprey picked up a large fish in front of the boat, and spent much of the day flying about.

Willy's cave close by:


Willy was a hermit who lived in these many-roomed caves. Couldn't work out when he was there, but the various rooms are handily sign-posted as living room, kitchen, etc. The living room had a nice view:


Paddling by the mangroves:


Aren't those roots just great?


More caves that way, this time with drawings on the wall. Though I think I've done better than this one:


And I remember getting into trouble at school for drawing like this:


Were they painted by cave-children I wonder, and did they get into trouble for it?

The place was too beautiful and peaceful (Dominican towns are very noisy!) to leave in a hurry. Near dusk, the guard shouted across to us, and we raised anchor and left. But we sailed just around the corner to another perfect little shelter (except for the 4 am invasion of sand flies) and slept there. We sailed back early next morning and checked in again with the Commandancia. The officials were friendly enough, but the procedures were ridiculous. we should have just sailed where we wanted, without saying a thing to any officials.

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