Photos by Philip Galvin
Dominican Republic
We took a tour in Dominican Republic which took us to the following two places:
1) Cave of Wonders (Cueva de las Maravillas); and
2) VegaFina Cigar Factory (Will be on another file)
1. Cave of Wonders (Cueva de las Maravillas)
A national park, Cave of Wonders is located in the south-eastern part of the Dominican Republic near the city of La Romana. It was discovered in 1926 by some explorers. Though our guide told us that it was accidently discovered by some boyscouts.
When we first arrived, we were led along a winding pathway through small trees and bush that gave no hint of what was to come. We arrived at a rock formation that had some small caves here and there.
Finallly, we arrived the entrance of the famous cave, still not expecting too much.
The side of the entrance of the cave was protected by roots of the local trees so the cave wouldn’t collapse.
Once inside where it was very dark and somewhat damp. The path eventually led to an enormous network of tunnels and caverns. The lighted pathways were constructed with motion detectors to allow the traffic to flow smoothly. The impressive geological formations began to appear. They were all illuminated with gentle lights as not to disturb the natural environment. Those lights also help the impressive geological formations to come alive in the dark tunnels.
The basic component of the formations is limestone which formed different shapes by rainwater seeping through the rock.
Some formations were illuminated by different color lights such as below which created the "out of this world" scenes.
The following indigenous rock art on the walls indicates that this cave was used thousands of years ago.
More displays of the formations continue.
Once outside, we had another surprise. There were many iguanas in the protected area.
Some are huge!
What a tour! We thoroughly enjoyed it.
