Photo: P1050657 (boys in uniform)
Steve's note: We by-passed the town of Samaná and continued directly to the National Park on the SE part of Samaná bya. Osprey and Vanilla went to the town and we were told we didn't miss much. Samaná has been described as the Appalachians of the D.R. (that scares me when Luperon is some peoples high point); cruise ships have recently started going there and they have had to clean up their act. The most notable thing they mentioned was having to pay off another comandante, getting ripped off by the gas/water delivery guy (all main anchorages have one... the one in Luperon was Handy-Andy) and have the cruise ships ferry their customers through the anchorage all day.

We arrived at the park about 10 am and put up as many sun shades as we have over the boat and went to bed. We were woken by shouts. I crawled out of the back of the boat, under the sun shade in my jockey shorts to be confronted by 2 men in uniform with a rusted old shot gun lying in the bottom of the boat. I told them "mañana" (tomorrow) but they seemed to want to come on the boat. I said "No mañana" and finally they indicated they wanted $5.00. I had to give them $10 because that's all I had. I asked them for change, they laughed and I told them to "Vamos". Bad timing, we never saw them again and non of the boats that arrived in the same bay were harassed.
The anchorage is beautiful. We anchored among high, green, steeped rounded hills that look like the anchorages of Bora Bora. The water is 84 deg and an emerald green. We were able to dingy among the hills through mangrove inlets as the cliffs and the sides of the hills towered around us covered with ferns and air plants. Another day we roared down a creek at the other end of the bay, rounding corners and skipping around mango roots; just like we did on Mosses creek as a kid. We would end up with flocks of birds flying in front of us as more and more were scared up out of the sides. We walked a trail through the bush under huge trees that were completely chocked with vines. Discovered coco plants and climbed into large caves. It was a great place. We had it all to ourselves for a few days until we were joined by "Osprey" and "Vanilla".