The Samaná Peninsula is located at the extreme northeast of the Dominican Republic. Unique, different and beautiful, it is geologically the oldest part of Hispaniola and was, until quite recently, an island in its own right. Cristopher Colombus named part of Samana Bay the "Gulf of the Arrows", because his ships were received by the early original Amerindian inhabitants with a "rain of arrows" which forced them to sail away with care.