Our first day "excursion" outside of our Dominican Republic resort was to Saona Island with Bayahibe-based SeavisTours. After seeing and experiencing several aspects of Saona Island, it's not surprising that Saona Island is currently listed as the #1 TripAdvisor "Top Attraction in the Dominican Republic," is included on the list "15 Best Things to Do in the Dominican Republic," and is one of the "12 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in the Dominican Republic."
Because our resort was near Playa Dominicus with a Bayahibe address, we had a short van ride provided by SeavisTours from our resort to the Bayahibe fishing port. It's worth noting here that the bus picked us up at 8:20 am at our local Bayahibe-based resort, but those coming from Punta Cana were picked up over an hour earlier than that.
We were picked up in front of our resort's lobby on time (actually the van was at the resort to pick us up a few minutes before the scheduled departure time). We had six in our party and picked up two more people at a nearby resort and then rode in the van for the short drive to SeavisTours's office at Bayahibe's port. There we joined several more tourists, presumably from Punta Cana resorts and other Bayahibe resorts. We were there for the Saona Crusoe VIP tour, which lived up the high praise we read when deciding to book this excursion. The main page for the SeavisTours Saona Crusoe VIP tour does a really nice job of summarizing the lengthy tour with text and photographs, but I will add my own perspective in this blog post. Another perspective can be found in the post "Snorkeling Saona Island, Dominican Republic."
Bayahibe is a charming fishing village, but is overrun by tourists each morning. Fortunately with SeavisTours and our early (before 9 am) departure time, we seemed to avoid many of our fellow tourists. SeavisTours limits the tour group to 26 participants and I believe we had 24 on our tour. This is a nice size and it meant that there were not long lines to get on or off the boat or for lunch or other activities.
We rode on a speedboat on this tour, which is one of the most important considerations when trying to decide whether to book this tour. For those wanting to fit as much into the day as possible and for those looking for the exhilaration of the speed boat experience, this will be an advantageous approach for getting to Saona Island. As the SeavisTours Saona Crusoe VIP page states, the tour is "not recommended" for "pregnant women" and "people with back disorders." This should not be ignored as the "thrilling ride along the coastline" does come at the cost of choppiness and can be hard on the back with the fast-moving boat slamming through the waves (but it is "thrilling"!).
The first stop on our tour was a brief stop at the rocks of Peñon where our guide Ingrid (called herself Ingrid #2 because another Ingrid accepted our final payments in the SeavisTours office before departure) told us briefly about the area and the Taíno. Although we did not see any iguanas or dolphins, the rocks of Peñon and the clear water above interesting and varied sea bottom next to them were gorgeous.
We next stopped at "Piscina Natural" ("natural pool"), described on the SeavisTours page as a "large sand bank [that] is well-known for the indigenous starfish." Because we were there in the warmer time of year (late June), the boat captain took us first to the deeper water beyond the sandbar to see where the majority of starfish were currently residing due to the cooler water there. Ingrid explained that they move to the sandbar in the cooler months when that shallower water is not too hot. When we anchored at the sandbar, we still were able to see some starfish there as well, though not as many as in the deeper water. Ingrid reminded everyone on board to not touch or pick up the starfish!
We needed to wear wrist bands during this tour that indicated that the entrance fees had been paid for Cotubanamá National Park (AKA Parque Nacional del Este or National Park of the East). One of the reminders that we were in a national park occurred during our stop at the mangroves. The dense foliage created by these plants thriving in salt water was impressive!
Our first beach was SeavisTours's "concession beach" Catuano Beach. This beach offered stunning views and decent snorkeling. We especially enjoyed snorkeling among the dilapidated "pier" that was severely damaged by a hurricane and now mostly consists of the pillars that used to hold up the pier. Pelicans perched on their pillars and fish and other sea life seemed to try to hide from those pelicans and other potential predators among the ruins of the pier. We had a "traditional Dominican buffet lunch" with grilled chicken and grilled pork chops and more stunningly delicious pineapple (the pineapple in "the DR" was consistently delectable and better than any pineapple I ever before tasted) in a shaded area on behind the beach before leaving for Mano Juan.
In Mano Juan, we learned about the turtle sanctuary efforts sponsored by SeavisTours and conducted in the tiny town of Mano Juan. We were too early to see the turtle hatchlings, but did learn quite a bit about the plight of the turtles. The beach in front of Mano Juan was another beautiful postcard Caribbean beach that had its own unique characteristics.
Another interesting observance in front of Mano Juan was that a crew of varying mixed breeds of small and large dogs had the job of keeping donkeys to one side of the beach. Whenever a curious donkey attempted to move toward the the docked ships, the dogs all ganged up on that donkey and barked at it and nipped at its heels until the donkey retreated back to the area with the other donkeys.
The last beach stop on the tour was the fairly remote Canto de la Playa. This beach was even more "postcard worthy" than the ones before it and had the fewest tourists. We enjoyed snorkeling here and taking in the beauty of this beach. There were donkeys wandering around on this beach as well and no dogs appeared to force them to stay in a particular location on this beach. We also got to taste Limoncillo/quenepa on this beach. That was a tasty surprise treat.
We rode the speedboat all the way back to Bayahibe from Canto de la Playa, but it only took about an hour (or a bit less) to make it back to Bayahibe in that speedboat! Because we were staying at the Dreams Dominicus La Ramona in Bayahibe, we had a short van ride back to our resort.
Jocelyn was the photographer who went on this tour with us. We were impressed with the photographs she took during the trip. We were able to purchase the photographs at the end of the tour for a very reasonable cost (especially when compared to some of the other excursions' prices for photographs) and the price of the photographs did not depend on the number of people in the party. We were mailed a link a few days later to access the photographs we purchased and were pleased to see that we not only could download the photographs that Jocelyn took of us posing in different spots, but were also able to access "general" photographs taken on that same tour of some of the sights, and were provided with some "stock" photographs of some of the places we saw.
SeavisTours does not accept credit cards due to the fees involved. You can purchase an excursion online via PayPal. We paid twenty percent down in advance via PayPal to reserve our spots and then paid the remaining eighty percent in cash (U.S. dollars) on the morning of the excursion when we arrived at their office at the Bayahibe marina.
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