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Our second excursion was to isla Saona, whose name will surely sound familiar to you for various reasons.
Let us begin to tell the origin of this name; you will have noticed the assonance with the Italian city of Savona, in Liguria. It was the Genoese explorer of ours, Christopher Columbus, who discovered the island and named it Saona, as a tribute to one of his men and his friend, originally from the Ligurian city.
Even today this island of 400 inhabitants and a little more, is twinned with our Savona which has donated the power generator, the only one on the island.
We had read a lot about Saona, reviews, blog posts and travel stories. We knew it had been the setting for movies and commercials, but we didn’t think it was really that beautiful.
Landing in Saona means, being catapulted to one of those postcard islands, the ones you don’t think really exist.
Waiting for us at the beach Canto de la playa there is a little four-legged friend but he is not the only one; crabs and gadflies are pinching us all the time, but after all they are the owners of the island.
The palm trees of Saona look different from those seen so far, probably because they are very dense.As an island it is certainly more “domesticated” than the beautiful Catalina but the work of man has not been intrusive at all, first of all it goes perfectly with the nature of the island.
I can’t stop staring at the colorful veils, fastened to palm trees, that shelter us from the sun. They move sinuous when the wind breathes softly and the sun makes their colors shine, it really is a dream.
Here too, snorkeling is very satisfying, you never get tired of this sea; time to dry on the floury white sand and then again the mask.
On this island we make a wonderful discovery: there is a man who takes care of turtle eggs and newborn turtles until they are ready for the open sea.
Man tells us that turtles always lay eggs in the place where they were born; However, their eggs are delicious food for birds but also for humans, in fact some Dominicans eat them, believing them to be aphrodisiac.
These little turtles are very small and very sweet, man teaches us to take them so that they do not stress and lets us photograph them, as long as we do not tire them.
Also in Saova, we are accompanied by Popeye and Beppe who make us discover a truly magical place. Along the coasts of Saona, you can watch a breathtaking spectacle of nature: water-haired atolls and real natural pools. In these places the water is warm because of the scorching sun but where we still manage to touch, we realize that we are not alone. Here, to be the master, are wonderful giant starfish
What I appreciate most is the dominicans’ love and jealousy for their land; they tell us to stay there as much as we want to bathe, sip rum, dance and photograph starfish but they beg us to keep the stars always full of water to prevent them from dying in the sun. [
There is nothing to say, object to or comment on, you do what they ask of us. I can only appreciate Beppe’s concern that despite having fun he always has a watchful eye, to make sure his stars are fine.
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