Bayahíbe

Bayahíbe is a small town on the Caribbean coast of La Altagracia province, founded as a fishing village in 1874 and now the main departure point for boats to Saona, the Natural Pool and Catalina. It sits right beside Cotubanamá National Park, about 69 km from Bávaro, which is about 1 to 1.5 hours by road with hotel pickups. Most visitors only pass through the pier in the morning, when the tour boats leave, but the village itself is worth an hour: painted wooden fishing boats, a calm public beach and sheltered water that sees far less sargassum seaweed than Bávaro. The dry scrub around the village is the only place in the world where the Bayahíbe rose grows, a pink-flowered cactus that has been the national flower since 2011. Off nearby Dominicus, cannons and an anchor from Spanish galleons lost in 1724 form an underwater museum that snorkellers can reach. Our photographers meet the Saona and Catalina trips we work with here.