Los Haitises National Park Tour

Parque Nacional Los Haitises is one of the Dominican Republic's most spectacular natural areas, a vast expanse of karst limestone hills, mangrove forests, underground rivers, and coastal caves along the southern shore of Samaná Bay. The name "Haitises" comes from the Taíno word meaning "hilly land," and the park's landscape of hundreds of forested mogotes (rounded limestone hills) rising from the coastal plain is unlike anything else in the Caribbean.

Spanning approximately 1,600 square kilometers, Los Haitises is a biodiversity hotspot home to 112 bird species (including the endangered Ridgway's hawk and the Hispaniolan parrot), manatees, bottlenose dolphins, hutias (endemic rodents), and one of the largest mangrove forests in the Caribbean. The park also contains important pre-Columbian Taíno cave art, with petroglyphs and pictographs dating back over 2,000 years.

Most visits to Los Haitises are boat-based excursions lasting 4-6 hours:

• Mangrove channels: Boats navigate through tunnels of red, white, and black mangroves where herons, kingfishers, pelicans, and frigatebirds nest in enormous colonies
• Caves: Visit several caves with Taíno petroglyphs and pictographs. Cueva de la Línea and Cueva de San Gabriel contain the most impressive pre-Columbian rock art, with drawings of faces, animals, and spiritual symbols
• Mogotes: The dramatic limestone hills, covered in tropical vegetation, rise up to 40 meters from the water. The boat ride through these formations feels primordial
• Wildlife: Bring binoculars for birdwatching. You're likely to see pelicans, ospreys, magnificent frigatebirds, and with luck, a Ridgway's hawk or Hispaniolan woodpecker
• Rain forest hiking: Some tours include short hikes through the park's humid forest interior, where the vegetation is lush and the canopy alive with birdsong