View of the harbor entrance looking southeast from the mesa on the west side of the entrance

The coast west of the harbor entrance at Punta Rocia

The coast east of the harbor entrance

THE TOWN OF LUPERÓN

Luperón has a long term tourist development project called Ciudad Marina (marina city), with villas, condos, hotels and marinas with haul-out facilities. Two small marinas already exist to accommodate sailboats and asssorted power boats. Construction has started on a third with haulout. With its club bar, boutique and restaurant the Puerto Blanco Marina (PBM) provides a social focus for the crews of visiting yachts. The bays of Luperón can hold more than 200 boats swinging to single rodes. April 2004 saw 116 visiting yachts at anchor. A small power boat marina lies near to PBM, and the government recently announced approvals to start a 150 slip marina on the south shore. The dredging of harbor shoals has already started for this project.

A 1500 guest Spanish hotel complex on the beach runs on the Club Med type of an all-inclusive plan. Outsiders can participate for a daily fee. You shall find local business people cheerful and friendly, willing to help you with anything. As with most rural Dominicans, congeniality counts, and everyone smiles all the time.

Luperón, though a small rural town, boasts markets and hardware stores, discos, hospital, police, two dentists, and all the other amenities a civilized place needs including two ice cream stores. Don't mistake lack of sophistication for lack of civilization. You may feel restricted in what you can find in Luperón. A pharmacy catering to just a few hundred people will not likely have just your brand of laxative. But it shall surprise you what a little persistence can produce. Otherwise, you have to travel to Puerto Plata or Santiago, 45 minutes and one hour, respectively, by car.

You can eat fancy as well as tipico in Luperón. The place bristles with European restaurants due to the tourist trade. But more than you can eat of either steak, chicken or pork accompanied with rice, beans, and salad cost less than two dollars at any of dozens of tipicos where they specialize in that meal, which they call the bandera dominicana. Many foreigners prefer the healthy Dominican diet. It consists of a fantastic variety of organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables, and the ubiquitous rice and beans with white meats.

Cantinas line the streets where Presidente beer gets served ice cold in 24 ounce bottles for a dollar. Night life comes early to the Marina Puerto Blanco where cruisers and hotel people gather for pot lucks, Mexican night, Paella nights, merengue dancing and quite professional kareoke. In town the life at night goes until dawn.