Pilot Report

Posts Tagged ‘punta cana ecological foundation’

While a dip in a hotel pool in Punta Cana may be a refreshing break, there’s also a little known place in the Dominican Republic known as the Indigenous Eyes Ecological Reserve, where travelers can swim in one of the twelve lagoons known to the Taino Indians as “eyes.” The lagoons are largely unexplored gems in this land, and some people believe they even contain medicinal properties.

Indigenous Eyes is a private forest reserve forming 1,500 acres that’s been put aside as land to be conserved, owned and managed by the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation . To visit this area, travelers need to make arrangements with the foundation itself by calling 809-959-9221.

The foundation, along with national and international groups, conducts research here, investigating and running environmental education programs through the Center for Sustainability. An underground fresh water river known as Yauya feeds the twelve lagoons or eyes, then continues on to the ocean. If a person walked along the beach at the front of the reserve entrance, then he or she would see through the mangrove trees the river flowing out to the ocean.

The reserve is considered a Transition Zone Sub-Tropical Forest, which means that the plant and animal life contained inside may be found in both dry and humid sub-tropical forests. There are reptiles here, as well as green snakes, lizards, and frogs, but not a single venomous snake. There are, however, over 500 plant species, a little over a third of which live nowhere else but in the Dominican Republic. Red Land Crabs are common, and over a hundred species of birds have been identified in the region.

Walking through the reserve, visitors may note wasps, butterflies and ants. They’ll also see big brown nests in the trees where termites go about the vital work of breaking down dead and dying leaves, branches and other materials, transforming these items into a fertile habitat for the life here.

Travelers who decide to take a look at this little explored part of Punta Cana should know that there’s a Leave No Trace policy — people are asked to dispose of trash in designated containers, not bother the plant and animal life, and swim only in those “eyes” which are available for swimming and to be careful entering and exiting the lagoons.

Those who wish to go will find the reserve open each day from sunrise to sunset.