Important Landforms in the Dominican Republic
Covering 18,950 square miles, the Dominican Republic constitutes the greater part of the island of Hispaniola, shared with Haiti. Its 800 miles of coastline includes long, uninterrupted stretches of powdery white beaches, while the mountainous interior and rolling savannas provide a fertile environment for production of much of the nearby region’s fruit and provisions. Few countries within the Caribbean present such a diversity of climatological and geological features. Not surprisingly, the Dominican Republic accounts for a significant proportion of the Caribbean tourism market.
Starting with the highest point in the Caribbean, Pico Duarte at 10,164 feet, the Dominican Republic’s backbone is a cloud-wreathed cordillera with several peaks over five thousand feet. Visitors to the town of Jarabacoa and municipality of Constanza could be forgiven for thinking themselves in the European Alps, with average temperatures in the mid seventies and a surrounding landscape dominated by pine forest and waterfalls. The area is famous for cultivation of strawberries, orchids and garlic.
The largest lake in the Dominican Republic, and indeed the whole Caribbean, is Lake Enriquillo, a salt lake in the southwest, which lies 131 feet below sea level. Otherwise, the country benefits from a network of fresh water rivers and waterfalls. The longest river, the Yaque del Norte rises in the central cordillera and runs 240 miles to the Atlantic Coast on the northern side. Where there are mountains, waterfalls follow and the Dominican Republic is blessed with a myriad of cascades. Most notably, the 27 waterfalls of Rio Damajagua (27charcos.com) is a popular tourist attraction in the north, where the limestone cliffs run with falls feeding into translucent pools.
The southern coastal plain stretches from the Ocoa River in the west to the Atlantic Coast in the far east. The shoreline here alternates between outcrops of sharp volcanic rock and long stretches of fine sand. Around Punta Cana, the beaches have been developed into a string of all-inclusive resorts. Frommer’s calls this area “one of the world’s greatest beach strips.” Further north, the Samana peninsula meets the ocean in a largely undeveloped expanse of idyllic beaches. Cayo Levantado was used as the original Bacardi Island while Playa Rincon was named by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the top 10 in the Caribbean.
Beneath the surface, much of the Dominican Republic rests on porous limestone, giving rise to the largest cave system in the Caribbean. Only a small proportion of the entire network has yet to be explored, but those that are open to the public bear witness to the country’s indigenous Taino Indians through cave paintings. Los Tres Ojos near the capital Santo Domingo descends into a sequence of chambers whose stalactites and stalagmites shroud deep pools. Near La Romana, La Cueva de las Maravillas displays many Taino paintings and natural formations, while La Cueva del Diablo in Hato Mayor is the longest cave in the Caribbean, with almost five miles of underground river, rock formations and tunnels.
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