Zoë Sheng

Chinese-Canadian - 05-Aug-19 -

Easily the best cultural site in the DR. I only visited the Pomier caves and don't know if the other caves are accessible). To get here you will need transportation but it is not far from Santo Domingo to make it an affordable ride. The last stretch to the park is through a mining area and don't trust Google map for any shortcut suggestions, follow the signs!

The entrance ticket is cheap but you are forced to take a guide from the looks of it. I would be interested to see what they would do if you just refuse and bring your own torch and walk inside.

Anyhow you can choose to see from 1 to 4 caves. Cave 1 is the easy access that you should pick if you don't want to climb. Cave 2 is small and has more cave art but otherwise you are fine with just one. Cave 2 involves some seriously tight climbing to get in anyway so most regular folk would hate that.

Oh right, what do you get to see? Taíno cave art! You can find that in other places like Puerto Rico but Pomier has the biggest amount, 55 caves, and probably is the best example. The pics I post has only a few of them. The first cave also has carvings, pictographs, thousands of bats, a snake the guide claims is his amiga, and a demonstration that without light the cave is entirely pitch black.

The art is spectacular even if not up to par with the amazing art in the French caves. All is done with black charcoal so the images are limited for that. Some of these are difficult to make out but the guide seems to know each one's meaning.

Main problem and probably why it's not already inscribed: limestone mining. I already said you have to drive through it to get to the entrance, well those are actually damaging the caves. Nobody in the country seems to care. Sad. Inscription would mean better protection is needed and that probably won't happen until the mining has become unprofitable. (Keep in mind I mainly talk about Pomier, I hope the other caves are protected better.)