Adventure 2026 - Day 2

Day 2 turned out to be stressful.

Honestly, I have no idea why everyone praises this part of the island so much or why people come here on vacation, because the north coast is far more beautiful. But let’s go step by step…

We woke up, had a Dominican-style breakfast, and then set off toward the Museo Multicultural de Juan de Dios Soto y Restaurante Hurricane.
However, we never actually made it there — a river blocked the road. For the locals in their jeeps, that’s not a problem at all, but we decided not to risk it or get soaked, so we turned around and drove on…

Our next destination was a place called Santuario San Martín de Porres. The place itself was quite beautiful and authentic… As soon as we parked, a few beggars immediately approached us, offering their services as guides to these “ancient” sites.

After giving them 100 pesos and checking out everything that seemed interesting to us, we headed to the next stop on our trip — Punta Salina Beach.

After visiting all the places, we were hungry, so we headed to Palmar de Ocoa. We stopped for lunch at Sun On The Bay Beach Hotel Restaurant, and I was quite disappointed — not so much by the overpriced menu, but by the fact that we waited over an hour for the food, as well as by the poor service.

The food itself was a 4/10: the meat was like a piece of rubber, and instead of yuca, they brought me French fries, insisting I take them because they were already ready. In the end, after another 20 minutes of waiting, I finally got my yuca, which wasn’t great either — it had been deep-fried in an excessive amount of oil.

The only thing that was truly nice was the view of the lagoon and the clear, clear water, where I went for a swim while waiting for the food.

Next time, I’d definitely recommend bringing a snorkeling mask.

Our final destination was Barahona. Surprisingly, the roads in this part of the island were excellent. We reached the city in about 1.5 hours, and by then it was already getting dark.

That’s when the real adventure began, because finding a hotel was not easy at all. The city is very noisy and not particularly appealing, at least in the evening. We arrived right in the middle of the Fin de Semana celebrations, and every hotel was fully booked.