All 38 placesTicket No. 0019
One-way ticket
A cape with a white sand beach and a small village where the boats leave for Cayo Arena. Nearby, mangroves where manatees live.
StubNo. 0019
You leave the Zona Colonial and drive 247 km, about 3 h 36 min, to La Isabela Bay, in Puerto Plata, right on the line with Montecristi. From Santiago it's 92 km.
Punta Rucia is a cape with a white sand beach. They say Christopher Columbus named it, for the dun or grayish color, pardo or rucio in Spanish, of some animals he saw when he arrived.
The village is small: houses of wood and zinc, a few small hotels, a supermarket and some restaurants.
The village is small: houses of wood and zinc.
The boats to Cayo Arena leave from here. It's also called Cayo Paraíso: a sandbank with coral formations about 2.5 km off the coast. The ride takes about 25 minutes, and the price is negotiated.
At the cay you snorkel among tropical fish, in shallow water.
About 8 km away is the Santuario de Mamíferos Marinos Estero Hondo: 48.3 km² of mangroves and wetlands, protected as a sanctuary by the 2004 Protected Areas Law.
It's home to one of the most important manatee populations in the Antilles.