If you’ve never heard of Luperon, Dominican Republic – well, maybe you are not a sailor. And that’s ok. I’m going to tell you a bit about staying near this wonderful little village regardless of if it’s the first you’ve heard or if you’ve been planning for years to spend a stop-over/hurricane season there.
Luperon, for good reason, claims to be the best hurricane hole in the Caribbean. The village rose up around a cove that is protected from almost 360 degrees. In fact, the winding entrance into the bay does seem to create complete protection. During the nights the water is glass calm. This sailing crew quickly became spoiled with a good night’s rest, gently swaying on a US $2/night mooring ball.
During the day, the winds pick up and flow down the mountains – directly into the bay. So as the day heats up, nature kicks in with her own air conditioning. The winds are refreshing – and sometimes make for a splashy dinghy ride. But they are very welcome none-the-less. As the sun sets, the bay calms again, and the serene quality returns just in time for sundowners.
We stayed in Luperon for 2 weeks. The lush green mountain landscape was a welcome break from the flat terrain of the Bahamas. And the low prices for food, mooring and travel were a bonus. We were frequently able to eat at the marina for $3 to $5 a meal, plus $2.50 Presidente Grandes (a 22oz beer easily shared). In town, meals could be found for even less. But make sure you brush up on your Spanish, or take a dictionary with you. While everyone was very friendly and helpful, few spoke English. If you make any effort at all to communicate in Spanish, you can easily accomplish any task or adventure.
Our first week was spent exploring by motorcycle. Just by asking around the marina, we were able to find a nice one for about $13/day. And the longer we rented, the cheaper the rate became. And a motorcycle is definitely the way to go! The roads are often rough, muddy and filled with potholes. The agility of a motorcycle is perfect. Just be sure to take a rain jacket and prepare for muddy legs and feet. We were able to see multiple beaches and many villages we never would have seen otherwise.
One day we also paid an expat $30 to drive us to Puerto Plata. He knew where the major stores were and we were able to wrap up our provisioning in time to grab lunch for 2 (and beer for 3) at a local restaurant for less than $10 total. You can also hire Nino, a local who speaks English – and if we had needed to go to Puerto Plata a 2nd time, we would have given him a call.
Unfortunately, we also picked up a cold and cancelled our plans to explore the Cabarete area. We intended to head down the coast and check out this kite boarding capital. But our weather window was ahead – and we knew rest was in order.
Luperon, while known as a safe harbor, is also notorious for a few less desirable qualities. The cruising community is quite small, and word travels fast. So when the local government/navy began harassing cruisers with made up fees and requests for “gifts,” many people quit showing up. Because of this, numbers of boats in the harbor have fallen dramatically in the past 4 years. Also perhaps because of this, a new commandante was put in charge of the local branch of the navy. We personally only paid the fees listed on the sign outside the immigration office. Not a single person asked for a gift on our arrival or departure. Way to band together cruisers! Another new commandante arrived the day before we left. I truly hope he keeps up the good work, and that cruisers begin to return to this amazing anchorage.
Another downside is a result of the very thing that makes this such a great hurricane hole. The closed off bay results in some pretty foul water. It’s not recommended that you swim or use your watermaker in the bay. And there are few nearby areas to swim/snorkel. After being spoiled in the Bahamas with amazing water anytime we jumped off the boat, this was a bit of let down. Luperon is also known as Pooperon – due to the brown waters and lack of a pumpout station. (*side-note – pumpout stations are a rare commodity after you leave the States) There was no way we were running our watermaker here. Fortunately, Papo was available to bring us water at $1/5 gallons of drinking water. He also provides fuel by jerry can at approximately $4/gallon of diesel and gas, if you need it. All just by hailing him on the vhf, channel 68.
Luperon was a fantastic place to visit – to recharge our batteries after crossing from Turks and Caicos and to leave the boat for day trips around this beautiful country. But as always , we are bound by weather and had to make a break for Samana before managing to explore further east along the north shores via motoconcho.
The trip from Luperon to Samana was exhausting – but that was mainly due to a relapse of our Luperon Cold. However, if you follow Bruce Van Sant’s advice in Passages South, it will be about as easy as a trek into the easterly trade winds can be!
If you’d like to see a bit of our adventures via motorcycle – including waterfalls and a few flat tires, you can check out our Motorcycle (mis)Adventures video here.
As always, thanks for following along on our adventures, and feel free to leave comments below. We love hearing from you!
About Author
What a restful place, I’m glad you had time to rest up during your colds….UGH……Loved the write-up <3
We loved Luperon. The people there are awesome and helpful. Poppo was a peach and helped us out after our run in with a local gang who replaced the commondante while he was away. Bad luck on our part I guess but it was one hell of an adventure. They put us through hours of annoying questioning just for $10 US. I would have doubled that for only a half hour. The other officials were fine and we made some friends there. Hoping to visit again on our return trip. We could sit in a restaurant and just watch the traffic go through town all day. Amazing what you see as transportation.
When were you there?
Wow, that sounds like a fabulous place to visit. Thanks for sharing.