Fish, and Bats, and Turtles, Oh My

My best friend Julia is in Punta Cana for the week and yesterday she and her boyfriend came to visit us in Santo Domingo!  One of the things we did was climb down the 163,467,845 steps to explore the cave inside Parque de los 3 Ojos {Park of the 3 Eyes}.

Its named 3 eyes after the 3 ponds you will find inside the cave, although there are actually 6 in total.  The water comes from a river that runs 200 km away and is quite chilly (one of the ponds is fittingly named Refrigerator Lake). The water is home to fish and turtles and is so beautifully blue; with the high humidity I desperately wanted to jump right in!

We had to take a small boat made from a pallet and metal trash bins to visit one of the "eyes".  As bats flew above us, a man pulled us across the dark pond with a rope.  It took us to the pond where a few scenes were shot for the first Jurassic Park film, as well as some of the old Tarzan movies.

If you are a nature lover or looking for something to see besides the historical Zona Colonial, I definitely recommend visiting this cave when you find yourself in Santo Domingo!