Taino Valley Eco Tour

Taino Valley is a tropical park located in Tubagua, Puerto Plata, where visitors learn about the Dominican Republic historic culture of its native Taino, who lived in the island at the time of the arrival of the Spanish ships with Christopher Columbus in 1492.

The park offers a tour through the lush forest and scenic mountain area of the park, including greenhouses, flower trails, Taino trail, turtle pond, an aviary, fish pond, a lake, and an orchid house; The green houses are used to grow exotic plants such as Anthurium, which we experienced in two colors, the fuchsia red and the very rare purple.

PHOTO GALLERY

Taino Valley

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This flowering plant is a genus of over 1000 species native to the Americas, from Northern Mexico all the way down to Argentina and the Caribbean. When walking in the park flower trail we were able to see and photograph various types of flower and fruit plants as seen in the photos.

The Taino trail includes large, almost life sized statues of Cemies, the ancient Taino deities Columbus Chronicles describe in detail. Among those we can see a Trigonolito Anthropomorphous, the god that protected the Yucca plantations. Also the Behique, the Cohoba, A Duho ( ceremonial seat), Sun God, Moon God, and many more along the path.

Taino Valley is a 63 acre plantation land, and it took us like 2 hours to complete the tour with the greatest tour guide, Paul MgGill. The 4 different trails in the Taino Valley Park have a length of 1.5 miles. The park also has a small coffee shop where we were able to buy snacks, beer, rum and sodas.

A souvenir shop offers small clay figures of Taino deities, and also T shirts and other items. Nature lovers will enjoy tasting tropical fruits, smelling the fresh air and flowers, and spending time with the fauna there.

We love the lake near the aviary, and the ducks were walking behind us, and flew down to the lake as if naturally trained ( this is because they were expecting us to offer them food ). Among the fruit trees we found mango, avocado, coconut, banana, papaya, orange, citrus, sugarcane, herbs and other species we just learned about.

How to get there:

The Taino Valley park can be reached from the heart of Puerto Plata in about 25 minutes, and about 45 minutes from Santiago. From Sosua and Cabarete the drive takes about 35 minutes, just drive towards the junction of highway 5 and Turistica, keep going up and Google Maps will show you the pinpoint location.