These gigantic caves are a must-see if you’re visiting Juan Dolio and into being immersed into history, nature, and a touch of mystery.
- Awe-inspiring sights far below ground, viewable from well-lit paths
- Cave drawings are a fascinating thing to see up close and personal
- Knowledgeable bilingual tour guides
Description
- Address: La Romana Highway, 20 minutes east of Juan Dolio
- Phone: Call Tropical Tours for info: 809-523-2028
- Rates: $8 per person for cave tour only
- Hours: Daily (except Monday) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Other amenities: Clean restrooms, gift shop, museum, cafeteria
Guide Review – Cueva de las Maravillas (Cave of Miracles), La Romana, Dominican Republic
Fascinating hardly comes close to describing the “Cave of Miracles.” The Dominican Republic is loaded with caves and this is one of the more popular ones, a huge tourist attraction fronted by a sweeping manicured field.
The tour takes about an hour to complete. Tour guides lead small groups down long, well-lit footpaths that open to some of the most spectacular cave formations available to the non-spelunking world. There are monstrous caverns dotted with stalactites and stalagmites, most still in drop-by-drop calcium-rich formation after thousands of years.
This is a Mecca for Taino cave drawings, more than 250 in all, all well 
preserved works of ancient art. Dim lighting casts a magic glow over the rocks, and one can imagine the native Tainos’ imaginations running wild as their campfires bathed the walls in dancing, otherworldly shadows. Some clusters of rock here look like skulls, gory calcified gargoyles carved by nature.
The guides are informative, and occasionally humorous. Bats populate these caves but hide during tourist hours … for the most part. Above you are many bat holes. The guide warned us that water drips constantly in here but if you get splashed with something and it’s warm, it’s not water. That’s about as close to nature as you’d care to get, but it surely makes a fun story to tell the folks back home.