上周末在奥兰多礁石上度过了一段时间后，我们决定跳上飞机，并在多米尼加共和国查看一些加勒比海珊瑚。我们从海岸的首都圣多明戈（Santo Domingo）前往蓬塔卡纳（Punta Cana），停在三个独特的礁石栖息地。
DAY 1:
我们开始赶上凌晨4:30到机场的驾驶室，并在上午9:30之后在圣多明各的地面上。我们首先会见了Jhon H.Morató，他为我们参观了他当地的礁石商店(read more here)and took us to visit the National Aquarium of Santo Domingo.
但是我们不能只是在那儿停下来，哦，不，我们必须进水并找到一些珊瑚！我们第一次潜水La Caleta海洋公园and we were pleasantly surprised by the abundance of coral. We spend the entire dive crisscrossing a small area a 1/4 the size of a football field gathering as may photos as humanly possible. This got us even more excited for diving the next day.
DAY 2:
We headed back to La Caleta for a full day of diving, the condition underwater were perfect, no current and 30m+ visibility. The reef was dominated by large colonies of encrusting Orbicella and we crowned it the La Caleta Reef Builder coral.
We were really impressed by the diversity of corals in La Caleta. Everywhere you looked there were big healthy corals and lots of them. Some of our favorites from La Caleta were the fleshy Mussa corals, all the different Mycetophyllia and the scribbly Colpophyllia brain corals. We also found a small colony of the raredendrogyra cylindricus, a glowing colony of Helioceris and a few interesting pillars of Miandrina and Agaricia.
DAY 3:
这是我们从圣多明各（Santo Domingo）向南行驶的旅行日，前往巴瓦罗（Bavaro）的东海岸，巴瓦罗（Bavaro）是一家受欢迎的多米尼加共和国旅游目的地，覆盖了所有包容性酒店。公共汽车花了近5个小时才能将我们从国会大厦带到巴瓦罗。
DAY 4:
我们在岛上东北海岸进行了第四次旅行，并可食用。他们带我们参观了Rondana潜水地点，该地点位于岛上大西洋一侧。珊瑚多样性远远不及拉卡莱塔（La Caleta），尽管有比我们预期的要多得多。在过去的十年中，旅游业沿多米尼加海岸线爆炸，导致海洋环境的下降，由于土地建筑的沉积径流。
We found the same encrusting colonies of Orbicella, and upon further inspection of the rocky reef we were able to still pick out some unique corals. We found an interesting colony of Madracis decactis, Scolymia Cubensis and colonies of Ricordia florida and St. Thomas mushrooms. ScubaCaribe also offers a dive trip to Catalina and Bayahibe which would be a good choice for divers looking for a higher diversity of fish and corals. You can watch a video of our dive HERE.
DAY 5:
Our most anticipated dive, and last stop of the trip was to the Puntacana coral restoration garden. This pioneering project started more than 10 years ago and has an impressive garden full ofAcropora cervicornis。
The蓬塔卡纳基金会越来越多疣上挂绳花园,沙pe metal frames and mid-water rope ladders. There is also a coral table with Elkhorn fragment growing on large cement disks. They told us hardest part is keeping up with all the corals as they are constantly having to trim and removed fragments so the frames dont collapse.
下周请继续关注重建者，如果我们将写一份有关Puntacana珊瑚恢复project.
We would like to Thank Dominican Reef, ScubaCaribe and the Puntacana Foundation for showing us around the Dominican Republic! Can’t wait to visit again.
