THE first time I saw the Bani Dunes, the…Las Salinas Dunes, to be exactly, was…whoa!, in 1964. I was eleven years old. And I couldn’t go through the sand, first, because I had some infection in my left foot. Second, you weren’t allowed to cross the dunes. It was a military zone.
It was Eastern Week also. People stared at you, we, the very first turistas, with THAT look: Give me...
You had to be insane to travel to the Southwest of the Dominican Republic at those times. The 50-Mile, road, to the dunes easily will take you 4 hours (no more than one today) over a narrow military road, crossing 4 or 5 little towns. The dunes are located in the Las Calderas Bay, site of the Las Calderas Navy Base. One of the favorites of dictator Trujillo, although he was afraid of swimming…
During the 50’s and 60's, it was used against the guerrilla and, of course, for torture and killing people. Some skeletons should be somewhere.
After the dictator was killed in 1961, the Navy Base languished –with a rough period during the civil war of 1965— and continues working to these days more or less the same like when it was inaugurated in 1947... |
