Los Tres Ojos National Park

Los Tres Ojos National Park tickets and tours: which one to book

Los Tres Ojos, the three eyes, is a group of underground lakes in a collapsed limestone cavern in the eastern suburbs of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, inside the long green strip of the Mirador del Este park, on the far side of the Ozama river, about ten minutes by taxi from the colonial city and fifteen from Las Americas airport, the road to which passes its gate. It is a national park only in name, being no more than a few hectares, and is in effect a city monument, one of the most visited in the country, and a regular stop on the sightseeing tours of the capital, which generally combine it with the colonial zone, the Columbus lighthouse, which stands a few minutes away in the same park, the national palace and sometimes the botanical garden on the other side of town.

Independent visitors come by taxi or ride-hailing car, or by the metro to a station some way off. A small entrance fee is paid at the booth, and official guides in uniform offer their services at the entrance for a tip or an agreed fee; they are not necessary, since there is only one route. From the entrance a steep stone staircase of some hundreds of steps, wet and uneven in places, descends through dripping vegetation into the hollow, and concrete paths and further flights of steps lead in succession to three lakes, each in its own chamber. At the third, a boatman hauls a small wooden raft across the water on a rope and pulley, for a small additional charge paid on the spot, and from its far landing a short passage leads to the fourth lake, which is open to the sky. The visit takes forty-five minutes to an hour. The steps make it unsuitable for wheelchairs and hard on weak knees.

Visiting Los Tres Ojos National Park: what you will see

The caves lie in the raised coral limestone terrace on which eastern Santo Domingo is built, a porous rock riddled with cavities dissolved by groundwater, and they were formed when the roof of a large cavern fell in, perhaps during an earthquake, leaving a bowl-shaped depression about fifteen metres deep, open to the sky in the middle and overhung at the sides, in whose recesses the water table is exposed as a series of pools fed by an underground stream that drains towards the Caribbean, a few hundred metres to the south. The Taino, the people who inhabited Hispaniola before the Spaniards, knew the place and are believed to have used it for ceremonies, as they did many caves, which in their religion were the places from which mankind and the sun and moon had emerged; it was rediscovered, so far as the city was concerned, in 1916, and was made accessible and declared a protected area under the Trujillo regime and its successors. The lakes differ in colour, depth and temperature. The first, the Lago de Azufre, the sulphur lake, was so named for its milky blue-green colour and a whitish deposit on its bed, which turned out on analysis to be calcium and other minerals and not sulphur at all;

it is the shallowest and the clearest. The second, La Nevera, the refrigerator, lies in the darkest chamber, where the sun never reaches, and its water is noticeably cold. The third, the Lago de las Damas, the ladies' lake, is small and shallow, and was reserved, in the days when people bathed here, for women and children. The fourth, Los Zaramagullones, named after the grebes, or a kind of duck, that used to frequent it, was found later than the others, which is why the place has four lakes and is called three eyes: it is the largest, a deep, still, green lagoon enclosed by vertical walls of rock draped with roots, lianas and ferns, open to the sky, without any access but the raft, and much the most beautiful of them. Swimming has long been forbidden. Stalactites and stalagmites hang in the chambers, fish and small freshwater turtles live in the water, bats roost in the roof, and the humid hollow supports a dense growth of tropical plants quite unlike the dry scrub above. The lagoon has served as a location for several jungle adventure films.

Los Tres Ojos National Park: best time to go, seasons and hours

The park is open daily from about 8.30 am to 5 pm. Santo Domingo is hot throughout the year, around 30 degrees, and the hollow is humid and airless, though the chambers themselves are cooler; the drier months from December to April are the most comfortable, and from June to November heavy showers, and occasionally hurricanes, make the steps slippery and may raise the water. The best time of day is the first hour after opening, before the tour coaches arrive at about ten, or the late afternoon;

at midday, when the sun stands overhead, the light reaches furthest into the open lagoon and the colours are strongest. Cruise-ship days and Sundays are crowded. Wear shoes with a grip, carry small change in pesos for the raft and the guides, and use repellent. Allow an hour. The Columbus lighthouse is five minutes away, the national aquarium ten, the colonial zone, a World Heritage Site, ten to fifteen, and the beach of Boca Chica half an hour east.