Amber and Larimar

Dominican amber is fossilised resin from an extinct tropical tree, dated to somewhere between fifteen and forty million years old, and it is unusually clear, which means the insects, spiders, flowers and occasionally small lizards trapped inside can be seen whole; a piece with a mosquito in it inspired the premise of Jurassic Park, and the museum in Puerto Plata makes the most of that. Blue amber, which fluoresces under ultraviolet light, is found in commercial quantity only here. Larimar is rarer still: a sky-blue variety of pectolite that occurs in one mountainside near Barahona and nowhere else on the planet, mined by hand from narrow shafts by local cooperatives.

What you actually see

• Inclusions in amber - insects, spiders and plant matter preserved whole.
• Blue amber - fluorescing under ultraviolet, found in quantity only here.
• Larimar - the sky-blue stone from a single mountainside near Barahona.
• The mines at Los Chupaderos - hand-dug shafts worked by cooperatives.

When to go

Year-round for the museums. The larimar mines near Barahona are best visited in the dry season from November to April, when the mountain track is passable. Prices are far better at the source than in resort shops.

Honest expectations

Fakes are everywhere: plastic and copal sold as amber, and dyed stone sold as larimar. Genuine amber floats in salt water, feels warm rather than cold, and smells of pine when rubbed hard; buy from museums or established dealers. Larimar quality varies enormously and the deep even blue costs many times the pale mottled grade. The mines are working sites, not tourist attractions, and visits are informal.

Nearby

Puerto Plata's old town holds the amber museum; Barahona is the base for larimar.