PUNTA CANA HISTORY

The history of Punta Cana, like the one of the whole island, goes back to long before the arrival of Cristopher Columbus. According to recent research, the zone of Punta Cana was inhabited by Taino Indians. There are vestiges showing evidences that it belonged to settlers coming from South America. It has been verified that these settlements date from the remote year of 230 B.C.

To the arrival of Columbus, the island was populated by the Tainos, natives who had the land administratively divided into five chieftainships. Although initially they were friendly towards the Spaniards, they reacted violently against the intolerance and abuses of the invaders.

What we know today as Punta Cana was part of the chieftainship of Higuey, whose area included all the Southeastern portion of the island. It extended from Cabo Engano to the Haina river and had its headquarters where the city of Higuey is located in the present.

The region was governed by the Cayacoa cacique, who, as many, fought the Spanish conquerors and died in one of the first battles among the Spaniards and the Tainos. He was apprehended in the island of Saona, close to the area of Higuey. After his death, his wife married the Spanish Miguel Diaz, after having been baptized with the name of Dona Ines.

The “discovery” of Punta Cana happened in 1969 when, flying over Dominican Republic East Coast, an American man who lived in Puerto Rico spotted an incredible extension of gorgeous pale sand beaches that strongly contrasted with the limpid bluish shade of the waters, interrupted solely by the white of the waves when breaking against the barrier of the coralline reefs. Punta Cana had been discovered.

After the discovery, foreign investors arrived and ventured in the task to turn this beach stretch of 25 miles of length, that overlooks a coral reef and it is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of coconut palms, into a tourist development. Luckily, the way it was envisioned for the zone to grow, was very different from that of the Mediterranean coasts and a horizontal type of construction was the chosen type for its development, distributed in an extensive area, trying not to radically deteriorate the ecosystem.

This philosophy of sustainable development was taken to its last consequences by the architect Alvaro Sans through the concept of “ecoresort”. The first trial came with a hotel of the Melia chain, a project that, in 1999, would win the prize of the Ibero-American University of Santo Domingo as the first great ecological hotel of the Caribe. Other constructions followed in the zone, which would continue perfecting the idea to integrate a hotel complex within the natural resources and that at the same time featured all types of services, always of the top levels.

Nowadays, Punta Cana belongs to the municipality of Higuey, in the province of the Altagracia, and this Eden-like spot is a favorite destination for children and grown-ups, being one of the fastest growing areas in the Caribbean.