Piscina Natural and the Giant Red-Cushion Starfish in the Dominican Republic

One of the main highlights of the Dominican Republic is a visit to “Piscina Natural”. This incredible place offers guests the unique opportunity to stand knee-deep on a sand bank in the Caribbean Sea in the National Park of the East. Piscina Natural really is one of the amazing treasures the Dominican Republic has to offer. Admire the Giant Red Cushion Starfish in their natural habitat.

Piscina Natural sandbank - Dominican Republic

The number of excursions offered is vast, but there is one that always conquers the heart of tourists: the excursion to Saona island.

Saona is a tropical island located on the southeast of the Dominican Republic and only a few minutes away from the mainland. The island is famous for the beauty of its pristine beaches and because it is part of the protected area of the National Park of the East.

Not everyone knows that Saona is a favourite place for Sea Turtles to lay their eggs.

Baby Sea Turtle - Mano Juan village, Saona Island

The seas around Saona island are rich in wildlife and represent an authentic, uncontaminated paradise for divers, snorkelers and for all tourists in general. Piscina Natural (Spanish for “Natural Swimming Pool”) amazes every single tourist that visits it every day.

Piscina Natural is a lucky mandatory stop on the way to Saona Island.

This large, shallow sand bank in the middle of the Caribbean Sea is well known not only for its stunning beauty but also for the indigenous Giant Red Cushion Starfish that inhabit the area.

During the visit, everybody will be given the chance to learn about these gorgeous animals. Tourists are allowed to touch and take a picture with the starfish as long as they respect the guide’s instructions to handling them. Indeed, starfish are just like fish and they breathe filtering the oxygen out of water. Giant Red Cushion Starfish generally have five “legs”, each of them ending in an eye that perceives movement.

When starfish mate, they position one next to the other, the male releases the semen while the female releases the eggs, which are fertilized in the water.

Starfish usually live up to ten years of age and are some of the most primitive but wonderful creatures on Earth.

Visit Piscina Natural and the starfish on the Saona Crusoe VIP Tour offered by SeavisTours - the leader in Eco Tours in the Dominican Republic.

The Perfect Storm - How Africa cares for the South American Rainforests

A desolate area on the southerly side of the Sahara Desert supplies 45 million tons of dust that naturally feeds the Amazon rainforest yearly. Experts have just discovered how such a remarkable quantity of dust arises.

An impressive combo of geography and climate makes the Bodélé depressions in north Chad the globe's dustiest place. Uncommon jet winds moving close to the ground are the engine behind this perfect dust machine.

The Bodélé depression is now a dry, remote desert, but long back was a big lakebed. Left is a ground cover of diatomite, the silica and mineral left overs of algae that long ago inhabited the lake. This is the perfect plant food.

Each 'perfect storm' picks up over 700,000 tons of dust, consisting of the diatomite, and forms a discrete cloud traveling westward. The dust clouds typical 370 by 700 kilometres (230 x 435 miles) in size, extensive enough to show up plainly on satellite photos. Most of this continues across the Atlantic Ocean on westward trade winds.

Once the cloud arrives in South America the diatomite dust rains down on the Amazon and the surrounding rainforests. The rain contains the nutrients that feed the abundant rainforest ecosystems. Therefore, the relatively small area northeast of Lake Chad is a big plant food factory for the Amazon's lush greenery.

This is just one of the 25 outstanding facts you will certainly hear when signing up with the Nature Complete Tour of SeavisTours in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.