Shakira & hotel project in samana

recently talking to a local at del valle beach who is employed by shakira whose land is over to the right, past the 1st hills of del valle beach when you face the water. apparently they will start construction there next year from what he heard. she was apparently there recently. when i asked how they would get blocks, sand and cement in since there is no road there to that section of land. he said that the plan is to barge everything in. maybe with that barge that recently sunk with the garbage in samana bay???!

as you may have heard, a french (?) hotel company recently took over cayacoa hotel in samana and apparently the hotel on cayo levantado. there is a big construction crane over the hotel which is closed for renovations. looks like they are doing a big makeover of the hotel and adding rooms on a new level. the rooms down at playa escondida were knocked down in order to build new rooms along with the hotel building that was at the other end of playa escondida. the rooms at the top of the hill to the left of the hotel when you come up from the beach were being redone as well.

hopefully the new hotel managers will do some work on balaguer's bridge so that it lights up at night (when there is electricity) and is safe from erosion and punks with too much time on their hands.

great! what did he say about cayo leventado? anything? is work going on there too?

just rereading this article from DR1 which appeared this past february and you know what? some of it is true:

- someone took over the hotel cayacoa as already mentioned
- there are what appears to be tugboats or dredging operators in the harbour
(not quite sure what they are doing)
- a new gymnasium is half-completed across from the harbour

if anybody has any idea who is actually doing this work and paying for it, would be interesting to know as i am sure the gymnasium isn't being built by the government. Would it be Accor Hotel Group, i wonder?




Samana for sale?
The Sunday edition of Hoy carried a small story on its front page of a 50-year lease of the marina at Cayo Levantado and the nearby Hotel Cayacoa to a company called Jampi Investments, SA. The proposal was submitted to Congress by the Executive Branch and includes provisions for remodeling the tourist-based and urban infrastructures of Samana. An investment of US$200 million is mentioned. The Senate leader, Jesus Vasquez, sent the proposal to a committee for study. The deal will require Jampi Investments to renovate the current wharf area and remodel the port, including a dredging and cleaning-up of the river outlet. The proposal also speaks of a marina, commercial buildings, sports installations, villas, apartments, hotels, a bus terminal and the refurbishment of the beach area. Today's edition of the same paper headlines the controversy that has been stirred up by the proposed deal. Senator Jose Tomas Perez rejected the negotiations between the state and Jampi Investments out of hand. Ramiro Espino, the president of the Senate Commission on Tourism and senator for Samana province, told reporters he had "problems with the proposed cession for 50 years." Senator Espino said that the basic problem is that the concession includes the infrastructure of the Hoel Cayacoa on Cayo Levantado and the marina, as well as land within the urban areas of the city of Samana. Espino said he thought the government had broken off negotiations with Jambi in order to give the concession to a French company that asked for just 20 years. The Samana senator said he thought that the French company was already doing preliminary studies for the remodeling of the tourist areas.