President Danilo Medina was in Bahoruco yesterday, Wednesday 29 October 2014, to inaugurate the Larimar Workshop and Museum. The RD$43.5 million facility was built by the government (funding from the Banco de Reservas and Banca Solidaria) to ensure that an increase in earnings from the larimar stone trade stays in the southwestern region. The new center is on the road from Barahona to Pedernales and is where visitors can learn more about the semi-precious blue stone, which is unique to this area of the country and very popular in jewelry. Tourists will also be able to purchase jewelry directly from the source.
During the launch of the workshop-museum, businessman Jose Manuel Gonzalez Cuadra of Centro Cuesta Nacional promised the locals to open a space at each of his stores to sell arts and crafts made with larimar, as part of the company’s Corazon Dominicano corporate responsibility program.
The workshop-museum seeks to emulate what Chile has done with its own lapis lazuli stone.
Foreign master stone craftsmen will train locals in modern techniques to process the stones. Classes begin on Monday.
Medina told the local people that better days would come once tourism development starts to make the most of the Bahia de las Aguilas beach area.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/10/30/i860211_medina-vislumbra-desarrollo-turstico-baha-las-guilas.html