Cave diving · Central America & Caribbean
Cave diving in Dominican Republic
The south-east of the Dominican Republic is limestone karst with hundreds of caves and sinkholes, many holding fresh water. Around Bayahibe and Parque Nacional Cotubanamá (formerly Parque Nacional del Este), flooded caverns such as Cueva de Chicho in the Padre Nuestro complex and the deep Manantial de la Aleta sinkhole are important Taíno archaeological sites, and Chicho is visited on guided dives from Bayahibe.
How access works
No national cave-diving permit or official access rules were found for this edition. Parque Nacional Cotubanamá is a protected area under the environment ministry; the one documented recreational cave dive (Cueva de Chicho) is run as a guided excursion by a Bayahibe dive centre, and Manantial de la Aleta is known only as a research site.
A general summary; each site page gives its own dated access information.
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Cave systems
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Entrances and dive sites
| Site | Cave system | Type | Access | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manantial de la AletaParque Nacional Cotubanamá (formerly Parque Nacional del Este) | Manantial de la Aleta | Sinkhole | Access status not verified | |
| Cueva de ChichoBayahibe | Padre Nuestro Complex | Cavern | Open to qualified divers, with conditions |
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Dive centres and guides
| Provider | Where | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| ScubaFun | Bayahibe | 2026-10-14 |
A listing is not an endorsement.
Every fact on this page, with its source (5)
| Fact | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The south-eastern Dominican Republic is karst with hundreds of caves and sinkholes; Cueva de Chicho and Manantial de la Aleta are documented Taíno flooded-cavern sites. | Verified | [1] |
| Parque Nacional del Este was renamed Parque Nacional Cotubanamá in 2014.Wikipedia, orientation only. | Reported | [3] |
| A Bayahibe dive centre offers guided dives in Cueva de Chicho.Provider claim. | Reported | [2] |
| The Bahamas Caves Research Foundation reports supporting partner cave-diving groups in the Dominican Republic.2026 interview; partner groups not named. | Reported | [4] |
| Parque Nacional Cotubanamá is governed under the Dominican environment and protected-areas laws (Law 64-00 and Law 202-04), and the environment ministry announced its admission to the SPAW protocol.Wikipedia, orientation only; no ministry page on cave diving was found. | Reported | [3] |
Verified: stated by an official or primary source we opened. Reported: from a secondary source only. Sources conflict: the note gives both versions. May be out of date: the newest source we found is old.
Written in our own words from the sources above. Report a correction