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Larimar: The Gem of the Dominican Republic
By Jane Goodwin | July 16, 2007
While you are in the Dominican Republic, or anywhere in Central America for that matter, you will notice that many of the women, and the men, too, are wearing jewelry or hair ornaments or carrying keychains, etc, made of a beautiful blue stone that you have probably not seen before.
You may think at first that it is a kind of turquoise, or even opal, but you would be wrong.
It is Larimar, a breathtakingly beautiful pectolite found only in the Caribbean. Larimar has always been there, of course, but the stone was “discovered” by outsiders only in 1974. A peace corps worker named Norman Rilling, along with a Dominican named Miguel Méndez, found a piece of this blazingly blue pectolite on the seashore. These two men, fascinated by the beauty of this unknown stone, followed the vestige upstream the Bahoruco river until they got to “Los Checheses”, in the town “Los Chupaderos” about 10 kilometers into the mountains from the city of Barahona, the place at which at present the most abundant outcropping is found.
It is the prerogative of the discoverer to name the discovery: The two men named the stone “Larimar,” after Miguel Méndez’ daughter’s name “Larissa”, and the Spanish word for “sea,” which is “mar.”
There is only one place on the planet where one will find blue larimar, and that is the mine in Barahona, Dominican Republic.
When you are in the Dominican Republic, why not wear some larimar? Eat some native foods, wear some native clothing, listen to some native music, and wear some native jewels.
Sphere ItTopics: Recreation, Shopping, Culture, Travel / Relocation, Lifestyle, Destinations |
November 1st, 2007 at 12:35 am
[…] and sold here. If you’re lucky, you might even come across an item made of both amber and larimar! “Happy Hour” is found only in the Dominican […]