Travel + Leisure

TRAVEL + LEISURE / MARCH 2016

for the fi rst time ever at an Aman resort,
there’s an 18-hole golf course.
There’s also much to do in the
surrounding hills. Antonio Alvarado,
a full-time guide at the resort who in
a former life was a martial-arts
champion, leads nature walks and
mountain bike trips with a sprightly,
inquisitive demeanour. He explains
medicinal uses for plants, plucks
swollen passion fruit off the vine, and
breaks open coconuts on sharp
branches to share the intensely
fl avoured meat within. One afternoon,
reaching the crest of an undulating path,
my companion and I ran into a wild
horse, which Alvarado gently shooed
away. (For a moment, it felt like a music
video from the eighties.) After an hour
or so of gentle exertion, we arrived at an
overlook with a panoramic view across
the hills and ocean, as well as two
Amanera staff members waiting with
chilled Viognier and sandwiches made
with prosciutto andburrata.
Most meals at the resort are in this
generally European mode. The chef is

Italian, the sous-chef Mexican, and the

pastry chef Spanish—though you

wouldn’t necessarily pick up on the

staff’s diversity from the menu. Steak

tartare, risotto, and snapperen papillote

are kitchen mainstays. Although there

are glimpses of excitement, particularly

the Mexican breakfast options (huevos

rancheros, satisfyingly spicy chicken

chilaquiles), the fare mostly sticks to the

tried-and-true.

The real highlight, though, is the

chance to interact with the staff. A

mangrove tour organised by the hotel,

beginning in nearby Río San Juan, was

memorable for the astonishing sight of

dozens of black buzzard and egret

nests, as well as the opportunity to

meet Juan Carlos Garcia, the friendly

motorboat captain, who offered us

Presidente beers and revealed a hidden

swimming cove. Victor Rojas Gomez,

a driver who led the excursion, pointed

out sites like the popular Playa de la

Guardia, a dance club/car wash hybrid

at the center of the town’s social scene,

and his house, painted a typical

marigold yellow, with a dozing dog out

front. “This is your home too now,” he

said, and he sounded like he meant it.

Juan Alberto Martinez, known as

Babunuco, after his legendary

restaurant in the mountains, often

comes by the resort to introduce guests

to Dominican cigars. “Everyone knows

Cuban cigars, but ours are just as

good,” he said, demonstrating the

delicate art of rolling the leaves and

folding the tip. He insists no cigar

session is complete without Mama

Juana, a regional drink made with

dried bark, rum, honey, and red wine.

Recipes vary; Babunuco’s, which he

ferments in a big Johnnie Walker bottle

for a month, is a secret. It’s best sipped

by the infinity pool, which deliberately

has no lights to create better

reflections, especially when the sound

of an acoustic guitar drifts from the

restaurant and skims across the sky,

dense with stars. You can see why the

crab was so eager to stay.

amanera.com; casitas from US$950.

FROM FAR LEFT: In each casita, glass walls let in sunlight

while the surrounding vegetation provides seclusion; a

private pool at the resort (half the casitas come with one);

the 18-hole golf course, the first at an Aman property;

sunset over Playa Grande; lounge chairs lining the beach.