Where we find
Larimar
Outcrops
The most important outcrop of blue pectolites, is located at "Los Chupaderos", in the section of "Los Checheses",
about 10 kilometers southwest of the city of Barahona, in the south-western region of the Dominican Republic.
It is a small complex of vulcanic origin, composed fundamentally of basalts and porphyry rocks of great diversity.
In its interior, there are concentrations of small mineral blocks with this blue color which is characteristic of the
pectolite of our country.
Displacements
Many of the nuclei or small blocks of blue pectolite or Larimar are in situ , which means at the very place w
here they formed. But some of these, however, as a result of superficial erosion, boke off and slowly were dragged
by the rain waters down the slopes of the hill.
Thus they arrived at the torrent Sitio, from which the waters swept them into the river Bahoruco, and finally they ended
up and were deposited in the Caribbean Sea, and washed by the waves. This is the reason why initial findings took place
at the beaches of Barahona as if Larimar had come out from the sea.
First Findings
The first evidences of this rare mineral appeared in small
rollings that sometimes were found at those beaches of Bahoruco.
In fact, in the year 1974, Norman Rilling, a member of the Peace Corps of the United States, and the Miguel
Méndez, a Dominican found on the seashore. Following the vestige upstream the Bahoruco river, they got
to "Los Checheses", in the town "Los Chupaderos" about 10 kilometers into the montains from
the city of Barahona, the place at which at present the most abundant outcropping is found.
Also the name "LARIMAR" is due to this finding. Miguel Méndez' daughter's name is "LARIssa", and at the sea
(Spanish: "MAr") it was found.
However, there is constancy that already in the year 1916 the parish priest of Barahona, Miguel Domingo Fuertes Loren,
had applied to the Treasury Department for the exploration privilege and the exploitation of the mine.
But this never happened.
Nevertheless, proofs that the beautiful blue color of this stone
had been noticed some time ago, exist in samples found already in the fifties of the last century, of which we have
some on display in a cabinet at the Larimar Museum.
Until that time, there had been no mention of the existence of
Larimar in geologic literature of studies done of that region.
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