Cabarete's New Age

Cabarete's New Age

A kite-surfing instructor was heard to say recently, "We were originally a two-star destination and now we have these five-star condo-hotels and villa complexes. What's happening?" Although the backpackers and surfers—from boarders to kiters—still come, and there are still a certain number of low-rent digs for them, many have had to move on to find the next cheap, windy destination. Other veteran expats are thinking of packing it in as well: "Why, they even paved the main street!" they say, "And what with the price of groceries and everything doubled in the last five years.. well, maybe Ecuador is next."

Here's a story that illustrates how Cabarete's new age is finally starting to take shape. In 1968 Luis Noboa Batule had the vision to buy nearly 14 acres with almost 2,000 feet (600 meters) of beachfront between two points, Punta Goleta and Punta Cabarete, facing east. He had read in a tourism book that properties facing the sun would give tourists more hours of sunlight. He purchased some land from the Brugal rum family for $10,000 and later added 66 acres across the road encompassing a tropical lagoon, which is now within the El Choco National Park. Ironically, young Noboa was working at a rival rum factory, Bermudez, at the time, having dropped out of school to support his family following his father's death. This patriarch and his family now own 40% of the undeveloped beachfront left on Cabarete Bay. And their oceanfront property, now called Punta Goleta, will be the site for the first phase of the new Seawinds condominium project, which is expected to open in 2009. Starting with 82 units—including studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments—every room will have unobstructed ocean views.

A barometer of the town's evolution can also be read when you see what's happening with the long-established Windsurf Resort. In the late 1990s Canadian Gordon Gannon built it as a cheap haunt for young board boys. By 2006 attractive condos had been added, and the crowd had shifted to mostly couples, many of them baby boomers. Gordon's son, also Gordon, anticipated the new, upscale movement in Cabarete, began his own condominium project called Ocean Point on primo Kite Beach property. Now two of the three phases have come to fruition beautifully, and other high-end condos have sprung up nearby, including Ocean Dream, Harmony, and (soon) Symphony. Windsurf Resort itself is coming down, only to rise again like a phoenix as an upscale condo-hotel with five giant units directly on the beach as well as 80-some units on the current hotel's location. A stainless-steel bridge shaped like a windsurfing sail will soar over Cabarete's main street.