Sam Gray of Boulder CO is a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic, where he is involved in a community-based ecotourism project that could be a real shot in the arm for the local economy.

The project is an emerging tourist location on Laguna Limon, part of a system of lagoons on the coastal plains in the northeast part of the Dominican Republic. For the past several years, Peace Corps volunteers like Sam Gray of Boulder CO have been working with community members in the towns and villages around Laguna Limon to develop ecotourism.

The Laguna Limon, which means Lemon Lagoon, was declared a Wildlife Refuge by the Dominican government in 2004. The areas around it are mostly privately owned. The local economy includes fishing and farming, as well as coconut and rice cultivation. The idea of the ecotourism project is to take tourists, led by guides, deep into the lagoon. Laguna Limon is a freshwater lagoon, rich in unique flora and fauna.

Sam Gray of Boulder CO arrived in the Dominican Republic and began his Peace Corps training on March 4, 2014. Once the training was complete, he was assigned to an ecotourism project. There are several small hotels near the lagoon, and most of the tourists who are venturing into the lagoon say there. Sam Gray of Boulder CO will be working closely with local business leaders and with these and other tourist hotels in a one hundred-mile radius, to bring new business to this developing ecotourism area.

Sam Gray of Boulder CO has already participated in leading two kayak tours. "Sam reports that the area is spectacularly beautiful," a friend reports. He is tasked with helping with the business planning, advertising, and English development of this emerging tourist location.

The number one objective of the emerging kayak ecotourism businesses is to develop a tour through the lagoon with several routes. The tours, as Sam Gray of Boulder CO knows, are meant to last for several hours. The routes pass through a series of mangroves, which are dense thickets of trees and shrubs growing offshore. Organizers say the tour guides provide high-quality descriptions of the mangroves, the lagoon's ecosystem, and its wildlife and history.