In the province of Barahona, in the southwestern region of the Dominican Republic, lies a true jewel of the Caribbean. Home to a rare, semi-precious stone known as Larimar, this area has the distinction of being the only place in the world to have this unique resource.

Though first discovered in the early 19th century, it wasn't until 1974 that the stone became known through the findings of Norman Rilling, a member of the US Peace Corps, along with a local Dominican geologist, Miguel Mendez. In the geology world this beautiful turquoise blue stone is identified as "pectolite", but the name Larimar was derived from the first three letters of Senor Mendez's daughter, Larissa, along with the Spanish word for sea, which is "mar". Thus "Lar-i-mar".

The volcanic activity that formed the beginnings of our island around 100 million years ago, brought about the chemical and mineral components that formed the crystallization of this deep buried gem material. Now mined from the naturally occurring shafts of dead volcanic openings, these rocks of blue pectolite are cut and polished into a variety of beautiful Dominican Larimar jewelry. Their colour ranges from the palest sea blue-green to brilliant turquoise, and no two pieces are exactly alike. Larimar is also known as the Dolphin Stone and sometimes as the Atlantis stone.