Rare & For serious collectors. If wanting a bigger piece, please email us and we will send other options by request.
Larimar is my personal favourite and a favourite of many, and rightly so. After hearing its story, you will want your very own piece to admire.
Larimar is rare because of the one place you can find it, and also for its beautiful, blue colour.
Miguel Méndez andPeace Corps volunteer Norman Rilling rediscovered Larimar in 1974 on a beach at the foot of theBahoruco Mountain Range, the coastal province of Barahona. Natives believed that the stone came from the sea, and they called the gemBlue Stone. Miguel took his young daughter's name Larissa and theSpanish word for sea (mar) and formedLarimar, to suggest the colors of the Caribbean Sea where it was found. The few stones that they found werealluvial sediment, washed into the sea by the Bahoruco River. An upstream search revealed thein situoutcrops in the range and soon theLos Chupaderos mine was formed.
Larimar is a type of pectolite or a rock composed largely of pectolite, an acid silicate hydrate of calcium and sodium. Pectolite is found in many locations, but larimar has a unique volcanic bluecoloration, which is the result of copper substitution for calcium.
The most important outcrop of blue pectolite is located at Los Chupaderos in the section of Los Checheses, about 10 km (6.2 mi) southwest of the city of Barahona in the southwestern region of the Dominican Republic. It is a single mountainside now perforated with approximately 2,000 vertical shafts, surrounded by rainforest vegetation and deposits of blue-colored mine tailings.
Larimar is considered a healing stone and said to be finely tuned to the human body particularly to the throat area. It is said that it increases speech and communication skills and supports the body’s natural healing process. Persons believing in this have been known to wear Larimar jewelry or to put pieces of Larimar in their pockets or under their pillows. Larimar is also called the Atlantis Stone, because a Spiritual master who lived in Trinidad and Tobago and who founded many Yoga Centers across the world, claimed that some islands in the Caribbean including the Dominican Republic were part of the lost continent of Atlantis. He went further to say that on one of those islands a blue stone with healing powers would be found – a description that corresponds to Larimar. Today, there are thousands of people, naturalists and persons practicing alternative and holistic healing methods, who use Larimar to assist and reinforce healing processes.
