Click here to go to the north.
Click here to go to the south.
|
|
Click here to go to the north. |
Click here to go to the south. |
|
| Santo Domingo |  |
Altos de Chavon |
|
Santo Domingo
The visit of Santo Domingo is obligatory from any point of view because of its historical interest.
Curiously there is still no certainly about the exact date of its foundation. The historians are providing data settles it between 1494 and 1498, while the officially accepted date is the 4th of August 1496, which is in accordance with the chronicler friar Capriano de Utrera.
Nor does one know exactly where the name came from. While some historians are basing their arguments on its founder; Bartolome Colombus "the precocious", who baptized the town with his father's name other historians believe the day of its foundation was on Easter Sunday (Santo Domingo). What seems to be certain is that the town initially settled on the left bank of the Ozama river as a consequence of the discovery of the gold mines at Haina.
It was Nicolas de Ovando who in 1502 decided to move the town to the other side of the river, which is the place it occupies today, after it had suffered a disaster caused by a hurricane.
Planned with total precision, Santo Domingo was a model because it combine good taste with its urban outline an the beauty of the landscape and its qualities in the strategic defense.
It was the first emblazoned city in the new world - by the decree from December 7th in 1508 - and where the first university and the first archbishopric were established. It maintained its name until 1936 when it was remained as Ciudad Trujillo. It regained its original name in 1961. In these moments it is honored with the title as 'Cradle of the Americas' by the Society of the American States.
Los Tres Ojos:
The national park that received his name from the
three lakes in its interior - ojo means water well in Dominican Spanish. They are of great
transparency and on their sidewalks one can observe pink and bluish spots. They are in
communication with each other and one can pass from one to the other by means of small
boats that are pushed by poles.
On an anecdotal level one should point out that on their exceptional and strange beauty
the Tres Ojos where used as a scenery in some of the Tarzan films.
The Cathedral:
At the monumental area you should pay a visit to the
Cathedral that opens its majestic gate towards the Columbus Park. The main nave is
surround by fourteen chapels and preserves the virgin of Antigua, an image in brown color
that affects its devoted faithful. The saying goes that there under the marble monument
are resting the remains of Christopher Columbus. But recently they have been removed to
the lighthouse of Colon, a monument building erected for the commemoration of the
discovery 500 years ago.
The construction of the Cathedral is the work of bishop Alejandro Geraldini, who placed
the first stone on the 25th of March 1521, coinciding with the Day of the Annunciation.
But this bishop did not see his work completed since he died when the work has reached the
gate at the southern end that has been baptized with his name.
On the 24th of June 1535 allthough not completely finished, the first mass was celebrated
for the victory of Charles V at Tunis
Time did not go by without any consequences for the cathedral. The earthquakes and the
hurricanes were nothing compared to the fury of the pirate Drake, who not only plundered
its treasures but also rejoiced over burning its archives.
Little by little it was transforming itself as a consequence of the architectural and
decorative tendencies that occurred all the time and because of the deplorable taste of
the responsibles for the monument. Nevertheless, today it has been totally and
scrupulously restored.
El Alcázar de Colón
Another monumental building and of magnanimous importance is the Alcazar, a residence ordered to be constructed by Diego Columbus, the son of the Admiral, in 1510. It is situated within an extraordinarry walled viewpoint over the Ozama river and its interiors it shelters twenty-two dwellings. It was originally a building with three storeys, which resulted to be an imitation of the Alcazar of Toledo. Its construction was based entirely upon the plans of that same Alcazar. It also seems that Maria de Toledo, wife of Diego Columbus, wrote her testimony there in 1548.
back to the top |
East of Santo Domingo
Boca Chica
|
Headed east from Santo Domingo on the Avenida de las Américas, you first come to Boca Chica, just past the airport. It is the busiest of all beaches, particularly in the weekends when the Dominicans stream out of the capital. It is noisy, with hundreds of portable stereos blaring out the latest Merengue. In the area of Juan Dolio you will find smaller crowd at Embassy Beach, where the waves roar in between two arms of coral-rock and the gentler Playa Guayacanes. Or you can find your way down to Playa Real, a quieter spot where there is a hotel and restaurant to retreat to.
back to the top |
La Romana
|
Passing San Pedro de Macoris you come to La Romana, still a sugar town and cattle gazing area, but now famed for the vast (and very expensive) resort a few miles to the east, Casa del Campo, where there are a whole host of hotels, villas, golf courses and polo pitches. In the area you will still meet English-speaking West Indians from down-island whose parents came to work in the sugar industry earlier in this century.
Altos de Chavón
|
Altos de Chavón is a medieval clifftop town built of rusty rock, everywhere festooned with bougainvillea and sprays of hibiscus and inhabited by a colony of artists. Its heart is the Iglesia St Stanislaus, and all around are aged cobbled alleys and streets. There is even an amphitheater, where Frank Sinatra and Julio Iglesias have sung. And yet, there is something slightly wrong about Altos de Chavón. Somehow there is an unruly Gothic air to the medieval idyll - it is slightly overdone and very neat. It comes as no surprise to find out that it was all designed in 1978 and that Frank Sinatra actually inaugurated the amphitheater. Free bus service from Casa del Campo, and worth a look if only for the novelty, some good restaurants and the fantastic view over the Chavón river valley.
back to the top |
Higüey
|
About 20 miles northeast of La Romana, lost in the cattle and sugar-cane flats of the southeast, is the genuine 16th-century town of Higüey. A charming church lies at its center, the Basilica de Nuestra Señore de la Merced, supposedly erected on the site of a battle which the early Spaniards fended off the Caribbean. It has long been a place of pilgrimage and then in the 1950s the massive new church was built. The monumental Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Altagracia (the patron saint of the Dominican Republic) is built of concrete and shaped like a 200 ft pair of hands held in prayer.
back to the top |
Bavaro
|
If you head northeast of Higüey you reach the coast at Bavaro, where the beaches begin. They run almost uninterrupted for the 30 miles from here to Laguna Nisibón, and they are spectacular and developed only with the occasional huge hotel complex. They are bordered along their whole length by palms and sea grape and they are excellent for walking, though you should be careful of swimming because of the Atlantic currents. Beyond Miches you enter wild farming country and eventually you come to the sleepy town of Sabana de la Mar, from where you can get a ferry across to the Samana peninsula.
back to the top |
