In the record books of pioneering capitals, Santo Domingo deserves first place, hands down. The first university, the first cathedral, the first hospital in the New World, and the first cobbled streets too... The first pages of its history coincide with the arrival of Christopher Columbus's troops, who landed on the island in December 1492... and set about enslaving the indigenous population. But the Taino Indians, skilled farmers who had lived peacefully until then, rebelled and fled...
Rejecting their new fate as slaves in the gold mines, they headed for the mountains to commit a pathetic act of self-genocide. Systematic abortions, individual and collective suicides: in less than half a century, a population estimated at 4 million was wiped out. Meanwhile, Santo Domingo prospered. Founded in 1496 by Bartolomeo Columbus, the Conquistador's younger brother, it had all the trappings of a powerful city. "For groups, discovering the capital can be a fun, historical walking tour of a small but remarkably well-preserved collection of 16th-century buildings," says Thelma Martinez, Marketing Director of the National Hotel and Catering Association. The time machine starts with a visit to the Alcazar de Colombo (1514), the seat of the Spanish Crown in the Americas and the home of Christopher's son, the governor of the island. It was in these private reception rooms overlooking the Rio Ozama that the invasions to come were planned. Here you can hear the names of legendary privateers, the who's who of Caribbean buccaneers and pirates, and the who's who of Castilian nobility on family visits to the surrounding mansions...
Theme evenings: pirates or colonists?
The centrepiece of these Renaissance buildings, with their elaborate porches and luxuriant patios, is the Palace of the Captains General. It now houses the superb Museo de las Casas Reales, which recounts various aspects of life at the time. Like most of the city's fine buildings, this heritage can also be enjoyed privately, making it an ideal venue for themed evenings, with a choice of pirates or colonists, although the cruellest are obviously the latter. And if you stay here during Carnival (between January and March), you're sure to end the evening in the company of an impressive gallery of colourful monsters, frightening devils and caricatures of all kinds, including Fidel Castro.
An hour's drive east: Bayahibe. This seaside resort close to the capital is a lively little port thanks to its proximity to Saona, a protected area within the Parque Nacional del Este. Virtually uninhabited despite being the country's largest island at 130km2, Saona is very popular with island hopping enthusiasts attracted by its 'deserted' beaches.
Floating cocktails
On catamarans or ultra-fast speedboats, groups can take advantage of the natural pools during the crossing, where floating cocktails are often organised. As the boat is privatised, the excursion can be continued as required: swimming, lunch or dinner, or even a bivouac as organised by the incoming agency El Caballo Tours on a beach bordering the tropical scrubland (see box on page 72). Between discovering the caves once occupied by the Taïnos, meeting the iguanas or taking a trip to one of the island's few hamlets, the activities on offer are varied. At Mano Juan - where around thirty fishermen's houses are grouped together along the beach - the village square is sheltered by a straw hut with a dozen benches arranged in a U-shape between the grocer's shop and the pontoon. They talk about everything, from the latest catch to news of their eldest son who has left to try his luck in Santo Domingo. Visitors are welcome, and we're keen to explain to them the misfortune of Hurricane Georges, which destroyed everything here in 1998, including the houses, because there is nothing left in Mano Juan, no runway, no car, no infrastructure apart from the electricity generator. In other words, we're a long way from Punta Cana, which is less than two hours' drive from Bayahibe.
Punta Cana? A more contemporary and flashier Eldorado with open-air gold mines: kilometres of beaches lined with thousands of coconut palms, the whole scattered with a swarm of resorts of varying ranges whose frequentation has been filling their owners' coffers for over twenty years. All-inclusive', the magic formula that made hotel chains, most of them Spanish, so happy when they had the 'vista' to set up here, now seems to be in trouble. Lauded less than five years ago, this recipe that has ensured the success story of Dominican tourism is now finding few defenders. The dirty word "bottom of the range" has been dropped, and it's on everyone's lips in a more or less allusive formulation, with tourism officials much preferring to talk about an "image deficit", while emphasising the sector's growth: +11 % visitors, most of them to Punta Cana, which has more than 30,000 beds.
Upmarket at Punta Cana
Punta Cana has not changed, and its sand still caresses tourists' feet as softly as cashmere. Cana is the rustic palm tree used to make roofs and the colourful little dolls that delight holidaymakers. Organising an incentive trip here is no problem at all. Almost every hotel has 500 rooms and a conference centre for two to three hundred people. Similarly, there are few establishments that don't have four or five private restaurants. As for the few untouched beaches in the vicinity, they too can of course be developed to host all kinds of events.
But the professionals are well aware that to maintain a destination, it has to be renewed. "It's true that the Rep dom has been overused, but the fact remains that the environment is sublime and many customers keep coming back. Punta Cana works perfectly as a setting for an operation developing an elaborate concept, which encourages creativity," says Stéphane Satin, President of El Caballo Tours. Without this creative added value, Punta Cana can only offer what it has: its sand, its coconut palms and a hotel infrastructure that is often of high quality, but also uneven and ageing. However, no one wants to think that the region could one day become another Acapulco, a former beauty queen scorned, if not despised. Hence the creation, here and there, of more plush, more hushed establishments, for a clientele that really can't see itself doing the duck dance in the pool's whirlpool. A first on the island, and a sign of the times, the Bavaro Beach, one of the first establishments to be set up here, will soon be demolished and upgraded to become a superior five-star hotel. As for the Cap Cana complex, combining luxury and gigantism, it is the symbol of this revival of the region to raise its head, make people dream again and take Punta Cana away from the 3-B rule that has ensured its fortune, "Bueno, barato, bonito"... Good, cheap and pretty.
"The next world destination", says the Cap Cana information office in all modesty, implying "the beautiful people", or at least those whose bank accounts are sufficiently weighted to gain access. Unlike nearby Punta Cana, Cap Cana is all about exclusivity. Kilometres of private beaches, including the most beautiful in the country, an artificial marina, the largest in the Caribbean, three Jack Nicklaus-designed golf courses stretching along the seafront, polo fields and an international high school, also private, needless to say. Just like the 25,000 hectares of the estate linked by roads as smooth as a billiard table, never before seen on the island. The resort is clearly a luxury enclave designed to compete with destinations such as Saint Barth, but with more 'attractive' prices. Entry price: a million dollars for a pied-à-terre, with a number of villas selling for more like 5 million dollars, not including the charges, of course: security provided by an armada of guards criss-crossing the estate in 4×4s, or the cubic metres of water needed to water its lush parks.
Cap Cana, the challenge of exclusivity
Of course, the three hotels will not be all-inclusive. They will be five-star luxury units with fewer than two hundred rooms and suites, scattered in villas grouped together in hamlets or buildings with fewer than ten rooms. They will have everything to satisfy prestige operations, such as the Sanctuary of the Alta Bella chain, due to open in August 2007 and which will have a convention centre with a capacity of 500 people. Discretion is the key word here," sums up Javier Jimenez, its sales manager. The establishment has been designed so that staff move underground in a large street serving the technical areas, in order to protect the privacy of customers. The immensity of Cap Cana is awe-inspiring, as is its aim, to create a certain image of paradise on earth.
In addition to this diversification towards the very top end of the market, the new credo of investors who, moreover, are building up their properties as fast as they can to market $100,000 flats in Punta Cana, some professionals see and hope for the rebirth of the Dominican Republic in tourism that is less predatory of the landscape and more curious about the country, its people and their culture. But for this to happen, the State would also have to undertake road investment, which has been put off time and time again. As a result, crossing the country can sometimes be like a perilous crossroads, littered with potholes that damage motorists' spines, multiply accidents, double journey times... and keep the population constantly grumbling.
The best cigars in the world
However, it would be a shame not to travel here by car or plane, as the whole country is well served by numerous private companies with affordable fares (between 50 and 70 dollars). On the way to Santiago, 150 km from Santo Domingo, we leave the capital for the Cibao. This agricultural region produces most of the fruit and vegetables that supply the domestic market. It also plays an active role in the country's exports. Its oranges and bananas, of which there are seven varieties, each with its own use in local cuisine, supply the West Indies and Puerto Rico. As for its countless tobacco fields, they are processed locally into cohibas, churchills and other torpedos that are enjoyed all over the world. With 600 million units produced each year, the country is the world's leading cigar producer, well ahead of Honduras (340 million units) and Cuba (between 85 and 145 million).
The island's second-largest city (population 500,000), dynamic Santiago lends itself to a wide range of activities off the beaten seaside track. It's a great opportunity to meet the locals, especially the torcedores who make the cigars. Some tabacaleras, such as Tabaco Carbonell, founded in 1903, open their doors to groups who can learn about the different stages of production. Initiation only, because cigars are a culture in their own right. But with a guide like Sylvain Bischoff, an enthusiastic French ethnologist who has lived here since 1996, you quickly get into the swing of things and realise just how rich this product is, with its terroirs and the infinite subtlety of flavours they generate.
Santiago is also home to the country's finest museum, the Centro León, which is indispensable for understanding the identity of the Dominicans. This centre, with its avant-garde museography, captivates visitors by appealing to all their senses. A model of enlightened patronage, this institution, which makes up for the country's lack of cultural policy, was created by the Jimenez family, which owns a number of flagships of Dominican industry: Leon Jimenez cigars, but also Presidente beer, the national drink that Dominicans like to drink chilled, vestida de nobia, in a wedding dress, the bottle white with frost. Finally, Santiago is also the birthplace of merengue, which can be danced to in the local cabarets.
Cabarete, a haven for windsurfers and surfers
From Santiago, you reach the north coast, on the Atlantic Ocean, near Puerto Plata, whose port is unfortunately invisible, hidden behind columns of containers. The country's leading tourist destination in the 1970s is now a little neglected, although its Playa Dorada complex is trying to revive itself with boutique hotels such as the charming Casa Colonial (see practical guide). The Tip Top, the region's only 75-foot catamaran (capacity: 70 people), provides access to the most isolated beaches, such as Cambiaso at the foot of the Cordillera Septentrional foothills, a very rugged landscape made up of a multitude of small valleys that open onto the ocean. In this cattle-raising region, cactus hedges line the fields. There are no cars on the poor tracks linking the towns, and the only means of getting around is on horseback or donkey. Once you're back on the main road, you're very close to Cabarete, the Mecca of windsurfing and kite surfing, a beach packed with terraces that don't come alive until late afternoon, when the surfers keep the party going late into the night. Spared from mass tourism, Cabarete is not home to any large hotels, but to small, inexpensive guesthouses such as the Sans Souci, at 15 dollars a night, adapted to the means of its young visitors, most of whom are students.
Continuing eastwards, the road runs alongside the sea. On the outskirts of Nagua, herds of cows graze among the coconut palms, before arriving in Las Terrenas, the "big city" of the Samana peninsula, in fact a village crowded with French people who developed this place lost between sea and coconut palms during the 1980s. Today, the village is popular with middle-class Dominicans, who buy flats here at prices that are still affordable. With the exception of the Spanish chain Bahia Principe, which has just opened a five-star hotel, most of the beds are provided by rented flats (150 euros/week), creating a peaceful family atmosphere.
Samana, for humpback whale watching
Just 50km away, on the other side of the peninsula, Samana, home to the boats that organise whale-watching excursions, is buzzing with tourists. It has to be said that between January and March the spectacle that takes place there is one of the most astonishing: a thousand humpback whales come to reproduce or give birth before returning to the open sea. This rare event is being used to develop a hitherto unspoilt region. Last November, an international airport was inaugurated and the Bahia Principe chain has opened three top-of-the-range hotels. The jewel in the crown is a five-star luxury hotel housed in a colonial house on the islet of Cayo Levantado, ten minutes by boat from Samana. But the most astonishing part of the area stretches across the bay to Los Haïtises. This mangrove is dotted with limestone islets, studded with caves like Halong Bay, but topped with dense tropical vegetation. Clear waters, a string of miniature beaches, the company of dolphins... the true paradise of the Dominican Republic. For the time being, it's a pristine, unspoilt area classified as a national park.
