Santo Domingo de Guzman The pleasure of the first time
Perched on the Caribbean, Santo Domingo is the Americas' first city ever. So, the magical touch of the first time makes it as unforgettable a place as your first love kiss, no matter how hard you might try to hide it over and over again.
The city has been labeled as some kind of cursed town for travelers who yearn for coming back time and again, even though there are no fountains to toss coins into them. But his harbinger was no other than Christopher Columbus, who reportedly said he wanted to be forever buried in this land near the ceiba tree where he tethered his boat to for the first time in the New World. The tradition goes that tree is still standing there and Dominicans want to believe it's also a huge monument known as the Columbus Lighthouse, where the Great Admiral's mortal remains are thought to be laid to rest. Every night, the huge tree beams a laser light up into the darkness of the sky.
A burg of nearly two million inhabitants, Santo Domingo suffers from severe traffic jams, made even worse by drivers' color blindness as they can't tell red from green, or by the occurrence of some crimes that pushes the panic button among its residents who still don't seem to understand their city is a haven of peacefulness.
Of course, there are five-star and four-star hotels, casinos open until daybreak, small and huge shopping malls, movie theaters, Big Macs and Outback, nightclubs, X-rated flicks, limos and air-conditioned buses for tourists.
But the capital of the Dominican Republic is 70 percent mulatto and its true rhythm beats at a very different level where neon lights never reach. Those visitors eager to ferret that lifestyle out, must take a chance and walk their way into the colmados, have a drink of rum with amargo and take a ride in conchos.
Going into the soul of the Dominican takes sauntering to the colmado, the local grocery store that also plays a social role of its own, where housekeepers go to in search of anything and friends gather to gulp down schooners of icy beer, or take a sip of their fabulous sugar cane rum as they talk about their other friends and discuss the latest events of the national political scene.
Many Dominicans who usually go shopping in the big malls probably don't agree and would warn you to stay away from those place where every once in a while low passions lord it there. But, is there any place where something like that never happens?
At the colmado¸ bachata is the queen of the show, that popular Dominican rhythm that has shoved merengue aside in recent years with lyrics that usually describe heartbreaking love affairs where women are always to blame.
As those sung stories are normally bitter, Dominican also nickname bachata the music of sour, and its detractors believe the combination of alcohol and this kind of music is deadly, where as a rule there are no good ladies due to domestic violence.
After the one-and-only experience of the colmado, the trip into the heart and soul of the Dominican can go on with a ride in the concho, a kind of cab with a fixed waybill on which you can tour half a city of 40 square kilometers for just six pesos (a quarter of a dollar).
A real concho is a used car with 15 to 20 years over its tires, usually crashed and with a broken windshield, with no signs on the doors and mostly adapted to run on gas, with a car stereo most of the time blaring noisy music or talk shows out of the windows. The rest simply play salsa music day in and day out.
In the front seat, two passengers can ride next to the taxi driver plus other four in the rear seat, regardless of size, weight, race, sexual gender or cargo capacity. One thing is for sure here: everybody –including the driver- travels with a cell phone.
This is the right place to get hipped on the latest rumors hitting the corridors of the Presidential Palace, or just hear the breaking news about show biz. You can also make friends and even fall in love.
Following this adventure, tourists can travel back to the hotel to take a shower while listening to Vivaldi or the Benedict Monks, only to learn what the city has to offer is just its gaudy publicity.
Relentless Time Santo Domingo is the oldest city of the New World, declared Heritage of Mankind by UNESCO in 1992, bordered by the Ozama River where cruise liners sail across the colonial part of town –designed in the shape of an octagon in 1502 under the rule of Governor Fray Nicolas de Ovando.
Before that time, in 1498, Bartolome Columbus –brother of the Great Admiral's- had founded the city on the east bank of the Ozama River, in a balmy area with annual temperatures averaging 26 degrees Celsius but constantly cooled down by the Caribbean breeze.
Here you can pay a visit to the first-ever cathedral of the Americas (Santa Maria of the Incarnation), the ruins of the burg's first hospital (San Nicolas de Bari), the first monastery (San Francisco), the first university (Santo Tomas de Aquino), the first fortress (Ozama), the first courthouse and the first city hall.
The first stone of the Americas' first cathedral was laid in 1523 and completed in 1541. Today, the temple goes on to lure worshippers and admirers alike with the same serenity its stone walls give off now and with one eye-catching architectural flaw: two Gothic-style doors, while the front door is plateresque.
The cathedral once hosted the remains of Christopher Columbus, who had asked to be buried in Santo Domingo de Guzman.
In front of the old-timed building, travelers happen on the Columbus Park with El Conde walkway flowing into the square and muscling its way through a statue of the Great Discoverer together with the Anacaona Indian women, scores of year-stricken trees and dozens of pigeons.
With the splendid view of the cathedral and the square as backdrops, nothing compares to sitting down in one of the surrounding cafés under the shadow of the trees to tuck in a sancocho, a typical plate of vegetables and meat, or have a asopao, rice and shellfish, or any other meat of choice.
Another must-see attraction is the Museum of Amber, a source of pride for Dominicans and their artisans, where travelers can also buy objects made of larimar, a blue stone that –they say- can only be dug out in La Hispaniola, the island the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti.
In the early 16th century, not far from the First Cathedral of the Americas, the Alcazar of Columbus was built over the Ozama River. That was the residence of Don Diego, the Great Admiral's son. It was nothing but a fortified palace that even now keeps up its fortress flair.
Viceroy Maria de Toledo's ladies-in-waiting used to traipse down its cobbled streets all along the Ozama River, a tradition that gave this avenue its name: Las Damas (The Ladies).
The building of the New World's first hospital allegedly began circa 1503 or 1504 on Hostos Street. Baptized with the name of San Nicolas, the former medical center also served as a church and was probably built then using only wood and straw.
The stone ruins that still look impeccably sharp today give away the edifice was later rebuilt and equipped with more solid walls that grew to admit up to 700 patients every year. According to old records, the hospital remained operational until the mid 18th century when it was abandoned for unknown circumstances, probably a hard-hitting earthquake.
The Ozama Fortress, the city's oldest guardian, continues to be an eye-popping watchtower overlooking the entire capital, proud of its past by the Caribbean Sea and very much loved by the local residents.
A stroll down the old part of town must include the National Pantheon on Las Damas Street. This is the final habitation of some illustrious Dominicans whose mortal remains are looked after by an eternal flame as a show of gratitude on behalf of the whole society.
Another curious sightseeing spot, right on the same premises, is the Sundial built in the 16th century, a tireless clock that still chimes the time of day in the 21st century as if to show it's got a ticking of its own, no matter how fast we try to live our lives.
Churches, Coconut Milk and Sugar Cane Juice Besides its palaces and fortresses, colonial Santo Domingo harbors an amazing amount of religious buildings where worshippers can still have their cults and ceremonies observed now.
Another edifice standing tall in this context is the Convent of the Merciful, built somewhere between 1527 and 1555, and seriously hit by an earthquake in the 17th century. After that, different architectural elements from as many epochs have been added to it.
One of the smallest religious buildings is the Church of Our Lady of Carmen. The Chapel of the Third Order of the Dominicans was set up in 1729 as part of the Santo Tomas de Aquino University campus. This is an early baroque-style temple that's clearly a far cry from whatever exaggerations marked that particular style later on.
The Dominican Sisters ordered the building of the Regina Angelorum Convent in the 18th century. The edifice features a quarry stone facade and a central dome whose sturdy structure still makes necks turn around.
For the mere satisfaction of passers-by, the colonial part of town counts on numerous small squares where people still get a load off their feet by the shadow of the temple's relics to capture the quietness these old-timed corners emanate.
The colonial zone is dominated by cobblestone streets and 500-plus-year-old stone buildings, many of them now turned into cafes and restaurants. Formerly exceptional palaces have given way to magnificent museums. A grand tour around these treasures augurs a visit to remember.
The tropical warmth points to the old pleasure of turning to street vendors who hawk everything from fruits, milk-rich coconuts or glasses of stimulating sugar cane juice, known here and in other parts of the Caribbean as simply guarapo.
On the Other Side of the Walls Walking past the colonial part of town doesn't mean life ends here. The west side of the city shows off the Independence Square, a particularly historic place where Dominicans still gather there to celebrate their independence day or walk picket lines to have rulers hear out their demands.
The park –it can only be accessed to through the colonial city's old gateways- is crowned by the Homeland Altar, a white marble mausoleum where the remains of the country's three founding fathers (Juan Pablo Duarte, Ramon Mella and Francisco Sanchez) lie in state.
All along the Ozama River, the Port Driveway borders the entire colonial town and reaches out to the last portion of the watercourse on its way into the Caribbean Sea. This place Dominicans know simply as the Malecon, is dotted with countless alfresco nightclubs.
Scores of people swarm over the seawall coastal road during the carnival, a celebration local residents dress or disguise for success. One of the commonest costumes is the imp disguise. The location is also the perfect nest for cooing-and-billing lovers, or just for a pack of friends who just want to botar el golpe (drive stress off their minds).
The seawall also harbors one of the world's most original galleries: the street expo-sale of Haitian paintings. But you'll have to skim through the countless pieces there to handpick a genuine sample of the naïf art from the bunch of commercially-driven el cheapo works.
The Culture Plaza also waits for visitors on the west side of town. Here you'll find the Museum of the Dominican Man (Anthropology and Ethnology), the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of History and Geography and the Museum of Natural History, plus both the National Library and Theater.
The capital that provides shelter for roughly two of the country's eight million inhabitants also features a zoo, a botanical garden and a seaquarium, as well as the Fifth Centennial Horse Racetrack by the Caribbean Sea and another track for Formula-I race cars at the Americas Speedway Center.
Shopping around in Santo Domingo Quite near the colonial area, the Modelo Marketplace is definitely a must-see, especially for those who'd like to take some kind of handicraft keepsake back home. A distinctive feature here is the great deal of artistic works inspired in the Taino arts, the most advanced pre-Hispanic aboriginal group of the entire Caribbean. It's really hard to find any other country in the Caribbean with such an abundance of Taino-like handicrafts.
The unmistakable expression of Taino culture in the Dominican society goes on to be a puzzling riddle for researchers who back up the theory that aboriginal people were absolutely killed off on the island and Dominicans were the resulting blend of Africans and Europeans.
Other ethnologists believe Dominicans came from the blend of three civilizations: Europeans, Africans and aboriginal people. The crammed counters of the Modelo Marketplace are good examples of that assertion, as well as other smaller joints and outlets scattered around town.
For those leaning to a less folkloric kind of market, the city is peppered with state-of-the-art shopping malls like the Bellavista Mall, the Diamond Mall and the Central Plaza, penciled in by many as Latin America's store. Two other shopping centers are the Megacentro and the Plaza Acropolis.
At Full Throttle Those who love noisiness, pollution, the challenge of facing up to car-infested streets and steaming traffic, could have the unique and somewhat odd chance of sitting down to have an hours d'oeuvre in a boulevard built right in the middle of a highway that runs through the city from east to west: the February 27 Avenue, plainly known as The 27.
This is a space teeming with gardens, sculptures, giant projection screen, stores and restaurants that draw in youngsters during the city's hot summer nights, just when common sense tells you is time to stand in the open and walk out of the muggy walls.
At the west end of the 27, the Flag Square stands tall. This is a small steep plaza featuring a huge Dominican flag (red, white and blue), hedged with such wary buildings as the central headquarters of the Armed Forces, the Central Electoral Commission, the Dominican Center for Export Promotion and the Industrial Development Corporation.
Just by the Caribbean Sea, the National Aquarium –opened in 1990- showcases some 3,000 marine life species scattered in almost a hundred fish globes and a dozen tanks where the king of the show is a marine mammal so riddled with legends as the larger-than-life history of the New World: the manatee.
Not far from the bustling city noise, just a 15-minute drive from there, the Three Eyes Park harbors three underground lagoons lodged in a 15-meter-deep cave, something you just can't pass up. This ecosystem where no sunlight leaks in, shows off species of blind shellfish and other marine life trapped in a soundless atmosphere of exuberant vegetation.
And when it's just about time to say goodbye, there's an array of places you're bound to pay a visit to, unless you want people to wonder if you ever went to the Americas' first-ever city: La Ceniza (The Ash), a seaside bar serving the iciest beer money can buy in town. There you can dance to the beat of merengue, salsa or bachata. All Dominicans know where it is, and it real name is La Parada Cervecera. Don't you get mixed up with the next door restaurant bearing the same name. La Barran Payan, is a cafeteria swinging sandwiches and fruit shakes 24 hours a day.
The apparent lousy service and unkemptness of the employees is only a trick to make patrons come back time after time. There's only one on 30 de Marzo Street. Don't be fooled by Los Payamo's, a modernist copycat stripped of the original spirit. La Guacara Taina. Guacara is a Taino-origin word meaning cave or place of origin, one of the many reminiscences from those first dwellers Columbus hit upon when he got to the Caribbean. That's a place where you'll know what dancing underground in an original environment is really all about.
El Conde is a commercial walkway where almost everything is possible, from ordering an ice cream of majarete (a cornmeal sweet as old as the hills) to having a Baskin Robins. There you can buy night gowns and T-shirts with the image of Che Guevara printed on them.
And last but not least, there's the Columbus Lighthouse. This is a huge monument devoted to the memory of the Great Admiral of the Seven Seas. As soon as the night closes in, the lighthouse beams a laser light up into the sky. Dominicans swear Columbus's remains are buried here, no matter what the DNA tests might say. And if they're not there, they should be, because that's how the Great Admiral from Genoa willed it.
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