Vacation in Dominican Republic-27 Sept:: to 11 Oct::2011

I had just finished 27 session of physiotherapy .  It was my left shoulder.  They found a swollen tendon .  I was still not completely well, but it was in January that Annie had had made reservations for a holiday in Dominican Republic. It did not really attracted me not knowing  that  distant  place in the World. But having said yes to please her I was bound by my “agreement”.

That  was how we found ourselves at the Charles De Gaulle airport sitting on a Dominican Republic  bound huge plane packed full of  Tourists on a still not cold sunny afternoon  on the  27 September,2011.  Here  the novelty was that instead of going forward in time we were going back wards in time .  After 9 hours of tedious “flying backwards ” we landed at Punta Cana Airport in Dominican Republic at 11 a.m the following day.It was sweltering hot.

The worst tourists to come across in these voyages for me are the French.  They never wish you morning or evening and looks at you like an enemy.  May be my reluctance to speak in French perhaps contributes to it.   I however soon find friends amoung the foreigners, and the natives.  They are always with me, whether in Dominican Rebublic, Egypt, Kenya, Greece, or India.

We were taken a long away from the native towns and villages and into fabulous holiday resorts  fabricated for the great priviledge of the tourists to be lodged, fed and amusement provided and treated by the  armies of natives to  serve you providing  you all the comforts one desire.

The Dominican Republic is part of an Island discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492.  He called it Espaphiola. It was the  Quisqueya-the motherland of its original inhabitants the Taino Indians  an issue of the Sarawaks  who inhabited all the Islands from Cuba to Dominican republic.  The Spanish speaking Dominican Republic is only a part of the land mass of the Island between the Atlantic Ocean on the North and the Caribean Sea on the South. The other part is the French speaking Haiti in the West.

It has a land area of  48 000 KM² with a 9.5 million habitants. Santiago Domingo its capital was founded by Bartholomeo Columbus. Its original Taino Indians were a great forces tha fought under its leader Enriquillo against the invaders the English pirate Francis Drake and was later occupied by the French.  After  a great earth quake of the  1675, Spain gave part of the Island-Haiti to the French in 1697. Francesco del Rosario Sanchez declared Dominican Republic Independent. Trujillo  a friend of the Americans who took over the reins of government was a merciless  Dictator who was later  assassinated it is said by the American CIA

A Bodhi Tree in  Saint Domingo

The Original inhabitants the Taino Indians were first subjugated  and some died from diseases brought by the invaders and others  worked as domestics, and were exterminated in 3 years through  slavery and malady.  The Spanish conquerors then brought Black Africans from Haiti.

These images show the old Saint Domingo of the Christpher Colombus and His brother.

There is the old Saint Domingo and a new.  The old is still more interesting than the modern I thought.

As usual tour guides take us to visit factories, and shops run by small industries.  We visited  A sugar cane factory 

and a small shop making famous Dominican Cigars.

73 percent of the present inhabitants are metise- mixture of blacks and  Spanish.  16 percent  Spanish Whites and 11 percent blacks.  The wealth, the land and capital is in the hands of the 16 percent Spanish.  The agricultural land producing, cocoa, coffee, sugar cane, tobacco are foreign owned, mainly American.  The guide tells what the government gets is very little, and the Government’s sole income is therefore derived from tourism.  It is rich on semi-precious stones,  Amber and Larimar, again exploited by foreign companies.  The people are Catholic living in a climate of an average of 28° C

 We  visited a Plantation of Sugar cane and ate sugar cane

The American Companies running the Sugar cane plantations, have built house for the workers and Schools for the Children.  The houses are small and the tourists were shown the houses from out side but was taken to a School. The school consisted of two large rooms which were the class rooms. There was not much room inside  and looked crowded.   There are no laboratories, or halls to practice sports.  The schools showed the  restricted generosity of the Plantation Company to provide some thing for the poor without an excessive outlay.

New Town

We also visited a Ranch

 

We had Lunch in a village Restaurant 

We saw a New Church built by the French it is monstrous and in concrete

Our Be Live in Punta Cana is modern and  in a  very beutifully landscped Garden.  On one side is the sea stretching out  for miles. The sea  could be rough but lying on a lounge chair one could watch the waves rising and falling away untiringly for hours.

Having finished  our excursions, It was time for us to relax in the big hotel with a beautifully laid gardens, the swimming pools ,  two restaurants and two large dining halls.  There are  small bars situated at the swimming pool and  one near the reception area where both alcoholic  and non-alcoholic drinks are served from morning to  late in the night.

In the evenig after dinner there is a theatre for live dance performances and  comic items are enacted by local animators.  Salaami was a popular figure among the tourists as he is the comedian  the joker with his pranks and familiarity draws every ones attention.

The servers and the animators  are all locals they are both Dominicans and Haitians.  They are very serviceable , and  friendly.

The food served in the Restaurants, were fresh, with plenty of local items like manioc , yam, sweet potatoes, and many varieties of vegetable, and plenty of local fruits, mangoes, papayas, pineapples and passion fruits.

There was a Japanese restaurants with local experts in Japanese cooking.  There was another Restaurant dedicated to special local dishes prepared to match high class cuisine.  There was a  Italian Restaurant for Italians only. One has to book ion advance to have meal there.  The meals in the Italian Restaurant was the worst.                                         

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