The Dominican Republic: 7 millions of visitors each year: great resorts like Punta Cana with about 50.000 rooms for tourists (nice beaches and luxury hotels). But Raphaël will show us other interesting places in the Dominican Republic.
I enjoyed very much this journey: the encounter with Marina Vauboin de Sanchez in the island of Saona: the snorkeling (starfishes and coral reef), the encounter with Carolina Contreras, the hairdresser of Santo Domingo: the walk through the city (colonial architecture, first Catholic cathedral of America), the dancing of merengue and bachata, the visit of the artisan market, the moment shared with Xaivier Ringer the female muralist and the encounter with Fidel Mejina and the female baseball team. Then the encounter with Rafael Cedeno, the photographer of Cotui, the pictures of the farmer with his fighting cock and the excursion to the lake Hatillo and to the Cave of the Golondrinas with its Taino cave paintings and finally the encounter with Dominico Mirabile, the protected iguanas and the supper of lobsters at Playa Rincón.
I enjoyed also the moments about the Dominican youth: Carlos Rijo Fulcar and other musicians teaching music to the young people, Carlos Ariel Guzman, the professional basball player who encoiurages the young Dominican boys in training hard to become good baseballers.
The Dominican Republic has also the "colmado", this grocery of the neighborhood where people can buy a lot of things (meat, cheese, berrs,honey, rum) and can pay local taxes: a place where you can drink a beer or a coffee and spek with the neighbors; and sometimes there is a karaoke night or a dancing night. It was also interesting to visit the National Park of the Jaragua with Bienvenido Perez called also Blanco: in the mangrove of the Oviedo there are many pink flamingos and iguanas.
We discover also the life of the fishermen at Los Cacao (a huge squid) and of the European tourists praticing sport fishing (sea bream). And we travel to the east of the Dominican Republic to see the amber mines and the amber trade.
A very interesting and nice journey with nice landscapes and encounters with kind Dominican men and women.