Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Dominican Republic stand in ANATO 2017 in Bogotá, Colombia. As can be seen, it was across from Perú and next to Chile. Decamerón I think is in El Salvador (not sure). https://roundme.com/tour/142097/view/358794/
Views of the Catalonia Royal Bayahibe Resort in Bayahibe/La Romana, Dominican Republic. Catalonia hotels are found in Spain (most), Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Dominican Republic, and Mexico. https://roundme.com/tour/900253/view/2827304/
Another view of the Cap Cana Marina, Dominican Republic and some places around there. This one is quite cool, because you can click anywhere on the screen and it takes you there. It's almost as if you are there. https://wyzlo.com/3d-model/visita-vi...-cana/skinned/
The following are of certain areas of the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Most students at this university are Dominicans, but it's well known for having many students from Puerto Rico, Haiti and other countries. Puerto Rico gets a special mention considering how many students are from there (not Dominican-Puerto Ricans though some are that too.) In fact, it's not uncommon to see cars with a Puerto Rico license plate in the parking lot.
Virtual tour of the CAMBIASO (fullname of the vessel: Almirante Juan Bautista Cambiaso - almirante = admiral) of the Dominican Navy docked on the Ozama River in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Juan Bautista Cambiaso was born in Italy, migrated to the DR in the 1830's and founded the Dominican Navy, hence this vessel is named after him.
On the upper right corner is a sign with three vertical dots. Press on it and a menu opens, pick "full screen."
For those not in the know, this is the creation of American Charles Bluhdorn who had a house in Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA. The corportarion he headed was Gulf+Western (no longer exist) and was the owner of the Central Romana, which to this day remaina as the largest sugar plantation in the Dominican Republic. From its inception all sugar and molasses created by the Central Romana is exported to the United States since the reason for its creation was to supply the USA sugar and molasses markets. A section of Central Romana's property by the coast, east of the town of La Romana, Charles Bluhdorn decided to develop as a small area for vacation homes a few people related to Gulf+Western in the 1970's, essentially Americans. A Dominican friend of Charles Bluhdorn saw the potential to include and develop the entire coast if it was focused on the Dominican market, something Charles Bluhdorn wasn't fond of precisely because he didn't think the Dominican market was big enough for its success. The idea to focus on Dominicans continued to be presented by his Dominican friend and finally Charles Bluhdorn gave the green light, but his Dominican friend was responsible for the entire Dominican-focused part of the business, again looking at it with much skepticism. Tody around 70% of Casa de Campo homes are owned by Dominicans that include both, people that live permanently and others for whom their Casa de Campo home is for the weekends or vacation purposes. Not only did Casa de Campo become the first gated community in the Dominican Republic, but it's one of the largest and now has a luxury resort and many of the houses can be short term rented. It also has several golf courses including Pete Dye's Teeth of the Dog, considered to be the best golf course in Central America & the Caribbean and one of the top 100 golf courses of the world. Mny people from around the world, including several ex-presidents of the USA and celebrities, travel there exclusively to play this course.
Altos de Chavón is a small village perched on a high cliff overlooking the Chavón River. It looks like a village in the Meditteranean part of Europe and very old. In fact, it's quite new having been inaugurated in 1982 with its amphitheater hosting and inauguration concert that included the American singer Frank Sinatra. It was build to appear very weathered and old, using as an inspiration but not a replica of the Southern French town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Everything was eone with such an exquisite detail, that in fact Altos de Chavón appears more pleasant that Saint-Paul-de-Vence in France. The village has many other things including an archeological museum of Taino artifacts discovered in the Dominican Republic, Chavón School of Design considered to be one of the best design schools in the world and has a relstionship with New York's Parsons School of Design (Charles Bluhdorn wanted the school to be among the best in its field worldwide, but he also didn't want the school to be exclusive only for the rich and privileged so many Dominicana from humble beginnings with interest in design are admitted and many have done quite well as designers in countries in Europe and North America, these wre people that if left to their own devices woukd had never been able to attend this school of design), etc.
One of the nicest things of Altos de Chavón is the spectacular views of the Chavón River from many parts of the village. The river has been the scene of several Hollywood movies such as "Apocalypse Now."
It has the small and quaint St Estanislao Catholic Church which was consecrated some years before the town was inaugurated in 1979. Pope John Paul II celebrated the mass of inauguration and deposited the ashes of St Estanislao, the only saint whose remains are in the Dominican Republic. An interesting fact is that not only was Pope John Paul II from Poland, but St Edtanislao is the patron saint of Poland too.
Lastly, the amphitheater is the only one remembering Ancient Greece in its architectural style. It hast been the site of many concerts by Juan Luis Guerra, Elton John, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Plácido Domingo, Andrea Boticelli, Pavarotti, Carlos Santana, Julio Iglesias, Michel Martelly and many more.
In addition to having its arstisty flare, it has become one of the main tourist attractions in the Eastern Dominican Republic. It also has several shops and restaurants.
An extensive virtual tour of Altos de Chavón is in the following link. The zooming to fullscreen is on the upper right. This is a legacy from former a naturalized American and resident of Connecticut.
It should be noted that a few months later Charles Bluhdorn died from a heart attack in the middle of a private flight from the Dominican Republic to the United States.
Amhsa Marina Grande Paradise Resort in Playa Dorada (Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.)
Amhsa Marina is a Dominican resort chain and this is their resort in Playa Dorada with nice views from the air and at ground level (exteriors and interiors.) They have other resorts along the northcoast, Punta Cana and I think elsewhere in the country.
Playa Dorada itself was created by the Dominican Republic Central Bank which is still the owner of everything in the complex except the resorts and residential buildings. It was the first major tourism development of the government which further impulse the development of the sector in the Puerto Plata area. At the time of its development in the 1980's Puerto Plata was the DR's leading tourism destination and places such as Punta Cana literally hardly existed. While most hotels here are all-inclusive, this doesn't mean all of them. The beach is nice for the area, but it lacks the heavy Dominican presence of other nearby beaches and there are hardly any beach vendors. As a consequence, this beach tend to be used mostly by guests at the resorts and residents in the residential complexes with any Dominican being guests or residents of Playa Dorada. Other things are permitted here that are not permitted in beaches with a large Dominican presence due to different cultural values such as topless sunbathing, which seems to be popular with European women. There are also other cultural differences, for example Dominicans tend to not go to the beach to relax, read a book, and generally have a quiet experience unlike Noth Americans and Canadians; rather Dominicans take more a festive approach with lots of music, food, juices and alcoholic beverages and they prefer a table with multiple seats instead of a lounge chair. This difference clashes with what international tourists are looking for during a beach vacation. While Playa Dorada, like all Dominican beaches frequented more by international tourists than locals, offers what the tourist is looking for, Dominicans in general tend to think it's a very boring beach. lol
Panteón Nacional in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Here are the remains of the greatests heroes of the Dominican Republic and people that sacrificed much of their lives for the country. The exception are the three founding fathers of the country whose remains are a few steps outside the Colonial Zone. Some interesting facts of the Pantón Nacional are:
- This was the first Jesuit church in the Western Hemisphere, but the Spanish King expelled the Jesuits from the Spanish Empire in the 1700's and that was the end of this as a Jesuit church. For a time it was a theater and in the mid-20th century it was converted to the National Pantheon and the coat of arms of the country was added.
- Above the altar on the ceiling is what is considered as the "Sixtenth Chapel of the New World" (except for two corners it's not visible in the link.) The painting was done in colonial times and among the various details are inspired four Greek gods marking each cardinal point.
- The building has an always on flame in memory of the people laid to rest there.
- There is a chandelier above the central nave (not visible in the link) that in the 1950's was given to dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco (who was also Trujillo's "compadre" as he was the godfather of one of Trujillo's daughter.) The chandalier was placed there by the dictator and has been there ever since, now as a historical artifact.
- Everyone buried here were born and reared Dominicans except for two foreigners:
Eugenio MarÃa de Hostos who was from Puerto Rico but lived much of his life in Santo Domingo and had a profound influence on the public education. His remains are here only temporary, but it's uncertain when this temporary time will end. You see, in his will he clearly states that he should be buried in Santo Domingo for as long as his native Puerto Rico remains a colony and not its own country. Once Puerto Rico acheives its independence his remains should be moved to that island. Since Puerto Rico will not become independent any time soon, his remains will be in the DR's National Pantheon for a very long time. lol There is as well a park named after him near the obelisk in Santo Domingo's malecón in adition to a street named after him in the Colonial Zone.
Juan Bautista Cambiaso was born in Italy and moved to Santo Domingo in the 1830's. He was the founder of the Dominican Navy, but his remwins were not in the National Pantheon until very recently.
All the heroes have a black marble top with the details of there name. They are in the rectangles on the edge of the pantheon and in the crypts on both sides of the altar. Some places are still available for future heroes. The president is the only one that can authorize who is placed here.
Views of the Villa del Mar section of Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic. Here most of the highrises (basically all in the images, but there are more further down the coast and still within Juan Dolio but no visible in the images) are apartments and they are considerably smaller from typical ones found in SD. Most are owned by Dominicans mostly from Santo Domingo and they are used mostly in the weekends and long holidays. Juan Dolio is about 40 minutes away from Santo Domingo and this modality gives a more affordable option for people to own a property by a beach rather than a villa which tends to be more expensive (not to mention they have a higher maintenance costs.) The resorts in this area such as the Costa Caribe and the Emotions tend to get a mostly Dominican clientele instead of other tourist areas where foreign tourists are the majority of the tourists. One last detail of this area is that along this coast (not visible in the images) is a beach mansion reserved to the executive power (aka president) for the use of him and his family. There is a heliport across the street where the president lands in the helicopter he takes at the National Palace in Santo Domingo. It's obvious whenever the president is in town because of the security entourage.
Another view in Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic. This time in the Metro Country Club gated community which includes the Los MarlÃns golf course. Intially, the was created with the idea of attracting foreign tourists who would buy plots and build a vacation home with certain requirements such as a tile roof. What ended up happening was that instead of foreign tourists, most people that own homes here are Dominicans including many from neighboring San Pedro de MacorÃs who live there permanently as they prefer a manicure appearance rather than a typical neighborhood. Another kicker is that most of the owners of homes don't even play golf, they simply like to look at it from their backyard and the added security no one will build behind them and block the view. lol Metro is the largest and most developed gated community between SD and San Pedro.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
