A week in the Dominican Republic

I always thought of the Dominican Republic as a place of all-inclusive beach resorts, sex tourism and a problem with food poisoning, but a quick holiday with a bird-watching group changed all of that.  I saw that the interior is mountainous, in the north quite lush and green with plantations of fruit, coffee and cacao, and in the south rather drier but with areas of cool pine forest.

More surprising to me though was the capital, Santo Domingo.  The city was founded in 1496 by the brother of Christopher Columbus and is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas as well as the site of the region's first university, cathedral, monastery, castle and fortress.  The old colonial quarter is reasonably extensive and contains some wonderful 500-year-old houses, solidly built of thick coral blocks with heavy wooden doors.  The city held a strategically important role in the expansion of the Spanish empire, with conquistadors setting off from here on their voyages of discovery including Hernando Cortes (Mexico), Diego Velazquez de Cuéllar (Cuba), Ponce de Leon (Puerto Rico) and Vasco Nuñez de Balboa (first European to see the Pacific Ocean).  The street running from the Plaza de España and past the old fortress still contains the old houses where they were based.

There are museums too, and other interesting remnants of history, including a cannonball lodged on the roof of the cathedral, fired there as part of Francis Drake's invasion of the city in 1586.  The city is not overrun with tourists, but there are enough to support a good number of decent restaurants and cafes.  A potential retirement spot?