by Roberta Sotonoff
The palm tree–lined, powdery beach is strewn with beautiful bodies, those who would do better to cover up their abundant ones, old men sporting Speedos, and tattoo-covered and topless sun worshippers, all speaking a multitude of languages. In Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, vacationers hail from all over the Americas and Europe.
The Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, is an affordable destination because of its abundance of all-inclusive hotels. This is perfect for those who like simplicity: just one hotel reservation, a flight reservation, and—voila!—a fabulous vacation.
At the Punta Cana airport, thatched-roof buildings cry “tropical island,” but the road to my hotel, bordered with scrubby brush, is unappealing. Once I reach the Barceló Bávaro Palace Deluxe, it’s a different story. Lush bougainvillea and colorful blossoms are everywhere.
Here, not only are accommodations included, but also a multitude of restaurants, live entertainment, casinos, golf (for a fee), high-end shops, and so many watersports that the ocean looks like a Los Angeles highway at rush hour. A beach shack provides a spot for massages near the ebb and flow of the surf. The resort definitely aims to please.
It even has photographers who will snap your picture on the beach; I saw one couple striking a Burt Lancaster/Deborah Kerr From Here to Eternity pose for the camera. And just down the beach is a craft village, where visitors can haggle to their hearts’ content for everything from jewelry, T-shirts, and wind chimes to masks made in Bali and souvenirs probably imported from China.
Many vacationers never leave this self-contained bliss until departure time. But my type-A personality doesn’t allow for me to be content in one place. Wanting to see other parts of the Dominican Republic, or the DR as it’s often known, I seek out some “all-inclusive” cultural activities.
A tour with Outback Safari incorporates a visit to the countryside, plus demonstrations of local products and some boogie boarding. I join other tourists in the back of a truck and bump along to El Caño, a twenty-family village. Visiting the Cedeño family’s bright green house helps put the rest of the island in perspective. This is how the average family lives. Like most Dominican families, they have a TV and radio in the house. On the two-acre farm, they grow coffee and cocoa and are sort of an all-inclusive farm-to-shop facility. Once we sample the freshly ground cocoa and coffee, it is offered up for sale along with sugar, cinnamon, and cheap, high-quality vanilla.
Like El Caño, the next village, Le Ceiba, is tiny. Locals smile and wave; kids materialize out of nowhere. They chase the truck offering flowers, asking nothing in return. In the middle of town sits a cockfighting ring; Dominicans find cockfighting a major form of entertainment.
A demonstration and sample stop follows. Under a palapa-type structure, a guy who looks like Sammy Davis, Jr., does the honors. He passes around coconuts, cinnamon, spices, coconut oil, and the potent mamajuana (a mixture of rum, red wine, and honey soaked with tree bark and herbs). Some say it tastes like port wine, while others compare it to spiced rum. Natives think this stuff is a cure-all and the DR’s answer to Viagra. While touting this wonder drug, the demonstrator stands next to a sign that says, “This product increases a man’s virility.” Maybe, maybe not, but it’s a good marketing ploy.
The rum shack down the road is strictly commercial. Yes, you can see a cigar-rolling demonstration and buy some stogies, but walls are lined with rum, coffee, vanilla, and souvenirs just waiting to be plucked and purchased.
Our last stop is the beach for a boogie-boarding lesson. Surfers and boarders seem to glide over the waves. Though it’s lots of fun, I am constantly falling off the board and taking in water. It becomes yet another demonstration of my lack of coordination.
The safari is an all-day trip, but the next day’s tour to the city of Santo Domingo seems like an eternity. The extended bus ride includes two long stops at the same shop overladen with tchotchkes. Unless you are a shopaholic, you just sigh.
But this is a small price to pay for a glimpse of the first city in the New World. Like much of the Dominican Republic, the charming, twelve-block Zona Colonial is “all-inclusive” when it comes to New World history. In 1504, a wall was built around it, remnants of which remain.
Stroll the streets where notables like Ponce de León, Cortés, and Columbus once walked. It’s here you’ll find the Alcazar de Colón, completed in 1517 and once the digs of Diego Columbus, Christopher’s son. A combination of Moorish, Renaissance, and Gothic architecture, the castle has forty-inch-thick walls and is furnished to look just like it did when Diego wandered its twenty-two rooms.
Just across the courtyard is the Calle Las Damas, where elegant Spanish ladies once took evening strolls. See a 1753 sundial and a bronze statue that looks like an artistic version of the Merrill Lynch bull. It is easy to spend the better part of the day in the colonial zone exploring matchless old churches and buildings like the French embassy, once the home of Hernán Cortés, and Casa de los Jesuitas, the House of the Jesuits.
Centro León, at Avenue 27 de Ferero 146, is a one-stop, first-rate culture center with a history museum, sculpture garden, aviary, multimedia biodiversity show, and art and sculpture galleries. It also houses a simulated marketplace and a replica of the León family’s first cigar factory, complete with fellows turning out hand-rolled cigars.
The Ozama River runs through Santo Domingo, but Parque Indepencia separates the old city from the crowded modern one. The latter is what you might expect a Latin American enclave of two million people to be: traffic ridden and sprawling.
A nice respite on the way back to the resort is an area known as Three Eyes Caves. Checking out the159,000-year-old site with its merged stalagmites and stalactites and three underground lakes is a treat. And a long day of exploring earns you the right to lounge and enjoy the all-inclusive Barcélo resort until it is time to pack up and go home.
Travel writer Roberta Sotonoff is a frequent contributor to Times of the Islands, RSW Living, Bonita Living, and Gulf & Main.