Punta Cana

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Punta Cana (General)

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berky
berky
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Editor Pick

Inner Island

  • August 10, 2007
  • Rated 4 of 5 by micas from Lisbon, Portugal
Inner Island

Dominican Republic is much more than beaches. The island landscape is varied, ranging from the white sanded beaches to the mountainous green interior. We booked a visit to the "interior" of the island on a 4wd vehicle, which allowed us to go off the beaten roads and discover both the landscape and the small villages. At first, we were so surprised at the sight of luxurious green hills. There was green everywhere and the landscape was almost mountainous. The temperature is not as high (fortunately) and there is a kind of mist everywhere. The vegetation is thick and completely different from the palm trees we were used to see on the beach.

While visiting the inner island, we were shown a typical house. Houses are somewhat apart from each other, and made of wood, some of them being very colourful. Usually houses consist of a living-room connected to the kitchen, and one or two bedrooms. Not too big, but all the family fits there and seems to be happy. Around the house you may find a kind of warehouse/outside kitchen and lots of trees – fruit trees, cocoa, and coffee. The fruits, cocoa, and coffee grown from those trees are for family's consumption. We soon discovered that the house that we were visiting was the driver's house. He introduced us to his nice family - wife and kids - and showed us around. We had a nice explanation about local fruits grown at their house - papaya, mango, and banana - and where given some to eat. Fabulous, tasty fruit! We were also shown how they "manually" produced their own coffee and cocoa. That’s an interesting process, although it requires some work. I ended up buying some homemade coffee and cocoa. Delicious!

Cocoa "fruit" grows from the trees. In the photo you can see that they grow in a different way, well, I found it different since I had never seen any of these trees where fruits grow in the log. When fruit is mature, they catch it and then a treatment they make some balls of cocoa and store it that way. When they want to use it (to make chocolate) they grate it in the amount they need and use it. It smelled so good and tasted delicious!

This family, as many others, also grows their own coffee. When coffee beans are mature they put them into to oven to toast it and later grate. The Dominican way of making coffee is: they boil water and put the coffee inside a fabric bag with a stick. They pour the water over the bag and they roll the stick until it presses the coffee. They repeat this operation several times, until they consider coffee is ready to drink. They used to say they made the best coffee in the world. Being from Portugal, I found it very tasteful but weak, as I am used to stronger coffee.

From journal Relaxing in Punta Cana

Editor Pick

Altos de Chávon or Chávon Arriba

  • August 7, 2007
  • Rated 4 of 5 by micas from Lisbon, Portugal
Altos de Chávon or Chávon Arriba

Altos de Chavón, or Chávon Arriba, is a village that recreates a 16th century Mediterranean village, with a church, amphitheatre, park, houses, art gallery, restaurants, museum, shops, disco, arts school, and artist's studios. It all began in the '70s when Charles Bluhdorn, CEO of Golf & Western Corporation, had this idea of building a village on top of River Chavón as a birthday present for his daughter. The construction works begun in 1976 and they used materials such as coral block and terracotta. Nowadays this village hosts an arts school and many of its houses are inhabited by students (from all over the world).

This village has astonishing views over River Chavón and the Caribbean Sea; its surroundings are rather green, since it was built in the middle of vegetation. Altos de Chavón is located at about 100 km from Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic's capital).

Main places to visit: Amphitheatre, the river, Regional Museum of Archaeology, Art Gallery, S. Estanislao Church.

The amphitheatre is an amazing set and it frequently houses live concerts from renowned artists; actually, it was inaugurated in 1982 by Frank Sinatra and Carlos Santana.

The River is River Chávon and it is known worldwide because some scenes of movie Apocalipse Now were produced there, as well as Rambo.

From journal Relaxing in Punta Cana

Friday Evening market

  • February 17, 2007
  • Rated 2 of 5 by berky from Nepean, Ontario
Friday Evening market

One evening a week, local people came to put on a market and sell their wares—t-shirts, jewelry, paintings, etc. You could haggle and get a good price, but if you showed any kind of interest, the vendor would hound you until you were out of sight.

From journal Our First All-inclusive Resort Experience

Vivianne's

  • February 17, 2007
  • Rated 1 of 5 by berky from Nepean, Ontario
Our tour company offered a “free” excursion to Vivianne’s, a cigar manufacturing plant. This turned out to be one old man sitting in a corner of the store making cigars. The store sold quality Dominican larimar (pectolite), amber and a few other pieces of jewelry as well as cigars, vanilla and coffee. The prices were marked and there was no haggling here.

From journal Our First All-inclusive Resort Experience

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