LocationsSantiago, Dominican Republic An hour's drive south of Puerto Plata is the Dominican Republic's second largest city, Santiago de los Trenta Caballeros, with a population of about 1,000,000. Santiago came to life when Columbus had a fort built on the banks of the Yaque del Norte River to protect gold mining being done in the area. In 1504 Spanish farmers settled in this fertile center of the Cibao Valley and began farming tobacco. Today the area is still the most important to the Dominican Republic agriculturally - particularly for livestock, tobacco, coffee, and fruit farming. Santiago and its surrounding region are known for their elaborate celebration of the carnival taking place in February. The city also offers good restaurants and an active nightlife. During the day visitors can enjoy the busy street life of downtown, visit the Parque Duarte, the Cathedral of Santiago, or some of the many monuments and museums. The Tomás Morel Museum of Folkloric Art is popular for its very colorful collection of carnival masks. There is also the Santiago Museum and Tobacco Museum. A monument very difficult to miss is the 67 meter Monument a los Heroes de la Restauración (Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration). Trujillo had the monument constructed to honor him, but after his death it was renamed to honor those who lost their lives in the War of Restoration. You can climb the stairs of the monument and get amazing views of Santiago and the surrounding area. Santiago's rum and tobacco factories - Bermudez Rum Factory and E Leon Jimenez Tobacco Company - offer tours that are quite popular with visitors. The Leon Jimenez Cultural Center offers cultural exhibits and performances rivaling those of the other museums in Santiago.Source: www.hispaniola.com Cabarete, Dominican Republic  Cabarete is a small, laid-back Caribbean beach village located only 20 minutes away from the Puerto Plata International Airport on the northern shore of the Dominican Republic. It's a perfect tropical vacation spot, especially for the young traveler seeking fun, new friends and sporting adventures. With its charming, hip ambience and a combination of relaxed and adventurous lifestyles, most visitors can barely resist the spontaneous temptation of extending their stay and just hang around the place for another while.The village of Cabarete is spread out across the center of a gorgeous, semi-circular beach of golden, sun-soaked, sand. Just behind, limiting its size lies a tranquil lagoon, backed up by richly verdant hills overflowing with luxurious tropical vegetation. The perfect blend of the surrounding physical elements of nature such as the location of the offshore reef at the entrance of the bay, the direction from which the trade winds usually blow, and the low-lying hills behind the village, which cause a unique thermal effect, form a beautiful layout. They create an unusual synthesis of outstanding wind and wave conditions. These make Cabarete's bay an exceptional location not only for water-sports such as kiteboarding and windsurfing, but for regular surfing at El Encuentro beach as well. Cabarete is also the perfect place to just lay back to work on that perfect tan. It's the best thing to do when you're not out gliding over warm Caribbean waters, or participating in some other fun adventure sport such as mountain-biking, scuba-diving, wakeboarding, cave exploring or canyoning.  Until the late 1980's, this town was not much of a town at all, but a vacation area for a few Dominicans from Moca and Santiago. A couple of foreigners discovered the ideal windsurfing conditions in Cabarete Bay, and this secret spot didn't stay secret very long. Since the late 80's the town has hosted both professional and amateur international windsurfing competitions. In 2000, kiteboarding started to take off, and the town has hosted international professional competitions every year since.Cabarete is considered by many to be one of the top places in the world to windsurf and kiteboard, but that's not all that can be done here. You can surf, mountain bike, horseback ride, go canyoning, and take part in so many other adventures, or just simply enjoy the fun in the sun to be found here. And Cabarete's nightlife (restaurants, bars, discos and casino) is legendary. If you are not having fun in Cabarete, you must be dead. Source: www.hispaniola.com, www.activecabarete.com |
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