Dominican State of Mind

After three months of unemployment and a year full of absolute mayhem and unpredictability, it was time for a vacation. It was time to go back to my roots. This recent trip to the Dominican Republic has taught me a lot, and showed me a lot of things I had not seen from my country before---simply because before I had not traveled so much. But this time, me and my mom went the whole nine yards as we traveled from Santo Domingo to Santiago to Puerto Plata, and then back to Santiago and the final stop being Santo Domingo. From here on out, I am pointing out little things that stuck out to me during my stay here. Some good, some bad, some ugly. Overall however, this is a country that everyone must visit at least once. The Dominican Republic has a lot of culture, a lot of history, a lot of beauty, and just so much to see.

Santo Domingo

My first stop was the capital city, Santo Domingo. Last time I was there was six years ago. The city definitely has not changed much, with the exception of more people and more cars. You still have the dirty dozens of street kiosks and street vendors, and they utterly explode in numbers at night. The historical places are still intact and well-protected. You still have the crazy nightlife, which has exploded in numbers as well from last time I visited. The difference is, the parties and get-togethers have seemed to have shifted towards the more touristy side of town. Before, it was closer to where my mom grew up, which was in the poorer side of the city. Now, you can find hundreds among hundreds of people every night drinking, singing, eating, having a good time towards the shoreline. Especially on the weekends, with some spots staying open past 3 a.m. You do not see this in Orlando.

The most interesting thing about this country is how people walk around, sit around, without a plan all day. In the afternoon and especially the evenings, you'll see people outside their homes and businesses just hanging around, slouching, playing dominoes, discussing sports (baseball is their sport by far, for sure) letting the day pass them. These outdoorsy folks are people with no worries, no hints of panic, nothing. Now, this isn't to say that nobody is suffering. The Dominican Republic's ugliest truth is its utter hourglass-like shape of economic wealth--you have a heavy high class, no middle class, and a heavy lower class. This is most evident in the capital city. The city is massive, and inside is a cocktail of old, broken-down houses with rich, beautiful homes sprinkled within. The rich walk amongst the poor with the greatest of ease. Unlike in the United States when you can tell who has $$$$$$$ and who has $, the Dominicans rich and poor can walk alongside each other with minimal conflict. And unlike in Florida, in which the richer and poorer people tend to separate by neighborhoods, you'll find a lot of nice homes in usually-poor areas.

That being said, if you look like a tourist, you will definitely be sought after and sometimes they will try to screw you over. What I did to prevent this was wear non-brand clothing, and always wear jeans. While some of the women there do wear shorts (seldom but it happens), all the men wear jeans or long pants, it has been this way for the longest of times. I usually blended in, but sometimes there was one that spotted it and asked for money (had one guy ask for money while he was holding lunch...rule #1 in begging: don't carry anything..it ruins your sale of poverty).

Poverty aside though, the country is usually extremely happy and content with the way things are. The poor family of my mom's side are singing, joking around, despite the fact that what used to be their near-mansion diminished into a small slum. I did not know this before, but the place they live in now used to be a legit-legit nice house with a beautiful backyard. The owner was a skilled pianist. Sadly, when the owner died, the money left too. The history of the place might be sad, but there is simply too much life in that household to be brought down by what it used to be.

I stayed at this bed and breakfast place, which really is a big house with multiple rooms and a kitchen, owned by a very nice guy. At a very small fee per evening, you have your own room, free breakfast, security, and easy access to the rest of the city since its located right in the middle of it all. There is even a guy that looks after the hotel until around 3 in the morning, in which by then the place is on a mild lockdown for the safety of everyone inside. Not saying a lot of bad things go down in the Dominican Republic, but robberies do happen, after all it is an impoverished city. However if you want to be close to the touristy spots, this won't exactly be your cup of tea. But if you like to embed yourself in the true culture of the area, then this spot will be your cafe con leche.

After several days in the trip, I finally had some Dominican pizza. The difference between theirs and American pizza is the sauce, and some of the toppings. Their pizza sauce is extremely light, and quite zesty in flavor. It does not have the thickness of Italian pizza, and doesn't overpower the other flavors. The cheese was not that good, but the sauce made up for it. Their most popular topping seems to be corn, which I must say was interesting but still delicious. I had this other pizza which had these small sausages, that was also good. Post-note, my mom's side of the family said the pizza place we went to is among the worst. So one of two things occur after this discovery: we got lucky, or there really is much better out there.They actually preferred Pizza Hut's pizza by a country mile.

On the last major day, I went to Chinatown, which I was shocked actually exists. I really don't know how the Chinese all these centuries ago even discovered the small island, considering its far far away and tucked in the Caribbean. Nonetheless, it was a small community of businesses run by these Chinese that know very good Spanish. This blend of Chinese-Dominican is interesting, but they were all nice and very friendly. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of tourists and locals hanging around there like the Chinatown in New York City. After some more picture-taking, it was time to go home.

Back in 1492, when Colombus discovered the West Indies, he actually found Santo Domingo. His house still stands today, one he built hundreds upon hundreds of years ago. A few military spots and forts still stand today, as the architecture of the city remains that of a strong colonial influence. The houses throughout the city are built of cement instead of wood, so you can literally continuously build on top of the structure(s). All the houses are smashed in together, there is very very little space in between buildings, homes, and businesses. Santo Domingo is an interesting blend of history, poverty, and culture.

And a lot of Aventura. I heard them many many times in Santo Domingo.

Santiago

The second stop is the city they call 'The Second Capital City' among other names. Side note, it is really sad that a much poorer country has better public transportation than Orlando. Orlandonians, we better get with the program. Anyway, Santiago is a couple hours north of Santo Domingo (to be exact, Santo Domingo is at the bottom end of the country), and is a totally different environment from the hustle and bustle of Santo Domingo. It is kind of like when you compare Orlando to Miami--while Miami is the big city of the state, Orlando holds its own with plenty of people but a much more widespread environment. My uncle Joe and my grandparents live here. They are truly happy with their curent status there, and that is mainly because the food, apartments, and cost of living is much more on the cheap side than your average town. You can have entirely fulfilling meals at less than $2 (70 pesos), and at just a buck can get snacks that are heftier than entire dinners. A lot of good food can be found in Santiago, to a point in which you don't have to cook most of the week.

Dozens upon dozens of outdoor carts, kiosks, stands, and cars sell all types of different foods, from burgers to barbeque. This food is also insanely fresh, insanely fulfilling, and just damn good. I would have more pictures but in order to avoid the tourist look, I have to refrain from filming or take pictures of these things I am discussing. I really wanted to record everything, but for safety measures, I am limiting my pictures to historical places and eventually the beach and resort.

Now, lets discuss the women, shall we? Males, take notes about this place right now because here it comes: some of the most beautiful women you will ever see come from this country, and more specifically from this town. The women in Santiago are on an average, very very pretty. They mostly have this very nice tan color, and really take good care of their bodies, and very rarely dress in a slutty fashion. They are very feminine, and most of them don't realize their true beauty--which is a plus for us ugly peeps (you know who you are). They can stop traffic and/or cause accidents, and the men here are not afraid of letting you know that they are looking at you and checking you out. Even if you are married, if you are decent-looking (despite your age, young or old), expect to get hit on by boys of all ages, from the older 1 m.p.h. ancients right down to kids no more than 10.

The difference between Dominican women and women from other countries is their lack of widespread noticibility. What I mean is, very few Dominican women ever get to leave their country (because of poverty sadly) so the only way to truly discover what I am talking about is by actually coming here and seeing it for yourself. While us Floridians have had the pleasure of getting beautiful women visitors from the likes of Brazil, England, China, Japan, Costa Rica, Australia, etc., we don't get that many tourists from the Dominican Republic.

And as for those Dominicans living in Orlando and New York, they actually carry a very different look from the authentics; so don't go thinking you've seen all types of Dominican after a few views in the States. The other funny thing is, the better-looking women tend to be the poorer ones. Might be an evolution thing in which to get out of the slums, you rely on beautiful looks to hook the men with money. But of course, if there is such a thing as evolution, there wouldn't be roadkill, right? Wait, off-topic, lets go back.

Now, it may sound machoist or sexist that I talk about the women in D.R., but its because it is a major reason as to why the country runs the way that it runs. I am not exagerrating when I tell you that for every male, there are 9 to 10 females. The male to female ratio is so insane, so crazy, the competition is extremely difficult for the women, and some of the men take advantage of this. My uncle mentioned that on a graduating class in one school, over 90% of them are women, and more than half of them are beauuuutiful (Lobsters, as he would call them). While I have not seen the women in these universities or clubs, just strolling along the town, I know he is right. So, expect to see these crazy age-difference couples because the women know, they can't be too picky about things like age or status, because good men are hard to find in the United States----so imagine a country with 300 million less people. No es bueno. This country is a few chromosomes away from having areas run entirely by women (Futurama anyone?)

But the #1 reason why I could never, ever live here, despite the awesome food, cheaper style of living (by the way, Santiago on a whole is much cheaper than Santo Domingo), pretty women, and closeness to the beach, is the traffic. Now, the traffic isn't too heavy (Santo Domingo in rush hour has its nasty moments), its just an utter storm of bad drivers. This town and most of the country is downright flooded with motorists because they can manuever around traffic and the much larger cars and buses easily. Everyone around here drives as if they are in a hurry, which a total contrast to their usually laid-back lifestyle. You will (repeat, will) have drivers constantly cut you off, constantly run red lights, and often even drive in the wrong side of traffic just to get around you. You will have at least 4857 close calls within a ten-minute drive, and will continously have to check for people crossing the streets at all the wrong times. I would never survive that, because I am a vengeful driver, and that will get me killed in this country. Dominican Republic isn't a country that likes following the road rules, and the cops are not paid enough to truly care.

With Santiago being a more widespread and more rural community, the motorists attempt to rule the road, and the results are quite insane. Over in Santiago, every day is Bike Week. You are whether going to love this style of driving, or utterly despise it. I am on the latter end of the scale. Despite the driving, Santiago is also a pretty blend of poor, rich, and happy. After a brief stint here, we moved on to Puerto Plata to stay at one of their infamous hotels.

Back at Santiago after Puerto Plata, I had the best meal I've ever had in the Dominican Republic, and there's no way its good for you. They have these things called 'Bolas' or 'Bollas' or something like that, which consisted of huge thick ball of yuca stuffed with multiple types of cheese. These things are not only filling, but extremely cheap, at a mere 35 pesos--which makes it less than $1. And then there is a new food in town that has yet to even develop a name. Nonetheless, according to word on the street, it is rapidly becoming the top snack in the area---even threatening the pasteles.

These wonderful things are shaped like eggrolls, they are fried yuca on the outside, and stuffed to the brim with stuffing on the inside. The three I tried were: pizza, chicken, beef. All three were fantastic, and unlike egg rolls, packed plenty of meat and didn't have much crust filler. They were crispy, rich, not too greasy, and a delight from start to finish. Like I said, these are so brand new, you can't even find these in Santo Domingo yet. They don't even have a name. I have a few names for these foods, and they are all positive words of encouragement.

Santo Domingo, step up, because Santiago has you totally beat in terms of food.

Puerto Plata

The trip to Puerto Plata is a very fascinating one, because in the middle of nowhere are hundreds of shackles, broken homes, and within the shackles once in a while you'll see a few restaurants, a few bars, and a few stores. How they manage to continue runing despite being so far from the distribution areas and from the larger cities remains a mystery to me. But, literally, there will be miles upon miles of nothing, and then a small thriving community of a few hundred. And like I said before, a lot of people relaxing, enjoying life, not really looking like the poverty has been affecting them.

And then every so often you'll find these heavily-guarded beautiful homes also located in the middle of virtually nowhere. This mix of poverty and prosperity is quite an eye-opener. So are the beautiful mountains that you pass by as you make your way north. Also, there is an influx of buildings that were built halfway, but for some reason, were not finished. You can find those mixed in with broken-down buildings that are sometimes used for homes.

This area is on the northern end of the country and was the go-to beach location of the Dominican Republic until Punta Cana, Boca Chica (a local favorite), and potentially-eventually the southern beaches (rising in fame) took over in popularity. Either way though, it still has its share of tourists and within-country visitors. The resorts along the Dominican Republic coast are popular because they are cheap, and are all-inclusive. In other words, once you pay for the room, all the food and drinks are free, as well as some of the other perks. When I mean free drinks, I am including the alcohol, which is something I believe the cruises do not do. You can drink as much as you want, and as long as you have the wristband, then you are free to drink like a sailor, and pass out like a Knicks fan after another disasterous home game.

Before arriving at our resort, we stopped at a supermarket known as 'La Sirena' for some grub. It is like a Wal-Mart; expansive, huge, sells everything, has a few small businesses here and there. There is only one little difference: has its very own restaurant on the second floor. The restaurant consists of multiple little food locations where you order different foods and tell them how much. Now, the Dominicans excel at cooking with cassava (sounds better in Spanish: yuca), and this supermarket is the best example. They have this dish that is a mix of mashed yuca with multiple types of cheeses. That was legit awesomeness. It was rich, it was cheesy, it was among the best Dominican dishes I have ever had. One final note proving a previous point, every single cashier in the entire store during the time I was there: women.

Now, continuing with the food lectures, D.R. has two of the best brands of soda I have ever had the pleasure of tasting: Country Club and Red Rock. Country Club actually got its start in the United States but shifted elsewhere when sales must have dropped. It is now the official soda of the Dominican Republic---hence its popularity and english name. Red Rock is my dad's favorite soda, and it definitely is a great brand of soft drinks. What makes these better is that they scale back on the amount of carbination infused in each bottle, and focus more on the flavoring. Trust me, it will be hard to go back to Coke once you've had a Country Club Merengue or a Red Rock Grape. I am sure I am going to temporarily retire from sodas, because I've had at least 10-12 bottles of Red Rock/Country Club throughout my vacation.

And then came the ice cream. The top brand of ice cream in the Dominican Republic by a landslide is Bon Ice Cream. And believe me when I say this, in terms of brand ice cream, this has been the best. It is very creamy, and full of fantastic flavor. I've had a couple of their ice cream sandwiches and I think I'm in love. And then there was their Tres Leches ice cream.......mmmmmmmmmm. I tried researching the brand but to no avail. It looks like it started and is pure authentic Dominican--unlike the sodas, which look like they got their start elsewhere before hitting their stride in the island. While the best ice cream I've ever had belongs to Jaxson's Ice Cream out in south Florida, Bon ice cream is definitely top 5 material.

So you would think a resort built next to a beautiful beach and has all-inclusive benefits would not screw up (especialy with a $50 a night price tag), right? Well, this resort (Celuisma Grupo Hotelero, Celuisma Tropical Playa Dorada) found a way to disappoint in so many ways, I was quite baffled. Now, we came during the slow season, so there were not a lot of people in the resort to begin with. I can guarantee you that there were not more than 30 people in that resort in any given moment--which was a minor buzzkill because of the Dominican women comment(s) I had posted earlier.

Then became more of a buzzkill when it became apparent that the hotel decided to do all sorts of cutbacks they would not do normally if it had been a busier season. Examples: the television was not working, the shower consisted of mostly cold water, half the restaurants were closed, one of the bars was closed, there was less entertainment, the pizza buffet consisted of only one type of pizza (and they tasted like...old), and the food would literaly sit there during the entire buffet, despite how it looked. The air conditioning was not up to par, the place was missing shampoo (why on earth are you out of shampoo!!!?!? The entire resort!?!?!!?!?) and the only reason why we survived was because it was cheap, the beach was still gorgeous, and the staff was very friendly.

It is sad when the beach became the only highhighlight (not a typo) of our stay there. Come on now, a place with free alcohol was disappointing, that was definitely a low mark in hotel management history. While yes, the 'you get what you paid for' comment can apply here, remember that with those same 50 bucks, we can actualy do a lot better in the Dominican Republic. My visit six years ago was at a beautiful resort with all-you-can-eat-drink, and they even had a midnight buffet that lasted until 3 a.m.....and had much more than what this hotel offered. The point is, don't pull the half-ass effect (not going the whole nine yards when the nine yards are not fully occupied) to a point in which the people sleeping there can notice it. I had to go to the lobby to watch spectacular playoff baseball because my television set fell in love with static. I was relying on the quality of the resort I had stayed many years ago---sadly it came very, very short. By day three I just wanted to leave.

But the beach was still beautiful.

I came back to the Dominican Republic to re-discover my roots, relax a little, and perhaps learn a little something. And while I learned a lot, I realized that I have less in common with the Dominican clan as I did many years ago. The main difference is my distant ways with people in general, especially after recent events (August 2009....good times.....). When in the Dominican Republic, you have to be more upfront, more aggressive, more social, I don't have these qualities, the Floridian in me branches out and takes over. My family (my dad's side) is beginning to use this place as their retirement heaven (and they are enjoying the hell out of it), and while it is much too soon to decide, I have yet to be convinced that my home ultimately will be the Dominican Republic, my first home.

I had fun, I saw a lot of beauty in a country that isn't recognized for it, but the mild insanity of it all is a bit overwhelming for me. The only way I can see myself staying here for months or for a living is if somebody drove for me, and I had enough money to not have to ever worry about it. I can't see myself in Santiago or Santo Domingo------Puerto Plata, maybe, perhaps, but I would have to not wage war with the motorists in the area (I swear, for every ten cars, there are forty motorcycles or two-wheelers). Nonetheless, it might be a small sacrifice to make to enjoy the fruits of this country--from the food right down to the flawless beaches.

So it may not be a country for me to live in (doesn't look that way yet, despite the much lower cost of living and utter seductive ways after the States starts giving you your retirement pension), but if I do become a success story down the road, then the Dominican Republic will become a guaranteed place to visit on a yearly basis. Because there is so much it offers, you can't go there once and consider your stay there complete.

What I do love about this country though, is all the beauty. The beauty of the history, the scenery, the beaches, the women, and the overall culture. People here can be broke, but they will not look the role, because they are relaxed, loving life, praising the heavens, and preparing for a nice night out of drinking and socializing. This is a very happy country that looks past its current problems and issues; as they focus more on life, and what is given to them.

If you did not give two shifts about this extensively long article, at least take this final paragraph to heart. While a vast percentage of people living here will not see the pleasures of traveling the world or receiving the rewards of a successful economic stature, they still see the happiness contained within their borders, within their family, within their friends, and within themselves. That my friends, is beautiful, and does not happen enough around the world.

Instead of being upset about what you don't have, be happy about what you do have.

That seems to be and most likely is, the Dominican state of mind.