Tobacco farms and factories are actually located closer to the city of Santiago but you can get a whiff of the industry in Santo Domingo.
The Arturo Fuentes Cigar Club, in Santo Domingo, is a retail smoke shop, but it is also a gathering place for those who love to smoke their cigars and talk about the experience. It is a home, later in the evening, for anyone who wants to shop for fine cigars and accessories, have a drink, book one of the private smoking rooms for a personal party, or just sit in the bar and share cigar stories with people who love to hear them.
Alan, my cigar loving brother, tells me he met Carlito Fuentes at a cigar exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada a few years back and has a photo of Carlito and himself with Carlito’s sister. Alan likes the “858” Maduro’s and appreciates the civic works of the Fuentes family.
This morning the store has just opened. The cleaning staff is at work dusting and vacuuming and the receptionist is kind enough to show me the club’s premier cigar vault, answer my questions, wait for me to call my brother to see what cigars he wants and show me some of the Club’s perks.
One of the coolest areas in this shop is a little room, off the main lobby, that has individual lockers stocked with their owners own personal stash of cigars. One of the lockers is owned by Angel Jimeniz, a professional golfer. His name is written on a nice little card in a slot on the door of one of the lockers.
The sales girl finds me a nice box for the half dozen cigars I buy, rings up my sale, and packs Alan’s cigars nicely. She, calls me a cab, and advises me that the cab ride is ” not more than two hundred pesos ” which turns out to be 100% correct.
Next time back here, I’ll dress nicer,spend more money. and leave her a bigger tip.
People on this island are exceedingly gracious.
If they had this store, in the Zona Colonia, I would be there every evening, cradling a cigar, still in its wrapper, in my right hand, listening to patrons rambling about their cigars, their love life, politics and their latest business victories.
I can think of better addictions to acquire and cultivate than smoking, but I would never talk bad about someone pursuing vices that only hurt themselves.
According to one of my first guides, Alberto, this Godfather Street is where parts of the movie ” Godfather ” were filmed.
Alberto, who is missing one leg, but transports quickly, even with crutches,took me on a tour the other day to the Plaza Espana, which is close, and the Alcazar de Don Colon.
This Godfather street, like the famous Lombard Street in San Francisco, is already famous. We watch enough movies that movie streets become even more recognizable than the streets in our town.
This street is a tough walk, uphill, but not as tough as some. The little multicolored house fronts look traditionally Caribbean and a wine bottle stuck in one of the pedestrian rails looks like a good solution to sticking the bottle in your back pocket, or purse, or pitching in onto the street below.
The Godfather street this Monday afternoon is not busy. People at the bottom and top stand on corners to visit and a horse and carriage whisk past me as I snap a few mementos for Scotttreks.
This is a place the Godfather would have hung out, drinking and smoking a fine cigar while deciding the direction his crime organization was going to go.
Even in crime, you have to always be concerned with competition.
There are, according to the web, 1.2 billion Catholics in the world today.
This number, of course, changes every second because people are born and die every second and because counting anything is never easy.
This Cathedral, in the middle of the Zona Colonia, is striking and was the first church in the New World, built in the early 1500’s. It is a huge structure with thick fortress walls, high arching ceilings and carefully laid stones.There are stained glass windows high in the interior of the Cathedral and the worship area features a huge open sitting area used for mass plus six chapels on each side of the common hall. At one time, the remains of Christopher Columbus were interred here.
The Catholic church itself is one of Christianities monuments and, at one time, was a glue that held much of the world together. Religion tends to transcend country and the binding power of the church is well known to many of my friends who got their hands struck by a ruler when they didn’t learn their ABC’s in Catholic School, talked out of turn, or told a bad joke.
The Cathedral inside is so big, so tall, so heavy, so forceful, it makes me catch my breath.
This is a must see for anyone visiting the Zona Colonia. In this Cathedral, history speaks, without speaking,and, in silence, makes its strongest statements.
Pat reminds me to dig deeper into amber, when I’m in the Dominican Republic, highly valued by Kings and royalty way way back when we had Kings and royalty.
Tunneling deeper, I walk myself to the Museum of Ambar at 454 Calle Arzobismo Merino Street in the Zona Colonia, four blocks from the Plaza Colon.
Brunilda, standing inside the Museo’s front door, opens it as I reach for the door handle,and warmly welcomes me inside with a cheerful ” Good afternoon.” She leads me upstairs on a guided tour of the amber exhibit that gives me a history of the amber industry in the Dominican Republic.
For those who need a refresher on amber –
Amber is tree sap that has stuck around millions of years.
Jurassic Park popularized amber with its premise of bringing dinosaurs back to life by extracting blood from insects preserved in amber who had bit dinosaurs, then using dinosaur DNA inside the insect blood to create real dinosaurs.
Amber sometimes has bark, roots, leaves, vegetables, ants, termites, lizards caught inside it.
Amber comes in lots of colors, shapes and sizes.
“Blue Amber ” is found only in the Dominican Republic and if you hold ” Blue Amber ” up to light you see the blue tints.
Amber,dropped into a saline solution, floats. If the amber you have doesn’t float, it isn’t worth the price you paid for it.
After our tour, Brunilda escorts me to the museum retail store.
Even though I’m sold on amber, i don’t buy anything today.
Not taking money when I go on little expeditions is one of my best travel precautions
I want to see a movie about a tourist caught in amber who comes back to shopping life in the twenty third century.
The first thing he wouldn’t be able to buy would be a battery for his cell phone.
A ten minute taxi ride to the north of the Zona Colonia are the National Botanical Gardens of the Dominican Republic.
The gardens are huge and narrow city sidewalks are traded for wide foot paths to walk freely in wide open spaces This Sunday there is a long wavy line at the admissions gate, before opening time, and the charge to enter is just one hundred pesos -fifty cents U.S.
In the front entrance of the park, there is an orchid sale in progress and customers are carrying them in wheelbarrows to their vehicles in the parking lots. Orchids are very delicate beautiful flowers and it is explained to me, by my taxi driver, that they are very popular in the Dominican Republic. People hang them in their homes and show them on outside balconies. Whether it is Cuenca, Ecuador or the United States, or Santo Domingo, people love flowers and nature.
I can hear the city around me, but can’t see it inside the park’s cocoon of trees. Like the Botanical Gardens in Montevideo, this is prime real estate that people with foresight put on the protected list a long time ago.
Outside the huge cities of the world, however,nature still swings a big bat and the places people don’t want to live, can’t live, or don’t have the resources to go, are many.
Even in a world of seven billion people, there are places to escape humanity when you feel the need.
Even though the city is pressing around us on all sides, the Jardin is natural enough to lift us up this morning, remind us that this planet is still, with exceptions, a Garden of Eden.
Stewardship is mentioned in “Genesis”, in the Holy Bible.
Taking care of what we got should be on the top of everyone’s to do list.
Shadows begin to form in the early evening, thick stones in old city walls seem less heavy and ancient, a softness wraps itself around the Parque Colon, the Santo Domingo Cathedral, the bars, restaurants and hotels in the Zona Colonia.
This World Heritage old city is a well visited area, picked by Unesco to celebrate because of it’s culture and history. In the evening, the sun light switch turns down in slow degrees and people come out to sit on benches, visit, watch tourists, and enjoy the feel of a place where Christopher Columbus once walked.
Plaza Billini recognizes the efforts of a well loved and respected Catholic priest who founded hospitals and orphanages in Santo Domingo. Plaza Duarte celebrates one of the founders of the Dominican Republic who was, ironically, a poet, writer and activist instead of being just a military man brandishing a sword and riding a horse.
Tonight, there are bursts of life coming from all directions. There is the Chu Chu train passing our two plazas taking visitors for a tour, explaining dozens of important locations where important people in Dominican Republic history lived and played their part on life’s stage.. When you walk the streets here there are plaques on the walls of residences everywhere that remind you that these blank faced, neglected buildings once contained living breathing hero’s and heroine’s.
Staying in the Zona Colonia, even a few days, lets you forget International Airports, freeways, Interstates, sky rise apartments, business complexes, urban scrawl and our modern world.
Our modern world has gotten too quick, large, and complicated.
Sitting in a little Plaza, off the main business streets, makes my world more intimate, personal, and endearing.
When was the last time we wanted to hug New York cities tallest skyscraper?
Those going on this day trip from Santo Domingo to Sanoa Island start at the Pizzerelli Pizza Palace at six forty five in the morning.
There is no one on the street this morning when I walk to our assigned pick up point, but, at the pizza place, there are five of us who are met by Isidro of Colonial Tours. We follow him down stone steps, out of the Colonial Zone, where we load onto our tour bus transport. Picking up more passengers in Boca Chica, along the way, we are full by the time we all get to Bayimbe where we board several small boats and a catamaran and putt putt out to Sanoa Beach, our destination.
Santo Domingo is, I have found, far away from the best beaches of the Dominican Republic. The real sand and surf activities are on the north shore of the island at Punta Cana, Bayimbe is a cute little town being discovered and developed by foreigners and Sanoa Beach is clean and secure for all travelers even if locals walk the beach selling their jewelry and local crafts that you have already been showed a hundred times.
On our sail back to the mainland at the end of the day, where we re- board our tour bus and return to Santo Domingo, there is dancing on our catamaran, too much booze, but very happy passengers.
It is dark when we all get home, a twelve hour trip for sixty five bucks, a value when you add all the pieces.
I never see these beaches without wondering about sailors marooned, Robinson Crusoe, pirate treasure buried by the foot of palm trees marked by an X on a yellowed map hidden deep in an old chest that has been in storms around Cape Horn.
A trip to the Dominican Republic isn’t complete without getting sand between my toes.
After each trip, new moments join old moments in one big jigsaw puzzle.
Today’s moments can stand on their own, but, they seem to pick up depth and velocity when they hold hands with older ones.
Comparing moments brings wisdom, but learning, I have been told, is best done with a Pina Colada in one hand and a barbecue wing in the other.
Cocoa is grown mostly in West Africa but is also cultivated in the Dominican Republic,Grenada and Nicaragua, all located in the same geographical band circling the waist of our planet.
Cocoa is labor intensive to grow and turn into products people will buy, but it brings us chocolate, which tastes good to most everyone and is healthy now, unless you ask your dentist.
This Cacao Museo is located north of the Parque Colon, in Santo Domingo, and it surprises to see all the products that are made with cacao beans as the base ingredient.
Business is slow at the museo this afternoon, but reading the health benefits of unprocessed cocoa is going to send me to a health foods store when I get back to New Mexico, right after I get my healthy bottle of rum at my neighborhood liquor store..
My bar of chocolate goes down sweetly and when I leave the museo, I can still taste the chocolate all the way back to my guesthouse.
Chocolate,as ancient Aztecs believed, does keep Doctors away.
Even back in pre- history, people were afraid of their health care providers, and fear of going to the dentist has always been universal.
Promoting chocolate as healthy is a quite brilliant piece of marketing.
If it tastes so good it can’t possibly be bad for us?
This Palace was built as a present to the son of Christopher Columbus who raised his family in the substantial home when he was the Governor of the Dominican Republic when this country was still controlled by Spain.
There are many rooms inside but there was no electricity back then. Chamber pots took care of personal business, hot baths were drawn up by servants for the ladies of the house, food spoiled quickly. Heat for cooking was generated by wood fireplaces and the multiple kitchens of this casa and government headquarters were located outside the home because smoke got noxious in the main house.The bedrooms have no closets and you look out at vistas through openings cut into stone walls.
Walking through the outdated casa, the huge, thick, stone walls are not cozy. The clothes displayed on mannequin’s in the entry were made for royalty, hand made with the finest cloths and craftsmanship, but they are restrictive in a climate that is hot and humid. These stoic figures have crosses around their necks to remind us and them that we are all here by the Grace of God and life is both dangerous and difficult.
The poor, in the time this Palace was built, didn’t own homes and ate the blandest of diets. They had few clothes, no personal vehicle and no cell phone. They hadn’t been to school, couldn’t read or write, and could be put in jail or killed without a trial.
It jump starts me to see how things have changed for the better for so many more people over time.
More people, in developed countries, are now closer to being equal in stuff than they have ever been, but why has stuff always been the measure of a countries or person’s value?
Trips start with me saying the name of a country three times while hopping up and down on my left foot, twice.
There are 195 countries in the world, according to Wikipedia. I can’t see them all, in this lifetime, so I usually choose countries to visit that look warm and friendly, have good pictures from people who have been there, and good reviews by fellow travelers.
Sometimes friends and family give me their dream vacations.
Pat, who keeps Scotttreks.com flying with tech genius, suggested the Dolphin Fountain in Mazatlan, all the five star restaurants in Paris, the Great Barrier Reef for diving. In the Dominican Republic he likes LaRamada, the north side beaches, the grave of Christopher Columbus, Altos de Chavon and Casa de Campo.
To celebrate my ninth travel ring, I buy myself a brand new Dominican Republic guide book at Barnes and Noble, full of places to see, foods to sample, music to tap my foot too, places to hang my hat.
There are 195 perfect countries on this planet to visit, thousands of cool places to explore, and friendly hospitable people in all of them..
Scott is getting ready to ramble, once again, but hopping three times is getting difficult
I wish I had a magic carpet to make getting there and back home as easy as Mom’s apple pie with a big scoop of ala mode.
Recent Comments