At the heart of Santo Domingo is the Zona Colonial, where you find one of the oldest churches and the oldest surviving European fortress, among other New World firsts.
Already before breakfast, Capitano Tom runs around to get the flight plan. E-mail does not work here so well and the fax is a bit slow too. The driver is on time and picks us, together with all the newly acquired souvenirs up at 08.30h. Drive to the airport is smoothly but then the socialist bureaucracy starts! There are tons of people everywhere in every office; maybe this is the reason everything is so slow here. How do you spell efficient in Cuba: does not exist!
We wait 20 minutes for the handler to show up with the approved flight plan, immigration is slow, so is customs where they fill out more forms. Then they search the plane, two dogs show up: one for drugs and the other for explosives. Another half hour waiting for the fuel and finally with a 2 hours delay we are taking off. Memories of Africa come back.
About the three hour flight to Santo Domingo there is not much to write home about it. Flying mostly over clouds but the landing is a bit challenging for the pilots. We land at the smaller airport for private planes – which turns out to be a mistake!
To make a long story short: customs takes us completely apart and we lose a full three hours. Complete id…. Due to this we arrive lat at the hotel where Herbie, a good old friend, is waiting for us. All we want is to jump into the pool and cool down – literally!! Together with Herbie we walk through the old town to a fantastic restaurant; actually the oldest one in America, founded in 1505.
Unfortunately there are not too many pictures of Santo Domingo thanks to the fabulous people at customs. Unfortunately we see this world heritage only at night; but thanks to Herbie we had a fantastic dinner!
The Dominican Republic forms the eastern two-thirds, and Haiti the remainder of the Hispaniola island, formerly known as Santo Domingo.
In pre-columbian times the island was inhabited by Tainos, an Arawak-speaking people. In 1492 C. Columbus discovered the island and claimed it immediately for the Spanish Crown. It was then occupied by the usual ruling forces of that time, the Spanish and the French. The not so friendly colonizers reduced the Taino population from about 1 million to about 500 within 50 years.
Today Dominican Republic is inhabited mostly by people of mixed European and African origins. The African heritage is reflected most noticeably in the music, the merengue. The country is a main tourist destination of the region.
At the heart of Santo Domingo is the Zona Colonial, where you find one of the oldest churches and the oldest surviving European fortress, among other New World firsts.
