With “Casa de Campo” created to draw in wealthy visitors and investors, there’s a golf course and nearby golf villas on the grounds, polo grounds, as well as a marina. As a port destination, the Casa de Campo Marina is like no other in the Caribbean. The centerpiece of the Marina is the promenade, a […]
This provincial town in the southeastern part of the Dominican Republic was previously known for its main economic activity: sugar production, with abundant sugar cane fields in its outskirts. However, Austria-born American industrialist Charles Bluhdorn (who owned the American conglomerate Gulf +Western) bought sugar properties in that part of the country in 1967. By 1975, […]
Backpackers and extreme sports enthusiasts who pass through Santiago and other northern areas of the Dominican Republic (like Puerto Plata and Cabarete) eventually find themselves drawn to the mountainous central areas of the island, such as the towns of Jarabacoa and Constanza – which have become major destinations for ecotourism. Such travelers stay in these […]
With Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Americas ushering in Spanish colonialism through much of the Americas, Spanish explorers arrived in the sparsely-populated South American country now known as Uruguay in 1516. Initial resistance from indigenous groups prevented the Spaniards from settling in that country until the early 1600s (when cattle was introduced there). Although no […]
The region’s indigenous roots live on today in the form of tobacco production. Over the years, due to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, the U.S. cigar market has increasingly bought hand-rolled fine cigars from the Santiago region (a.k.a. El Cibao). E. León Jiménez’s best-known label is “La Aurora”. There are also foreign-owned cigar labels […]
Santiago (a.k.a. Santiago de los Caballeros), the island’s second-largest city (with nearby two million residents) grew in importance thanks to the large presence of its former residents in the USA, especially in New York City (which has half a million Dominican immigrants, and New York-born Dominican residents there). The city’s airport, Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao […]
This is the easternmost part of the Dominican Republic. A once sparsely-populated part of the island, life gradually changed there when a group of local & international investors (headed by Dominican hotelier Frank Rainieri) built a then-boutique luxury resort called “PuntaCana Resort & Club” (PCRC) back in the 1970s. Since then, the small airport […]
Tourists visiting Peru think firstly of the country’s ancient indigenous civilization – the Inca Empire that goes back to the 13th century. That pre-Columbian empire, during its height, covered not only Peru, but parts of Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia (centered on the Andean Mountain regions of these countries). Inca rule over these lands came […]
Ecuador, located in a northwest region of South America, has a rich history that goes back to pre-Columbian times, when much of that country was part of the Inca Empire. All that changed when Spanish conquistadores (led by explorer Francisco Pizarro) invaded Ecuador in 1531. During the early part of Spanish colonial rule, Ecuador was […]
Colombia’s very name comes from Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, who never actually set foot in that country during his voyages to the Americas. However, one of Columbus’ companions from his second trip, Alonso de Ojeda, was the first European to have done so (in 1499). The gold ornaments that he saw among the local indigenous […]