Security Block
I got to the airport early the next morning, walked down to the baggage x-ray machine, and stuck my bags on the conveyor belt, where the nice gentlemen started them on their journey through the machine with a smile. We passed the time it took for them to examine my bags with some small talk and then I was on my way.

Walking past the long line of passengers waiting to check-in bags and get their boarding passes, I continued toward the gate, giving myself a mental pat on the back for having the forethought to carry-on my luggage and print my own get-out-of-the-line-free pass. At the gate I handed the boarding pass to Rafael the security guard, he took it, and looked at it like it was some sort of foreign object he had never contemplated before. Which, I guess he hadn’t since he directed me to go and get a real one from the American Airlines (AA) desk.

I looked at the expanded line and quickly decided I’d rather not. Just as I started trying to think of what other options there were to consider, an AA attendant passed nearby, and I flagged her down. I explained my situation and smiled smugly (I’m sorry to admit) as she attended me back to the security guard and reprimanded him for not reading the memo that was sent out last month about printed boarding passes. He let me through, and I continued without incident through immigration and on to security.

Everything was fine at security until they opened up my bags and took away my curling iron, flat iron, and my deceased grandmother’s crochet hooks of tremendous sentimental value. I stood my ground, and insisted that they weren’t on the list. They said they had another list and showed it to me. The items were on theirs. Apparently, from what they explained to me, each country’s airport security has a different list than the airlines, and there are discrepancies between them. After some more discussion the head of security came and told me that he would let me have them if I could get a member of AA personnel to accompany me. I did, and they let me take it all on the plane.

If you are flying to (or through) the states, buy your duty free items after you get there because anything bought on foreign soil will get confiscated at the security gates if it’s not checked.

Lastly, you can print out your boarding pass without fear of Rafael – he got the memo.

Santiago Haitian Market

When to Go
The Haitian Open Market, or the Pulga (Flea Market) as it is known in Spanish, in Santiago is a great place to go and shop for retro clothing and other items. I love it for the clothes myself, since I always find something unique as I dig through the piles of colorful fabric that line the streets every Thursday.

The market starts at about 7:00am. If you are going to get nicer items or clothing, early is the best time to go, since no one has picked through everything yet. Dominican shop owners get there early too in order to buy “American brand clothing” in their little boutiques. So, if you wait too long there isn’t much left to choose from.

If you don’t care about the clothes or are just looking for random items, then going around 11am is good because they start to lower prices to sell off as much as they can before they have to pack back up and go to the next town. You’ll hear, “Diez pesos, todo a diez! (Ten pesos, everything for ten pesos!). I always go about then for household items because they are much less expensive.

Haitian Market vegetables

Clothes and shoes will vary. If the items are from the clothing tables that are from the donated clothing bundles, you will pay around $20.00-50.00 RD. Normally, you will hear each table owner calling out the prices of their table. If the vender has separated the better quality items from the bundles, it saves you from having to work so much, but will cost more – somewhere in the neighborhood of $100.00 RD. The price will vary a bit depending on how much you haggle, so keep that in mind.

See the map for the market’s exact location

Haitian Flea Market Map

Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration

Santiago de los Trienta Caballeros (Saint James of the Knights) is located in the northern region of the Dominican Republic and has several places that are definitely worth visiting. As a resident of this fair city, I’m always open for places to go, and the Santiago Monument is one I would recommend for anyone who finds themselves here looking for something to do.

A Local Hot Spot
Situated on the corner of Avenida Francia and Las Carreras, the monument is a popular place. After any event of Dominican note, (like when Martha Heredia won the Latin American Idol, Amelia Vega won Miss Universe, or whenever the local Aguilas baseball team wins), the monument is where everyone heads to celebrate. The whole downtown area is impassable during these occasions, and it is probably wise to avoid the whole general area if you don’t want to get caught up in the chaos.

History
Designed by the architect Henry Gazón Bona and built by the dictator Rafael Liónidas Trujillo in the 1940’s, it was originally named “The Monument of Peace from Trujillo” in his own ego inflated honor. Standing 70mt (229ft) tall, it was crowned by a statue of Trujillo mounted on a horse, and the 365 stairs that lead to the top were set to represent the fact that Trujillo cared for his people every day of the year. That would seem to be a somewhat ominous message considering how he cared for them…

After his assassination, in 1961, his statue was torn down and the name of the monument was changed to honor the heroes who restored the country’s independence from Spain in the War of Restoration of the 1860’s.

Recently, in a process that took over a year, the structure was remodeled inside and out.

The Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration

The interior it is now a museum to the heroes of the restoration, containing statues and other works of art that commemorate Dominican heroes. The statues depict the different restoration heroes, one of the great musician and Navarete native Ñico Lora, and an area reserved for the great baseball players of the local Aguilas (Eagles) team. Among the art displayed are scenes from the 1863-1865 Restoration War battles.

Special attention was given to landscaping the gardens that surround the monument, planting trees, flowers, and other plants that are indigenous to the country. Before it was kind of sparsely landscaped and unattractive, but now it is quite nice.

A Magnificent View
If you have the stamina to go up a year’s worth of stairs you will find one of the most beautiful views of the city. On a nice clear day you can see from the historic Hermanos Patiño bridge all the way to the León Jimenez Museum on the other side of the city. So, make sure you have your camera with you and didn’t leave it in the car, because you don’t want to have to “run down” 365 stairs to get it!

Santiago Cultural Center - Leon Jimenez

Don Eduardo León Asensio Jimenes, a famous santiagueño and philanthropist, had a special penchant for encouraging growth in the visual arts, and sought in particular to contribute in the development of young artists’ talent. In harmony with this thinking, the León Jimenes Art Contest was started in 1964, in an effort to promote and exhibit the work of Dominican artists of varying ages. He also established a foundation to continue this work, and that foundation went on to construct the León Jimenes Cultural Center in 1999.

Art Exhibits
The León Jimenes has two permanent exhibit halls on the first and second floors, which contain Dominican colonization period artifacts and historical paraphernalia. There is also an additional first floor hall that displays temporary exhibits that feature works from individual artists, individuals, and institutes. Every Tuesday the center allow free entrance to the public, permitting everyone who appreciates art to come and enjoy it, no matter how much they have in their wallet.

Santiago Leon Jimenez

The León Jimenes Art Contest that Don Jimenes started over forty years ago is still held every year on the second floor in the Visual Arts Hall where visitors are free to roam about and enjoy the contributed works.

Among the works included in the Temporary Exhibition Hall, located on the right side of the main hall, are sculptures from The Louver, the beautiful photos of Dominican photographer Domingo Batista, drawings from the late santiaguero Yoryi Morel, and many others. The duration of these exhibits varies according to showing availability and scheduling.

The video concerts feature a variety of recorded artist performances, such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Auidoslave, Bob Marley, and Radiohead. Most of the films shown are family films like this month’s Charlotte’s Web, an adaptation of the E. B. White story. Any book, novel, essay, art subject, or video medium, or cultural theme can be the subject of the recorded literature commentaries and video debates that are featured every month. These are interviews of different authors, reporters, and other public figures. The folklore discussions cover a variety of cultural subjects related to art. Center workshops focus on art and learning topics and techniques like teaching, drawing, painting, and learning.

More information about hours, activities, and other details, go to the Center’s site Centro Leon, Dominican Republic . This webpage is in Spanish, but it has a lot of information and even has a printable Events Calendar each month that is great to have on hand for organizing events and trips.

We found the rooms in the Colonia to be clean and the beds to be relatively comfortable. The staff was not overly friendly but they were also not difficult to work with and tolerated our inability to speak Spanish fluently pretty well. The best part was that the rooms were cheap. They go from $500 pesos (about $15 USD) to about $1200 pesos ($33 USD) per night. The difference was if you wanted air conditioning, a fan, a mini refrigerator or a TV in the room.

We chose to spring for the deluxe room, $1144.00 pesos covered 4 people (2 queen beds). Well, about 10 minutes after getting into the room the power went off. This is pretty common for the DR, however the higher priced motels have alternate sources of power so you are not affected by the daily power outages. It was about time to go find something to eat anyway so we ventured out in search of food. By the time we got back the power was back on and it seemed to stay on for the rest of the night. When we asked, it sounded like they have a deal with the city where they always get power after 7:30 pm. So you will probably not be stuck in the dark.

One thing we insist on in a hotel room is for it to be clean. That is something Dominicans do pretty well. You will see trash all over in the streets, but once you get into a building it is kept very clean. Our room was no exception, everything was neat and clean.

As expected with a low price motel here it was not in perfect repair. Once again this is very common for the DR. There was a “Shower Head” however the insides were gone so the water just came pouring out of the pipe. One of the lamp fixtures was hanging by the wires out of the ceiling, and although others in the group claimed to get hot water, I was not one of the more fortunate ones, let’s say my shower was “refreshing”.

The motel was conveniently located toward the middle of Santiago, but not quite close enough to all of the night life locations to walk so you would need to take a Taxi, or public car, but those are easy to come by here. It was also about 2 blocks away from a small GuaGua station so if you are coming in from out of town on one of the smaller guagaus it can drop you off pretty close to the motel. You will likely need to catch a public car or taxi if you are coming in with one of the tour busses.

Would I stay there again? Yes.
If you are just looking for a cheap place to stay the night to save your money for going out and visiting Santiago, the Colonial works fine. If you plans are for a romantic night in the motel, this is probably not where you want to be.

This Hotel review was based on our stay on April 10, 2010

Contact information
Consorcio Colonial de Luxe S.R.L.
Salvado Cucurullo Nos 113 y115
Santiago, R.D
809-247-3122

Pools: There are two main swimming pools, one in front of the grandstand and the other attached to one of the bars. Both are good for lounging around and taking a swim. One of them had a low and a high platform to dive from.

Water Slides: There were 6 water slides. Three that required tubes and three that did not.

The tallest slide in the park looked about 3 stories tall and was a straight slide with a steep drop and was tubeless. The other two tubeless slides had the usual array of twists and curls. All three of these were a little rough in the construction and left everyone in the party a little sore.

We liked the tube waterslides much better. Unfortunately, tubes do not come with the price of admission. This poses a couple problems. One you have to pay for them, another 100 pesos. The second problem is every time you put them down some kid tries to steal them. That being said we all still felt it was worth having one. The three tube slides were more fun and didn’t bruise your back. One of the tude slide was black and it was completely dark in the tube, this made for a very cool ride and turned out to be our favorite slide in the park.

Water Playgrounds: There is one large play area for very small children in the middle of the park. Things to climb on, small water slides, cute characters built into the structures and of course water. This area sits in a very shallow pool with water fountains and water flowing over the structure. I can’t imagine a kid not being thrilled to play here. There are also areas around the playground for the parents to hang out and watch.

There is also a large “Get wet” area near the grandstand. This has larger structures all of which spray water up, down and all around. This is more of a some what older area where kids (young or old) can climb around the structures while staying wet. One thing I did notice is the water in this area was much colder, this one took a little getting used to.

Food: There are several places to eat. There was a buffet for 190 pesos per person and a pizzeria, the pizzas looks like enough to feed 3-4 people who are not heavy eaters and cost 500 pesos. We opted for a hot dog, these were 70 pesos each and came with a small drink. One of the things you will notice in the DR is they like corn on a lot of thinks I would usually not put corn on. I.E. hotdogs and pizza. While corn on a hotdog is not bad it’s a little different, if you don’t think that is to your taste you might want to specify that while ordering.

Bars: This water park also caters to the somewhat older crowd With 6 different bars scattered through out the waterpark. One of them is located in one of the pools so you don’t even have to get out of the water to have a drink. All of the bars offer the usual array of tropical drinks and the price isn’t too bad at about 140 pesos. The drinks were large and strong although they were a little heavy on the alcohol and light on the juice and mixing ingredients.

One of the bars was on a second story overlooking one of the pools and the grandstand areas. This one also had several pool tables. In the name painted on the front of the building was the word Billars, they got a little closer with the word inside the bar when they called it billards, but maybe that is the spanish way to spell billiards???

Music: While we were there there was three areas each playing different music. The way the park is set up, these three areas didn’t compete so, you could hang out in the area where you liked what was being played and not be also listening to the other areas. There was a covered stage area and a bandstand where it looked like live music would be played at times. While we were there they were only playing recorded music.

Lockers: This is kind of important. You will need a place to put your money and other items while you are on the slides. They do have locker rentals, that you rent by the day. I would guess that they run out on days where the park is very full. The nice thing is they are not one time use lockers, You get a key that you need to find a way of attaching to you (to keep it from falling out of your pocket), which opens a standard keylock so you can get into the locker as often as you need.

Summary: We liked the park and plan on going again. It was worth the 350 peso (about $10 USD) price to get in plus 100 pesos for the tube rental. The park was clean, well staffed, friendly and had everything you would expect in a waterpark. By US standards it was a little short on slides, but we found plenty to do to keep us busy for the day.

Kaskada Water Park (Kaskada Aqua Park) is located at
Ave. Hispanoamericana # 90,
Santiago, República Dominicana
Telephone 809-570-7070 or 809-570-7159

View Larger Map