SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: Authentic Stimuli for all the
Senses Awaits Visitors to the Oldest City in the New World
It turns out that the neighborhood around the Dona Elvira is quiet because it is, well, quiet. The streets are safe and the property presents that urban best of both worlds situation of being close enough to the bars and action, but far enough away to get a good night's sleep for that pre-dawn walk along the cliffs above the ocean.
The bed and breakfast is in a building that dates back to the 15th century. The 14 rooms range from two-tiered domiciles that blend dorm-room lofts with Andalusian-style charm to a grand suite with all the amenities and an outdoor, but screened for privacy, Moorish bath.
By the way, the power goes out every night from about 4 a.m. till 9 a.m., but you learn to blast the AC from bedtime till government-mandated blackout time. Also, like every place other than the cookie cutter large casino-hotels outside the Zona Colonial, the hot water at Dona Elvira has to run about five minutes before it truly produces agua caliente.
But the power outages and other infrastructure challenges remind you that you are smack dab in the old quarter of the oldest city in the Americas -- and you are experiencing it first hand.
Remember, stay out light at the cafes and taverns, get up early for the morning sun and sleep in the afternoon when the sun is most intense and the air conditioner can run full blast. Even if you don't have a Cervantes-like command of espanol, you can honor mother Spain by partaking of a mid-day siesta.
One can't miss experience worth getting up at dawn for is an early weekday morning stroll through the open-air markets on Avenida Mella nearby (but not to be confused with the tourist trap) Mercado Modelo. This is a feast with your eyes experience.
You can certainly buy fruits and vegetables, but this is not a tourist city marketplace with more prepared gourmet food stalls then actual farmers hocking their bounty. The tourist trap to avoid is indoors at the Mercado Modelo, where fake botanica herbs, fake cigars, fake aphrodisiacs, fake amber and other fakery are sold to suckers.
In the open air, vendors use anything from cloth spread out on a sidewalk to ramshackle stands made of scrap wood, corrugated metal and other salvaged materials to display fresh from the field grapes, corn, peas and a wealth of tropical fruit.
The experience is one of the most vivid and vibrant in North America. The people and their clothing are colorful. The fruits and veggies glow in the rising Caribbean sun. The chipped-paint colorful buildings, the ready to tumble down vending stalls, the coolie hat-wearing farmers knelt down over their harvest displayed on the sidewalks make for a feast of the eyes -- if not the stomach
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