WatchBoom’s guide to Punta Cana (or, Dancin’ around the Dominican Republic)
By Bob Schulman
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First, a little geography: Check out a map of the Caribbean, and you'll spot the island of Hispaniola about 650 miles southeast of Miami, wedged in between Cuba and Puerto Rico. Two countries share the island, the Dominican Republic on its eastern two-thirds and Haiti on the western third.
Next, a few facts: The Dominican Republic, or the DR as the locals call it, hosts some 4 million visitors a year -- making it the top vacation destination in the Caribbean. Punta Cana, the country's most popular resort area, runs along a 70-mile-long strip of powdery beaches on the eastern shores of the DR.
My stay there started with a pleasant surprise at the airport: The terminal looks much like an oversize grass hut, creating a mood of the old-time Caribbean. It gets even better inside, where passengers are greeted by bands batting out peppy merengue tunes, the DR's own music.
Another folksy touch: Parts of the terminal are cooled by rows of huge horizonal fans hanging down from the ceiling. Look close, and in the hubcap-like center of each blade you'll see the name of the manufacturer, the Bad Ass Fan Company.
I heard merengue again at my hotel, the Barcelo Punta Cana, where a Ricky Martin double at the pool was teaching guests how to shake their booties to that infectious beat.
Picking up the dance's simple one-two, one-two step was a snap. In a few minutes, I was out there shaking it up with the rest of the merengue newbies to Martin's “left, together, left, together, right, together, right...”
Down on the beach, I found the same dance steps worked (more or less) to a Caribbean version of country and western line dancing called something like “Follow da Leadah.” The dance lines look similar, but you'd hardly find Willie Nelson or Carrie Underwood kicking off their boots to hop around in the talcumy sand singing, “The room, the room, the room is on fire...follow da leadah, leadah, leadah...up...down...left...right...do it again...”
The tune, a pumped-up Trinidadian soca, seemed to go on forever, leaving out-of-shape Americans (including me) piled up on the beach like limp noodles.
Things to see and do: Tours of the country range from a three-hour drive to explore the colonial treasures of the DR's capital city of Santo Domingo (once Spain's capital of the New World) to snorkeling with stingrays and nurse sharks on a “marinarium” cruise.
I found these and nine other tours including dolphin encounters, cultural outings and trips to the mountains to go ziplining over the foliage in a brochure by Turissimo Caribe Excursiones D.R., the tour operator of Delta Vacations. “Don't miss Saona Island,” recommended Turissimo Caribe account executive Andrea Mansur, and I didn't.
Saona turned out to be a 40-mile-long travel poster. The trip – on a catamaran
that skims the government-protected island's palm-lined beaches – left me (and I think everyone else on the boat) awed by its stunning beauty. The tab is $104 per person, which covers transportation to the dock, the boat ride, a barbecue lunch ashore and a dip in a light-green natural pool that gives a whole new meaning to the description, crystal clear waters.
Prices for the other 11 tours run from $89 to $168 per person.
That night, I finished off my stay in the DR at a nightclub. The DJ mostly played the latest merengues mixed with some bachatas (another local dance), a few “compas” tunes from neighboring Haiti and – of course – Follow da Leadah line dances. I was getting pretty good at it by then.
You can Follow da Leadah at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8zzG4n8CpM
About the name: “Punta” is said to mean a far point on a beach. “Cana” comes from the dried leaves of a palm tree used to make thatched-roof palapas, or huts. It's believed the Punta Cana area was once a sprawling plantation surrounded by palm trees.
Getting there: Major airlines fly nonstop to Punta Cana from their U.S. mainland hubs and from Puerto Rico. Delta, for example, schedules nonstop hops to Punta Cana from Atlanta and JFK. Connecting fights to and from the hubs link other cities across the country to the Punta Cana flights.
The Punta Cana airport is the busiest of the DR's eight international terminals. It handles about 2 million passengers a year.
Staying there: Punta Cana offers some four dozen tourist-class resort hotels. Among top-rated properties is the 798-room all-inclusive Barcelo Punta Cana (one of six Barcelos in the area) featuring 1,300 feet of beachfront, seven international restaurants and live nightly entertainment in an 800-seat theater.
More info: Visit the Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism at www.godominicanrepublic.com. For money-saving vacation packages, call your travel agent or visit tour operators such as Delta Vacations at www.deltavacations.com.
About merengue
By Bob Schulman
No one really knows the origin of the DR's national music and dance. One story traces merengue back to a brothel in the 1840s, after the DR won its independence from French Haiti in 1844 (Haiti having invaded the country nine weeks after the DR won its independence from Spain in 1821). After that, governments came and went over the years, but people kept shaking their booties to the sensual rhythms of merengue – whether the governments liked it or not.
Influenced by the Spanish, African and local Taino Indian cultures, the music tells of the fun and tragedy of everyday life. It's usually played – among many variations – with instruments like a two-sided drum, an accordian, a maraca-like percussion instrument and nowadays often a guitar.
Merengue was loved by the common people, but most of the time it was ignored by the upper classes because it was said to lack “lyrical elegance.” Translation: Well-off people didn't want to hear about the problems of not-well-off people.
That changed in 1930 when dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo became president of the country in a questionable election (in which he registered an improbable 95 percent of the votes).
Running on the theme of “Dios y Trujillo” (God and Trujillo), the ex-general used merengue as a musical backdrop to his election campaign, aimed at getting support from the masses. It worked, and at a party for the elite following his win merengue was the music of the day, thus making it officially acceptable from then on.
