CVOA will give you the finest service to book your Dominican Republic villa

Caribbean Villas by CVOA offer Dominican Republic villas as a fashionable alternative with a Spanish flavor. Year round sunshine, cooling sea breezes, pristine beaches and lush tropical landscape make the DR a perfect villa vacation choice.

Antiquities and monuments show the beautiful island's rich colonial heritage. Spanish, French, Haitian, and African influences will excite your senses as you savor exotic foods, dance to merengue and bachata music or hunt for souvenirs. Watersports of all kinds abound in the Dominican Republic. Although known as the kiteboarding capital of the world, windsurfing, boogie boarding, and surfing are also popular. The Dominican Republic's clear warm waters and colorful marine life make it perfect for diving and snorkeling enthusiasts. In the months from January to March you can even see Humpback whales playing their mating games. Golfers can tee-off on one of the many world -class courses.

Whether you come for rest and relaxation or to experience an adventure in the natural beauty of the Dominican Republic, choose a luxury villa by CVOA for a special change of pace.

The Dominican Republic is a Latin American country that occupies the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island called Hispaniola. It shares a border with the Republic of Haiti, making it one of two Caribbean islands that are split by two governments; the other being Sint Maarten/Saint-Martin. Hispaniola is the second-largest of the Greater Antilles islands, located east of Cuba and Jamaica and west of Puerto Rico.

For much of the twentieth century the government of the Dominican Republic was unsettled and mostly non-representative. The Dominican Republic has moved toward representative democracy since the death of military dictator Rafael Leó Trujillo in 1961.

Dominican Republic History

The Dominican Republic became the first point of colonization in the Western Hemisphere by explorers from Europe and is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas. Present-day Dominican Republic has the first cathedral, fortress, road and university of the Americas. Santo Domingo was the first city founded there and it was also the first capital in the Americas.

Christopher Columbus explored Hispaniola during his first voyage to America in 1492. The inhabitants whom Columbus encountered on his arrival in Hispaniola were Arawak-speaking Taíno people who had previously settled there. The Taíno lived in villages, headed by chiefs, and engaged principally in farming and fishing. By the mid-1500s the Taíno people had died out as a result of smallpox and brutal treatment by the Spanish settlers who tried to enslave them. Hispaniola became a springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean islands and mainland.

Spain ceded the colony of Santo Domingo to France in 1795. In the 1790s slaves in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) staged a revolt led by Toussaint Louverture. In 1801, Toussaint Louverture captured the former Spanish Colony of Santo Domingo which became the Dominican Republic. He then unified French and Spanish Haiti into Haiti, the old Arawak Indian name for Hispaniola. By 1808, after various degrees of instability, Santo Domingo reverted to Spanish rule. Two years later in 1810, the French finally left Santo Domingo.

On November 30, 1821, Spanish lieutenant governor José Núñez de Cáceres declared the colony's independence as the state of Spanish Haiti (Haití Español). He requested admission to the Republic of Gran Colombia, but Haitian forces led by Jean-Pierre Boyer, unified the entire island. Just nine weeks later, 300 years of colonial domination and slavery ended. Juan Pablo Duarte founded a secret society in 1838, called La Trinitaria, that sought pure and simple independence of the eastern part of the island without any foreign intervention. Ramón Matías Mella and Francisco del Rosario Sánchez (the latter one being a mestizo), in spite of not being among the founding members, went on to be decisive in the fight for independence and are now hailed (along with Duarte) as the Founding Fathers of the Dominican Republic. On February 27, 1844, the Trinitarios declared independence from Haiti, backed by a wealthy cattle-rancher from El Seibo., Pedro Santana. Modeled after the US constitution, the Dominican Republic's first Constitution was adopted on November 6, 1844.

President Pedro Santana decided to return the Dominican Republic to Spain in 1861 due to numerous reasons. Therefore, the Dominican Republic reverted back to a colonial state of Spain, being the only Latin American nation to do so. Fearful of the reestablishment of Spain as colonial power, Haitian authorities gave refuge and management to Dominican revolutionaries to re-establish the independent nation of Dominican Republic. The civil war was called the War of the Restoration led by 2 men; Ulises Heureaux who was of Haitian origin (and 3 time President of the Dominican Republic) and General Gregorio Luperón. The war began on August 16, 1863 and Spanish troops abandoned the island after two years of fighting.

About a decade later the Dominican Republic sought to sell itself to the United States and become a colony. The Dominican Republic offered for the United States to take it over as a colony for 1.5 million dollars, but the United States Congress refused although President Grant supported the idea. President Grant hoped the Dominican Republic would be a place where former American slaves could live peacefully without harassment by Southern whites.

Control of the Dominican Republic’s administration and customs was given to the United States in 1906 under a 50 year treaty. In exchange, the United States agreed to aid in curtailing the enormous foreign debt that the Dominican Republic had created. Due to great internal political instability in the Dominican republic, in 1914 the United States expressed concern and stated that a leader needed to be elected. Ramón Báez Machado was voted provisional president in the Dominican Republic as a result. By 1916, the United States, tired of acting as mediator; took political power due to the stepping down of Ramón Báez Machado and the rise of Desiderio Arias who refused to take power. Immediate results followed with the budget balanced, debt reduced, and economic growth renewed. The US troops came from Haiti, which was in danger by large European powers such as Germany, who stated they would take over Haiti due to debts owed.

From 1930 until his assassination in 1961, the Dominican Republic was ruled by a ¼ Haitian dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. He ruled with an iron hand persecuting all who resisted his leadership. Trujillo renamed many towns and provinces after himself and his family, including Santo Domingo the capital city. In an event known as the Parsley Massacre, Rafael Trujillo ordered the army to kill all Haitians on the Dominican side of the border in 1937. Approximately 17,000 to 35,000 Haitians were cut down with machetes from October 2, 1937 through October 8, 1937. Allegedly, this massacre was to have been an attempt to confiscate property and money from Haitians living on the border. As a result of this act of massacre the Dominican Republic agreed to pay Haiti $750,000.00, which was later reduced to $525,000. The Dominican government headed by Trujillo was for a time supported by the USA, the Dominican elite and the Catholic Church.

In 1965, US Marines arrived in the Dominican Republic to restore order in Operation Powerpack, later to be joined by forces from the Organization of American States in what may be termed an early example of a "coalition of the willing". Ensuring the victory of Joaquín Balaguer, they remained in the country for over a year leaving only after supervising elections.

Although Balaguer remained in power for 12 years, his presidency was accompanied by a growing disparity between rich and poor. His rule was a time of moderate repression of civil liberties supposedly to avert pro-communist or pro-Cuba parties from acquiring power in the Dominican Republic.

Antonio Guzmán Fernández succeeded Balaguer in the presidency in 1978. The country enjoyed a duration relatively free of repression and almost complete freedom of expression and speech starting from 1978 until 1986.

Joaquín Balaguer recaptured the presidency in 1986, and was elected again in 1990 and 1994. The international community generally viewed the 1994 election as fixed, leading to political pressure for Balaguer to step down. Balaguer responded by scheduling another presidential election in 1996, which was won by the Dominican Liberation Party for the first time, with Leonel Fernández as their candidate.

Hipólito Mejía won the elections in 2000, when opposing candidates Joaquín Balaguer and Danilo Medina decided that they would not force a runoff after the first got 49.8% of the votes. In 2004, Leonel Fernández was re-elected procuring 57% of the votes, defeating then incumbent president Hipólito Mejía, who ran for a second term.

Culture

Similar to its Caribbean neighbors, the Dominican Republic’s culture is a Creole blend of mostly African and indigenous American cultural elements, as well as remnants of Spain's colonization such as language and religion. The official language is Castilian, commonly known as Spanish. Other languages such as Creole, English, French, German, Haitian and Italian are also spoken to varying degrees. Haitian Creole is the second most widely spoken language being spoken fluently by about 1.2 million people. African cultural elements are most noticeable in family structure; food, such as rice and beans; music and religious synchronization. Taino cultural elements exist mostly in foods. Some words are taken from Taíno words as they are in Puerto Rico and Haiti.

The Dominican Republic is known musically for its exportation of merengue music, a type of joyful, lively music and dance made up of a tempo of about 120 to 160 beats per minute. Similar to the Haitian Méringue, it is based on African rhythm but is played and danced faster. Its syncopated beats use bass, brass instruments, Latin percussion, and keyboard or piano. It is generally a dancehall music that was declared the national music during the Trujillo rule and is not known for social content. Popular merengue singers include Johnny Ventura, Juan Luis Guerra, Milly Quezada, Sergio Vargas and Tono Rosario. Not as popular as the Afro-Cuban/Nuyorican hybrid of Salsa worldwide, merengue became popular during the 1980’s and 1990s primarily on the east coast of the United States when Elvis Crespo and many other Puerto Rican groups, were produced by Dominican writers and bandleaders living in US territory. Contributing to the music's growth in popularity was the larger number of Dominicans living among other Latino groups; particularly Cubans and Puerto Ricans in New York, New Jersey, and Florida and the emergence of Bachata-Merengue .

Until recently, the form of folk music called bachata (a slow, romantic, emotion-driven genre derived from Spanish guitar music) was more closely associated with recent arrivals from the Dominican Republic, although the music had gained a fan base in Puerto Rico. Since 2000, younger groups from New York's Dominican population, such as Aventura, have emerged to bring bachata to a new mainstream version of the music that has become very popular with teenagers. Similar also to Mexican guitar driven music, bachata has become very popular in Mexican-American communities, contributing to its mainstream success within the Latino marketplace.

As it is in Cuba and Puerto Rico, baseball is by far the most popular sport in the country today. The Dominican Republic, after the United States, has the second-highest amount of baseball players in the Major League Baseball in the United States. Some of these include Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martínez, Sammy Sosa and Vladimir Guerrero. Alex Rodriguez was born in New York to parents who emigrated from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic also has a baseball league of its own with six teams including; Aguilas Cibaeñas, Estrellas Orientales, Gigantes del Cibao, Leones del Escogido, Tigres del licey and Toros Azucareros del Este. Playing season is from October to January allowing many MLB players and minor leaguers to play during the off-season in this six-team league. This winter league in the Dominican Republic serves as an important "training ground" for the MLB. Hailing from the Dominican Republic is Felix Sanchez, gold medalist and Luis Castillo, NFL Football player.

Demographics and Economy

Although the US dollar (USD) is accepted at most tourist sites, the Dominican peso is the country’s national currency. The peso, once worth the same as the USD, has recently depreciated. In 1993 the exchange rate was 14.00 pesos per USD and 16.00 pesos in 2000. It jumped significantly in 2003 to 53.00 pesos per USD. The exchange rate dropped to approximately 31.00 pesos per USD in 2004.

Supporting the idea that the decreasing value of the peso in relation to the dollar in 2005 is the result of the international currency market, the U.S. dollar is implicated in almost all Dominican Republic commercial transactions. On February 2005, 1.32 USD = one € = 29 DR pesos; in October 2005, 1.19 USD = one € = 32 DR pesos. The International Monetary Fund showed an increase of 7.6% over the inflation index for 2006, implying that the national currency of the Dominican Republic could finish 2007 with an average basis between 32.70 and 40 pesos per dollar. The fluctuation of the U.S. dollar on the international currency market is another factor impacting the Dominican Republic’s currency exchange market. The value of the peso as of June 2007 was 1 USD=0.7506 EUR=32.302 DOP.

Well-recognized commercial analyst firms and institutions, along with many local economists including Andres Dahuajre Jr. and Jaime Aristy Escuder, estimated an over-valuation of the Dominican peso; suggesting that the government artificially controls the daily basis of the Dominican currency.

The population of the Dominican Republic is made up of 11% Blacks, 16% Whites and 73% of Mixed race, according to the CIA World Fact Book. Jews, Italians, Haitians, Germans, French and Americans represent other ethnic groups in the Dominican Republic. Also found throughout the population is a smaller presence of East Asians mainly of Chinese and Japanese ethnicity, together with Middle Easterners primarily from Lebanon. In 2007, the United Nations estimated the population of the Dominican Republic to be 9,760,000, placing it as number 82 in population among the 193 world nations.