Quisqueya. The cradle of the New World, far beyond the all-inclusive.

The Dominican Republic is the cradle of the New World. It was on this island — which the Taíno called Quisqueya ('mother of all lands') and which Columbus renamed Hispaniola — that the Genoese navigator set foot on December 5, 1492, on his first voyage. Santo Domingo, founded in 1496, became the first European city of the New World : first cathedral (Catedral Primada de América, 1540), first university (Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, 1538), first hospital, first monastery, first paved street — everything here is a 'first'. The Colonial Zone has been UNESCO-listed since 1990: 16 hectares of golden stone where you still walk on flagstones trodden by Diego Colón, Hernán Cortés and Bartolomé de las Casas. Population: 11 million inhabitants — Afro-descendants (forced deportation 1502-1808), Hispanic-Taíno mestizos, descendants of Europeans, and a Haitian community. One island shared by two: the Dominican Republic covers the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola, Haiti the west — the only Caribbean island with two sovereign states.

On the nature side, the country is a concentration of Caribbean superlatives. The Pico Duarte peaks at 3,098 meters in the Cordillera Central — it's the highest point in the entire Caribbean, higher than any summit in Cuba, Jamaica or Puerto Rico. In the southwest, Lake Enriquillois the largest lake in the Antilles and one of the world's rare saltwater lakes located below sea level (-40 m), home to American crocodiles American crocodile. À Samaná, every year mid-January to mid-March, 15,000 humpback whales (Humpback whale) come to breed and calve in the bay: one of the five largest whale gatherings in the world. The waterfall ofEl Limón drops 50 meters beneath the jungle; the 27 Charcos de Damajagua are a unique run of 27 chained waterfalls you descend by jumping and sliding down natural chutes. At Bahoruco in the southwest, Bahía de las Águilas is regularly ranked among the world's most beautiful beaches — 8 km of immaculate white sand without a single building, reachable only by boat from Pedernales.

And then there's Dominican culture, pulsing at full volume. Merengue and bachata — both born here, both listed as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage (merengue in 2016, bachata in 2019). People dance everywhere, all the time: in neighborhood colmados, on the beach in Las Terrenas, at Santo Domingo dance halls. And béisbol is the is the national religion: the Dominican Republic has sent more than 800 players to the American Major League, more than any other country outside the United States. San Pedro de Macorís is nicknamed the 'Cradle of shortstops' — Pedro Martínez, David Ortiz, Sammy Sosa, Robinson Canó, Albert Pujols — they all started here. On the plate: la bandera dominicana — white rice, red beans, stewed meat — the national lunch dish; mangú — green plantain mash at breakfast with fried eggs, salami and fried cheese; sancocho — a seven-meat stew for Sunday family meals; chivo guisado — stewed goat from the Northwest. All washed down with Brugal, Barceló or Bermúdez — three premium Dominican rum houses —, punctuated by Davidoff or Arturo Fuente cigars rolled in the Cibao valley, and accompanied by a morir soñando (milk + orange juice + ice, 'to die dreaming').

But above all, the country hides geological treasures unique in the world. Larimar — a turquoise semi-precious pectolite stone, endemic to a single mine in the world, at Los Chupaderos in Barahona province — exists nowhere else on the planet. Dominican amber — fossilized resin 25 to 40 million years old — is the only amber in the world where you frequently find perfectly preserved prehistoric insect inclusions : it's what inspired Jurassic Park (the fossil mosquito in amber). The country lives with several assumed paradoxes: all-inclusive capital of the Caribbean (Punta Cana and its 50,000 rooms) and a sharp ecotourism destination (Jarabacoa, Constanza, Barahona); a massive colonial heritage and a proud Afro-Caribbean identity; the land of salsa and bachata and the land of the pre-Lenten carnival — La Vega in February, horned Diablos Cojuelos masks, one of the most spectacular carnivals on the continent. Toucan Discovery serves the Dominican Republic beyond the beach clichés: we also show you the Dominicans' own country.