♪♪ -The Dominican Republic is a destination of choice for millions of holidaymakers.

But its magnificent beaches of white sand do not fully represent this multifaceted country and its friendly mixture of peoples.

[ Rooster crows ] The Dominican Republic truly reveals itself in its historic towns... [ Bell tolls ] ...its arid zones... and in the heart of its capital in full transformation.

Wherever you go or whatever you do, you will continuously be accompanied by festive music to an air of bachata or merengue.

♪♪ The anti-stress destination par excellence, the Dominican Republic unveils its most beautiful treasures.

♪♪ ♪♪ The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with its neighbor, Haiti.

We start our visit to this island in the Greater Antilles on the Samaná Peninsula.

♪♪ An island on an island, this peninsula is a strip of land about 50 kilometers long.

Small in size, this region nevertheless harbors the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean, such as the Playa del Rincon near Las Galeras.

♪♪ Stretching 3 kilometers, the beach is surrounded by immense coconut groves.

♪♪ ♪♪ The Playa del Rincon is truly the antithesis of mass tourism, far from the bustle of the hotels and clubs of Punta Cana.

♪♪ The small, intimate beach of Las Flechas is just as idyllic.

♪♪ The name of this historic site alludes to a small bay where, during Columbus's second voyage to the Americas, his crew was attacked by natives firing arrows.

The Ciguayos Indians, who then lived on these coasts, were much less peaceful than the Taíno, who Columbus had met a year earlier.

This encounter that Columbus recorded in his logbook marked a radical change in the relationship between the conquistadors and the indigenous peoples.

♪♪ ♪♪ Located on Samaná Bay, Santa Barbara de Samaná is the capital of the province.

The town is a choice destination for anyone looking for the authentic Dominican lifestyle.

♪♪ A veritable icon of the town, this 700-meter-long foot bridge at Samaná crosses the bay and connects two small islands.

The bridge offers walkers an amazing view of the town.

♪♪ ♪♪ But the real attraction in Samaná is offshore.

Every year, from December to March, humpback whales migrate from the polar zones to this shallow and temperate bay in order to breed and calve.

♪♪ The Whale Museum is a good place to get information about these animals, which can be as large as a bus but that are totally inoffensive.

In 1976, a female humpback whale named Salt was identified off the Canadian shores.

She was later observed again and photographed at Silver Bank off the Dominican coast.

This data helped to retrace her migration route and to better understand her behavior.

♪♪ The identification of humpback whales continues, and whale watching is a good means for the general public to meet these aquatic mammals.

♪♪ Since 1985, Canadian Kim Beddall and her team have offered whale-watching trips.

Her knowledge of whales is extensive.

♪♪ Kim has played a major role in making Samaná one of the top 10 favorite places in the world for observing whales.

Aboard the Pura Mia, watchers can follow the whales at a safe distance without disturbing them.

-Silver Bank is 70 miles north of Puerto Plata, and it's part of our sanctuary area.

So, these whales that come in here to Samaná Bay are not resident here.

Sometimes they're photographed on Silver Bank, sometimes they're photographed here.

Sometimes they're photographed in both places in the same year.

So all these animals are in transit, moving through the area, and they use Samaná Bay like an enormous singles bar.

Males come in looking for females.

Females come looking for males.

No action, nothing going on, they move on to the next singles bar and come back next Saturday night.

So everybody's in transit, moving.

-All these observations, as well as photographs, were taken at sea.

They enrich the database of the animals present in the North Atlantic.

It's a long and painstaking task.

Kim and her team helped to advance the knowledge and ultimately the preservation of the species.

♪♪ Since 2011, The Dominican Republic is a full member of the International Whaling Commission, the official organism in charge of regulating whaling.

In 2016, the Dominican delegates of the commission voted against commercial whaling.

This clearly helps to promote ecotourism and whale watching.

A fine example to follow.

♪♪ On the northern coast of the peninsula, Las Terrenas is the most francophone of all Dominican villages.

With a large French community, French has become the second most spoken language here after Spanish.

Even 30 years ago, Las Terrenas was nothing more than an isolated fishing village without electricity or running water.

♪♪ With the development of tourism, the region gradually changed.

Today, residential projects and luxury hotels have transformed the village into a thriving seaside resort.

♪♪ Despite these changes, the Dominican soul is very much alive here.

On Casa Blanca Beach, the return of the fishermen sets the pace of life.

♪♪ ♪♪ Dorado is a frequent catch and is often seen on the menus of the best restaurants in town, as are white marlin, yellowfin tuna, and shellfish.

♪♪ Las Terrenas has managed to conserve its authenticity and easygoing lifestyle, not to mention the beauty of its magnificent scenery.

♪♪ These Caribbean landscapes have inspired many painters.

Originally from Haiti, Yvonne Silvera came to the Dominican Republic 35 years ago.

-The Dominican Republic is like this.

This is the coast of a small island named Bayahibe, near the town of La Romana.

This is another painting of the Dominican Republic.

This is the Samaná Peninsula.

Samaná has landscapes like this.

I learned how to paint in my village in Haiti.

-In my village, Jacmel.

In my village, if the children wanted to learn how to paint, well, they could easily take lessons.

-In Jacmel, it's still like that.

In Jacmel and the village of La Comunione, there are a lot of painters and workshops where the children learn to paint.

-An accomplished artist, Yvonne is strongly inspired by the light and the colors of the Caribbean.

And Samaná Bay is clearly an endless source of inspiration.

Listed by UNESCO as one of the 30 most beautiful bays in the world, this protected area is noted for its cultural, economic, and natural importance.

Such as the presence of humpback whales as well as many other wild and preserved areas in the Los Haitises National Park.

This 200-square-kilometer area, called the Ha Long Bay of the Caribbean, takes its name from the limestone Sugarloaf formations that plunge into the sea.

On the other side of a mangrove are several caverns that can be reached by boat.

This site was known to the Taíno Indians.

The rock art paintings on the walls of the caves represent many of the legends and beliefs of this lost people.

Small groups are the best way of approaching and observing birds during the mating season in this sanctuary of biodiversity.

♪♪ Santo Domingo is the capital of the Dominican Republic.

♪♪ It's the oldest city in the New World.

It was founded by Nicolás de Ovando in 1502.

♪♪ Originally a simple village of wooden houses situated on the west bank of the Ozama River, the town was rebuilt on the east bank after a hurricane.

Santo Domingo began to flourish when the king of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon, decided to establish the viceroy there.

Today, the Dominican capital has more than 3.5 million inhabitants.

♪♪ The old colonial district, with its many historic buildings, is a veritable open-air museum.

These are the very first structures to be built by Europeans in the Americas.

♪♪ La Calle Las Damas leads to the entrance gate of the Ozama fortress.

Located on the mouth of the Ozama River, the fortress was built by the Spanish in order to protect the town from the French and English, who regularly attacked it from the sea.

♪♪ Overlooking the estuary, the Tower of Homage stands in the center of the fort.

During the 20th century, it served as a prison for the oppressive Trujillo dictatorship.

♪♪ ♪♪ The Parque Colón is the center of the colonial district.

Dominicans who have always known how to make the most of life like to meet around a game of dominoes.

-[ Laughing ] [ Indistinct conversations ] -More than just a simple game, dominoes are a veritable institution here.

[ Conversing in Spanish ] On the central square, near a statue of Columbus, is the Cathedral of Santa María la Menor.

It was the first permanent Catholic church in the New World.

Of late Gothic and Plateresque style, it's similar to other Spanish buildings built during the Renaissance.

The coat of arms of the royal Castilian family is carved on the facade.

The oldest hospital built in the Americas now lies in ruins.

Today, a group of colorful and very noisy residents now inhabit the site.

[ Birds squawking ] A colony of Hispaniolan parakeets, an endemic species of Hispaniola.

♪♪ Across the Plaza de España is the Alcázar de Colón, one of the gems of the colonial town.

♪♪ It was built as a palace for Diego Columbus, Christopher Columbus' son, when he became governor of the Indies.

After the departure of the Columbus family, the building remained the seat of the Spanish crown.

It became a headquarters for Cortez, Pizarro, Velazquez, and other conquistadors drawn to the new world by the promise of wealth in Mexico, Peru, and Cuba.

♪♪ Constructed of coral limestone from the coast, this monumental building was built with forced labor by more than a thousand indigenous workers.

Originally, the palace had 55 rooms with 72 doors and windows.

Today, a reconstruction of the Columbus family apartments can be visited.

♪♪ The Alcazar was sacked by the notorious privateer Sir Francis Drake.

Finally abandoned in the 18th century, it was restored in 1955.

♪♪ Today, it's the most visited site in Santo Domingo.

♪♪ ♪♪ A popular shopping street, the Calle el Conde is the main artery of the colonial town and crosses it from end to end.

This animated pedestrian street leads to the Gate of the 27th of February and Independence Park.

This gate was once one of the principal gateways to the town.

It was here that the Dominican Declaration of Independence was declared in 1844.

Every year, a commemoration for the three founding fathers of the nation, Francisco Sánchez, Juan Pablo Duarte, and Matias Ramón Mella, is held here.

Several kilometers away, on the other bank of the river, is an enormous concrete building.

The Columbus Lighthouse was constructed to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas.

This mausoleum, in the form of a Latin cross, was designed by the Scottish architect, Joseph Lea Gleave.

Its size is simply bewildering -- 210 meters long, 59 meters wide, and 70 meters tall.

A casket in the center of this huge structure is said to contain the remains of Christopher Columbus.

Located on a hillside, this imposing edifice dominates Santo Domingo and the esplanade below.

It's one of the windiest sites in the capital.

Working-class children know this well and have good fun here, thanks to the wind.

♪♪ These are the same offshore winds that brought the first Spanish caravels here over five centuries ago.

♪♪ The colonial town of Santo Domingo is not without charm.

And on a Sunday evening, a visit to the ruins of the San Francisco Monastery is a must.

Here, a merengue evening under the stars is organized every week by Grupo Bonye and his orchestra.

♪♪ Music and dance are inseparable from Dominican culture.

♪♪ Merengue music, a veritable national treasure, was born in the Cibao Valley in the center of the country.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ And on these festive notes, we leave Santo Domingo and continue our journey.

♪♪ ♪♪ After driving westwards for four hours, we arrive at the Cul-de-Sac Plain between the Sierra de Neiba to the north and the Sierra de Bahoruco to the south.

This huge depression shelters Lake Enriquillo, the largest lake in the Caribbean, situated 40 meters below sea level.

♪♪ ♪♪ This is the most arid region in the country.

This basin was formerly a marine strait and once cut the island in two.

When the sea level fell, the ocean retreated and left a giant basin of water.

Its salinity is over three times that of the Caribbean Sea.

♪♪ A rare species of iguana lives near the lake.

The adults have a sort of pseudo horn.

This appendage has earned them the name of rhinoceros iguana.

Totally protected, this herbivorous lizard is not the only reptile to be found in the region.

Lake Enriquillo also has a population of American crocodiles.

Between 4 and 7 meters long, these animals can weigh up to a ton.

It's one of the largest species of crocodiles in the world.

Totally at home in this hypersaline water, the crocodiles bask in the sun on the shores of the lake.

It's best not to come here without an experienced guide, at the risk of basking on the wrong beach.

♪♪ ♪♪ When Europeans first arrived in the Greater Antilles, the area was already inhabited, and the Taíno Indians occupied the major part of the island of Hispaniola.

♪♪ The Descubierta caves are highly symbolic for the Indians and still have the images of their divinities engraved on the walls.

♪♪ A leading figure in the struggle of the indigenous peoples against European colonialism, Enriquillo, a young cacique, or traditional chief, became the head of the Taíno resistance.

♪♪ After 14 years of rebellion and bitter struggle, he concluded a peace agreement with the Spanish in an attempt to recuperate tribal land and to ensure the end of encomienda a system of forced labor regularly employed by the Spanish in the New World.

♪♪ A lost cause, for after only 50 years of occupation, the Taíno of Hispaniola became, after the Bahama Indians, the second Amerindian people to be annihilated during the 16th century.

♪♪ ♪♪ Heading south, the Caribbean Sea coast is less than one hour away.

On the beaches south of Barahona, a singular, semi-precious stone was found.

A geological rarity, the only source of this stone in the world is in these coastal mountains.

Christian Vargas has a lapidary workshop here.

-I'm a lapidary artisan.

I live in the Dominican Republic, the country where Larimar come from.

I work the only stone in the world that has this blue color even after it's cut.

Larimar comes from the mountains, about 14 kilometers from the coast.

The history of Larimar goes back to the 1970s, when small blue stones were found on the beach.

Then, Norman Rilling, an American geologist, came here and suggested that the stones might be transported by the river from a zone higher up in the mountains.

The inhabitants then began going upriver to prospect until the day they found the place where these as yet unnamed blue stones came from.

Norman Rilling's friend, Miguel Mendez, lived in the region and worked sea-turtle shells.

Norman asked Miguel to work on a raw stone.

The stone still had no name.

Miguel decided to call it Larimar, a contraction of his daughter's first name, Larisa, and of Mar, which means sea in Spanish, and evokes the blue color of the Caribbean waters.

-So, from the depths of a volcano, this unique, semi-precious stone was born by chance, displaying the colors of the ocean.

♪♪ Traveling east along the coast, we come to the dunes of Baní.

♪♪ This 15 kilometer long sand spit was formed by converging sea currents.

Founded during the Spanish occupation, these are the largest saltworks in the Antilles.

Salt is still harvested here, worked by traditional methods.

♪♪ The sun and the almost daily presence of the wind in the region accomplished their job to perfection.

The work at the salt pans, done mostly by hand, is hard and grueling, but it provides a living for hundreds of families in the region, including a good many Haitians.

♪♪ Workers collect the salt with simple shovels and load it into flat-bottomed barges that are pulled manually.

♪♪ The precious harvest is deposited on the edge of the marsh.

An old locomotive then hauls it by rail to an elevated platform.

The salt from Las Salinas is then packed into 30 kilogram bags and shipped all over the country.

♪♪ The southwest of the Dominican Republic is still not yet a popular tourist destination, and yet it holds many surprising treasures for the adventurous visitor.

♪♪ ♪♪ Now for a change of scene.

♪♪ The Dominican Republic has varied terrain.

The central mountain range, called the Dominican Alps, is only two hours from the coast.

♪♪ Pico Duarte is 3,180 meters high.

Hispaniola has the highest peaks in the Caribbean.

♪♪ This region is the water tower of the country and feeds many of its rivers.

♪♪ At 1,600 meters in altitude, the Aguas Blancas waterfall is the tallest on the island, falling 83 meters into the Rio Grande below.

This river feeds the surrounding valleys before finally joining the Yaque del Sur River.

♪♪ The mountain slopes are covered in forests of Hispaniolan pine, a species that only grows on this island.

Haiti is seriously threatened by massive deforestation, but the vast wooded areas on the Dominican side of the island are better preserved.

The beard's hanging off these conifers are members of the Bromeliaceae family.

Better known as Spanish moss, these hanging plants often swing in the winds.

They are, in fact, distant epiphytic cousins of the pineapple.

♪♪ In a landscape of sun-drenched peaks, the small town of Constanza sits on a plateau at an altitude of 1,200 meters.

It's the only town in the country that has below-zero temperatures, even if, at these latitudes, frost only lasts a few hours a year.

The region has developed since the 1950s, thanks to market gardening.

The climate of the plateaus is perfect for growing strawberries, lettuce, and onions.

♪♪ Constanza has thus become the country's third-largest city, in terms of income, and accounts for 4% of the country's GDP after Santo Domingo and Santiago.

This fertile region supplies fruits and vegetables to markets throughout the country, providing three quarters of the nation's needs.

The Dominican Republic has even become the world's largest exporter of organic bananas and cocoa beans.

♪♪ We leave the central mountain range by the north and descend into the Cibao Valley.

This region occupies a large area in the center of the Dominican Republic.

The land here is particularly fertile, and some of the best tobacco in the country is grown here.

♪♪ Small farms, or fincas, continue to grow tobacco, and the cigars produced in the Dominican Republic are amongst the most famous in the world, such as those produced here at Zemis, near Villa Gonzalez.

Nothing predestined Sylvain Bischoff to come and settle in the heart of Cibao to open his factory, but a passion for growing tobacco, a crop that originated here with the Taíno Indians, convinced him to take the plunge.

It was the Taíno, in fact, who introduced the Spanish and therefore the rest of the world, to the supposed virtues of what they called tabacú.

-Welcome to the Cibao Valley, near Villa Gonzalez, the land of choice tobaccos.

As you can see, we are surrounded by mountains, with the Pico Diego de Ocampo rising to an altitude of 1,291 meters.

Here, we grow several different varieties of tobacco, such as Piloto Cubano and Olor Dominicano.

They used to produce high-quality cigars.

This triangular valley stretches from Moca to Santiago and from Santiago to Villa Gonzalez.

And it's surrounded by the mountains of the Northern Central Range.

We call this valley, with its black earth, the land of tobacco.

Outside of this area, another type of tobacco called Amarillo Parado is grown, but it's used exclusively for cigarettes.

-Rolling a handmade cigar is a very precise process.

First of all, the leaves that make up the filler are assembled and then rolled like an accordion.

A mixture of four different tobaccos make up this filler.

They are chosen for their strength and combustion rate.

On the outside of the cigar, sweet and light tobaccos are used, giving aroma and consistency.

Olor Dominicano, Seco, and Ligero are two high-quality, 100% Dominican tobaccos that guarantee good combustion to the outer leaves.

The inside leaves such as Piloto Cubano, Seco, and Ligero give stronger and denser aromas, and they burn more slowly.

This mixture is composed by the tabaquero, who determines it by estimation, using neither scales nor instruments.

A good cigar must have the right density, so the cigar roller's skill is an important factor.

If the cigar is too compact, the smoke will not get through.

If too loose, it will burn too fast and this will burn the smoker's throat.

The tabaquero finishes the process by placing the cigar in a press that will shape it to the right diameter.

The last step is cosmetic.

The capa is a leaf that covers the whole cigar.

This outermost leaf, called the wrapper, is of a different texture.

It's not as ribbed.

It's silkier and very elastic.

And this wrapper is what makes a cigar a cigar.

♪♪ ♪♪ In the Dominican Republic, cigar exportation has greatly increased.

At the end of the 1970s, almost 6 million cigars were being exported.

Since then, it's reached 350 million sold worldwide and 210 million of them are luxury cigars.

This spectacular growth is due to the excellent quality of Dominican tobacco and to the rigorous selection of near-perfect tobacco leaves.

It's not surprising that the country has become the world's largest exporter of cigars.

♪♪ ♪♪ Traveling up the Cibao Valley, we come to Salcedo, the capital of the province of Hermanas Mirabal.

♪♪ This quiet little town was the scene of a tragic event that shook the country in the last century.

Wandering around the town's small streets, visitors come across many representations of butterflies, and there's a very good reason for this.

In a house on the outskirts of the town, there is now a museum, a national monument that commemorates the Mirabal sisters.

The Mirabal sisters were born into a middle-class Dominican family in the 1920s.

Three of the four sisters, Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa, headed a clandestine movement.

They were given the codename Mariposas, the Spanish for butterflies.

Their aim was to fight the dictatorship that had been in power since the 1930s, headed by Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, who ruled with an iron fist.

On the night of the 25th of November 1960, the three women were arrested by the secret police on a mountain road.

By order of the dictator, they were brutally murdered.

Their bodies, along with their drivers, were then put back into the car and driven off the road to simulate an accident.

The shock of their disappearance ignited a fierce call for freedom throughout the country.

♪♪ Trujillo was finally overthrown six months later after an uprising in May 1961.

♪♪ During the three years of dictatorship, the government murdered 30,000 people.

The six orphaned children of the Mariposas were raised by their surviving aunt, Bélgica Adela Mirabal, the Fourth of the Mirabal sisters.

♪♪ In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 25th of November the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in memory of the three Mirabal sisters, Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The Dominican Republic is now a free and democratic state, and in spite of the difficulties of daily existence, living life to its full is an art form that is fully enjoyed here.

Every February, the carnival of La Vega is a spectacular and colorful event.

♪♪ Masks play a huge role in the carnival.

La Vegas are probably some of the most elaborate but also the most frightening in the country.

The masks are derived from a time when horns, teeth, and the skin of farm animals were used to make them.

♪♪ A popular festival par excellence, the La Vega carnival is an opportunity for people to meet, dance, and enjoy themselves.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ After having crossed the whole island, we now find ourselves in the north.

♪♪ Facing the Atlantic waves and situated at the foot of the Pico Isabel de Torres, Puerto Plato is the country's ninth-largest town.

♪♪ After Christopher Columbus discovered the region in 1493, Nicolas de Ovando colonized it.

♪♪ Ovando wanted to create a port city to transport raw materials and goods found in America to Europe.

Fort San Felipe was built to protect the entrance to the San Marcos River.

♪♪ But incessant raids by pirates and buccaneers eventually overran the stronghold, and the Spanish finally abandoned the city 30 years later.

The fort now houses a history museum and stands watch over the city and its 120,000 inhabitants.

♪♪ Independence Square with its wooden kiosk is surrounded by Victorian-style colonial houses, some of which are in the gingerbread style.

These are very prevalent in Haiti.

They're a combination of European bourgeois houses and wooden Creole constructions painted in vibrant colors.

♪♪ Some of the houses bear witness to a not-so-distant past when the city was flourishing.

The descendant of a German immigrant who arrived in Puerto Plata in 1865, Angel Tomás Núñez Bentz comes from one of the city's largest trading families.

-My name is Angel Tomás Núñez Bentz, and the grandson of Augusto Bentz, who built this house in Puerto Plata.

The house dates from 1800, and it was designed by a French architect.

In those days, my grandfather was making a lot of money, as he owned a dozen sugar factories in Puerto Plata.

He used to travel a lot to Europe and the United States.

That's probably what influenced him to build this extraordinary house that was so totally unusual at the time in Puerto Plata.

This house has played a lot of different roles.

Originally, a hotel restaurant, it became a hospital, a bank, and, once, it was even a souvenir shop.

Over the years, the house often changed hands, and each new owner turned the house into something different.

-Recently purchased by a European couple, the house has been totally renovated and is once more a hotel, welcoming travelers from all over the world.

♪♪ To get a good view of the whole region, it's best to go up.

♪♪ The top of the Pico Isabel de Torres overlooks the town, and all you have to do is take a cable car, the first one built in the Caribbean.

♪♪ The cabins cross the 2,700 meters between the two stations in seven minutes, taking you up to an altitude of 711 meters.

♪♪ On the mountaintop, a statue of Christ the Redeemer welcomes you with open arms.

This is a near copy of the one at the summit of the Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro.

♪♪ We continue our visit at the Botanical Gardens, where you can stroll among tropical vegetation in the cool of the higher altitude.

♪♪ The coastline of this region is often referred to as the Amber Coast.

It is, in fact, home to one of the largest and most famous amber deposits in the world.

Near the Puerto Plata town hall, the former home of the Augusto Bentz family, now houses the Amber Museum.

Here, you can learn about the origin of this unique stone that often contains the remains of leaves and insects.

♪♪ The amber comes from the fossilization of resin from tropical trees that grew in this region millions of years ago.

Another extremely rare sort of amber that's only found in the Dominican Republic is also on display here.

-We have the rarest amber in the world here, blue amber, which only exists in Puerto Plata.

You can see that blue amber isn't really blue in itself.

But look what happens if we put it under the sun's rays or in ultraviolet light.

It changes color.

This phenomenon is essentially caused by organic gases trapped in the amber.

1 gram of high-quality blue amber can cost up to five times more than a gram of gold.

-The Spaniards very quickly discovered these blue amber mines.

Christopher Columbus himself mentions them in his writings.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ East of Puerto Plata are the ruins of La Isabela.

♪♪ On his second voyage, Columbus, who was then viceroy of the Indies, landed here with a fleet of 17 ships and more than 1,500 men.

♪♪ He had the firm intention of establishing a Spanish settlement here.

This was, in fact, the first European colony in the new World.

Today, only traces of this first settlement remain.

♪♪ We can see the ruins of a house that Columbus himself lived in for a few months.

At the time, it was a military building with two floors and a watchtower.

A little further along are the foundations of a church where the first mass in the New World was said.

♪♪ But this first attempt at colonization at the entrance to the Bajabonico River failed.

Difficulties with supplies, malnutrition, and increasingly strained relations with the Taíno Indians all took their toll.

♪♪ The Spanish soon abandoned this spot for another site on the south coast of Hispaniola, founding what would eventually become the future city of Santo Domingo.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪