The scent of the Caribbean

Seven days of tropical sun, enchanted sea, merengue and relaxation.... Although all-inclusive accommodation is a rarity rather than the norm on these shores, I must say that travelling with two 2-year-old angels made the choice a lucky one!! The undersigned, Benny, Mauro and Gaia (the super mum) and the two little angels Gio and Ceci....land on the island of Hispaniola, in the richest part, the most fickle and unstable, on that elbow of blue-green sea that kisses the Atlantic and nips the Caribbean Sea... Punta Cana (canuta in Italian) opens its blue and green wings, embracing us on a late January evening; an airport of wood with huge fluttering blades welcomes us after a long journey from Madrid. To the unmistakable sound of its well-known merengue we are carried on huge buses towards the resort, immersed in a sparkling green, everything of course prepared, ready, right and on time.

There are no great stresses, if we exclude a few initial hitches at the magical Carabela Bavaro Hotel... its much-hated reception is a mandatory stop for all of us, marked with a green wristband that makes us "belong" to a lineage not always well liked by the locals, but alas that's how it is and how it happens all over the world. Seven million Christians and not only on this part of the island, discovered in 1492 by Mr Columbus, a people annihilated by the discoveries, a human evolution played out and defeated by the powerful forces of Catholicism that the New World could not withstand, and that cannot be stopped even today. A million of them have already packed up and left for the beloved USA, others scattered across Spain and Canada... Here we live well, we who come to spend the winter.... but the Dominicans can't always say the same...

but of course that's only seen and shown to those who, like us, poke their little noses, roasted by this harsh sun, outside the safe and well-off gates of the resort. One glance is enough to notice the sheet-metal houses, the floods that displace people and earth, the bad men armed with drugs and more, the poverty over which the money of the rich isn't shared out and isn't diluted, even though so much of it and too much of it sometimes arrives... But the problems of an unjust and cursed History, made of slaves and suffering between the worked sugar and the churches erected as a symbol of domination, fade away in front of a sun, a sea and rhythms that the Caribbean publicises but that are real, true and surprisingly pleasant.

Seven days on this island apart, sunbathing, escaping a colourless and tiring cold, dipping our little feet in the turquoise waters of a sea to photograph and photograph again, to admire until exhaustion, intense colours but above all, a scent, sweet, delicate and bewitching. An elegant and seductive aroma, made of colours and rainbows, of uncontrolled rain and fantastic morning breezes, the aroma of fresh coconut, of tasty fruit, of a strong and delicious rum, the taste of a country with great problems but with indissoluble natural beauty. The little angels had fun and that's the loveliest thing... seeing them play in the sand and laugh in the sun is a fine hope that all Dominican children should be able to experience once in their lives. Beautiful Dominican Republic, beautiful holiday. Thank you

Andrea