What to bring with you back from the Dominican Republic
What to bring with you back from the Dominican Republic
What to bring with you back from the Dominican Republic
The largest Dominican specialty is turquoise blue semi-precious stones – larimar, which can not be found elsewhere in the world. Even in the Dominican Republic, it has only one site – in the southwest of the Republic, near the town of Barahona. The name of the stone is derived from the name of the jeweller daughter’s who first made the jewels with this stone – Larisa and the word “mar” – which means Ocean in Spanish. The color of this gemstone is truly authentic with the crystal color of the Caribbean Sea. The rarest larimar has a deep blue color with milk veins. Larimar is usually set in gold or silver.
Another very popular semi-precious stones are Dominican Amber – known for its wide range of shades and colors and unusual transparency. The most precious is the amber in blue and green color. Unlike Baltic Amber, which comes from resin of coniferous trees, the Caribbean Amber originates in a prehistoric deciduous tree called algarrobo. Just as the resin flowed down the tree bark, it absorbed small branches, bubbles of air, or parts of insect bodies so thus you can also find pieces of amber with whole bodies of ants and small prehistoric lizards. Just recently, such a piece of amber, originated in the Dominican Republic, was auctioned off and sold at a London Museum for $ 130,000! There are several amber deposits in the country today, especially on the North Coast. Like larimar you will usually find it processed in gold or silver.
Practical souvenirs from the Dominican Republic that will remind you the taste of the beautiful days of your holiday are – coffee, cocoa, rum, mamajuana, cigars and recordings of local typical music.
The best aromatic coffee is Santo Domingo coffee. It is sold in white packaging, in grains or already ground. You can also find it in a gift pack – in jute packs. Genuine cane rum is one of the most classic souvenirs and gifts. The main brands are called “3B” – Brugal, Barceló and Bermuda. Another good rum is the Macoríx rum. The cheapest are white rums – unripe, which are used here exclusively to prepare mixed drinks. The most expensive, then, a few years old rum of golden color and delicate delicate flavors.
If you want to please someone with an exotic and a practical and especially delicious gift, we recommend you to buy the coconut liqueur – Licor de coco, which is sold directly in the original pack – the coconut. Besides rum, you can also consume a very delicious rum-soaked coconut pulp.
Also, do not miss the tasting of the so-called Dominican Viagra named Mama Juana. It is a mixture of different herbs, bark and tree petals, all sealed together in one bottle (or lighter version in a plastic bag). You can prepare the drink by yourself at home by pouring this mixture with cane rum (in Czech Republic is available from Stock, Key Rum) and red wine in a ratio of 2: 1. Add honey to your taste, shake and let cool for 1-2 weeks. Mamajuana however can be bought “ready to drink”. Mamajuana is also used as “medicine”. It is recommended to use 1 x 0.5 dcl of glass a day. The preparation into the same bottle can be repeated indefinitely!
Stronger but already quite different variant of this herbal Mama Juana is so called Mariscos Mama Juana. Mariscos – the seafood – contains all the seafood: squid, lamb (shellfish), so-called sea cucumbers, and sea cockroaches! For this exceptional composition it also has exceptionally strong effects!
The production of cigars is associated with this country perhaps even more than with Cuba … The Dominican Republic is nowadays the world’s first cigar maker and exporter. The tobacco was originally grown by the native inhabitants of the island – the Taina, from whom Kryštof Kolumbus himself, as the first European, was given a tobacco leaf to smoke as a sign of a friendship and peace. Branded cigars are packaged manually and their quality is subject to strict controls.
No less remarkable remembrance of your holiday may be the record of the Dominican merengue or bachata or the sexy Latin Salsa.
Another commemorative object related to the Dominican merengue is a musical instrument – the guira, which is a metallic cylinder with a grooved surface, over which a metal fork passes. The guira gives a basic rhytm for merengue and is supported by another, for Europeans, already known musical instruments – maracas. If you decide to buy a special Dominican drum called tambora and accordion then your merengue band will be complete.
We are sure that in your first day of your stay you will meet with colorful, different types of acrylic paintings. They are referred to as “naive Haitian painting” and are sold in a variety of locations – beaches or land on the streets, souvenir shops, galleries. Someone will smile over the kitsch design, others feel the expression of joy, comfort, and simplicity of Dominican life. The motifs of these paintings came to the Dominican Republic from the neighboring Haiti and are repeated regularly – the sunset over the sea, the palm grove, the Haitian market, the picturesque Dominican cottages under the red blooming trees and many others.
Prices of images are different, it is definitely necessary to bargain, in a few minutes the price can fall by as much as 50%.
