Juan Dolio

Long before tourism, the bay at Juan Dolio was the site of a pre-Columbian Indigenous settlement known as El Corral, because the bay that served as a harbour for its canoes was sheltered by a coral reef. Later the shore was home to a small fishing village on the coast between Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macorís.

By the late 1980s Juan Dolio had become a pioneer of the Dominican hotel industry, a favourite of European tourists, and new hotels were built along the shore through the following years. Hurricane Georges in 1998 changed its course. The storm's damage hit the local economy hard and led to the closure of most of the beach hotels, while the large hotel chains moved further east to Bávaro and Punta Cana.

Some of the older hotels were converted into property developments, and the area has since been reshaped by a building boom of apartments and condominiums, especially in the newer part known as Villas del Mar. Juan Dolio is less popular with international visitors than it once was, but its beaches remain well used by both Dominicans and foreign tourists. It is a community within the municipality of Guayacanes, in San Pedro de Macorís province.

Juan Dolio's character is shaped by its closeness to the capital and by its history as a pioneer of the country's hotel industry. Its beaches are well used by Dominicans as well as foreign tourists, and the mix of local beachgoers, apartment residents and hotel guests gives the strip a less international feel than the big resorts further east.

The wider province has strong traditions. San Pedro de Macorís, the provincial capital to the east, is the home of the cocolo community, descended from workers who came from the English-speaking Caribbean islands in the sugar boom, whose Guloyas dance drama is recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. The province is famous for baseball, and San Pedro has produced so many Major League players that it is called the cradle of shortstops; its Estrellas Orientales play in the winter league.

As across the country, merengue and bachata are the sound of the beach bars. Visitors are expected to respect the private apartment blocks along the shore, whose security staff often control who uses the beaches in front of them.

Juan Dolio had 2,488 inhabitants in 2010 and belongs to Guayacanes; its visitors and part-time apartment residents add many more in the holiday season.

The economy depends on tourism and property. Hotels, apartment rentals, beach bars and restaurants, a golf course, dive centres and the building trade provide most jobs, and the conversion of old hotels into apartment projects has turned much of the shore into a residential resort. Together with Villas del Mar, its newer part, Juan Dolio is the biggest tourist centre on the south coast, and a building boom continues to turn the old all-inclusive strip into apartments, golf and marinas.

Life is quiet compared with the big resorts of the east. The coastal motorway connects the community with Santo Domingo, San Pedro de Macorís and La Romana. Along Playa Real, where high-rise apartments stand between the road and the sand, private security staff often limit free access to the beach.

Seafood is the strength of Juan Dolio's table. The food and drink stalls near the public beach serve typical dishes made with fish and seafood, and seaside fishing villages across the country offer a great variety of seafood, most commonly shrimp, marlin, mahi-mahi and lobster. Dominican cooking is more mildly spiced than that of other parts of the West Indies, relying mainly on red onions, garlic, cilantro, cubanelle pepper and oregano.

Away from the beach the food is the everyday Dominican kind. Stewed meat is one of the components of la bandera, the traditional Dominican lunch, and sancocho, a stew of several meats, is the national soup. Empanadas are a common snack, and tostones, fried plantains, are a familiar side.

The province's cocolo heritage adds yaniqueques, or johnny cakes, a dish brought by sugar-cane workers from the Lesser Antilles over a century ago, and guavaberry, a liqueur made from the guavaberry fruit, drunk at Christmas and associated with San Pedro de Macorís. Presidente beer, rum and mamajuana, a spiced drink of rum, red wine and honey infused with bark and herbs, are the drinks of the beach bars.