The Dominican Republic is a tin-pot third world banana republic.

There is extreme poverty everywhere and complete government mismanagement. Things have gotten even worse with the new president Leonel Fernandez. He has devalued the dollar by 50% and raised taxes and prices to insure poverty for his people. There is no money- dollars or pesos in circulation. The only people who have it worse are the neighboring Haitans!

The dollar exchange rate continues to decline and the prices continue to rise. There are people striking and hunger and poverty in the streets. Every day the merchants can be seen raising their prices out of greed and hoping that no one will notice. I went shopping and noticed that the Super Polo and La Sirena stores seem to be particularly guilty of this practice of raising prices daily. The Denny?s store in Santiago seems to be the only store that is not gouging consumers.

Their Zona Franca that exports products can barely keep their doors open from the 50% devaluation of the dollar in the Dominican Republic. Their tourism has taken a sharp decline. It seems things were better with the previous president Hippolito Mejia.

It is still a great place for a Caribbean vacation. I recommend you compare prices with other Caribbean destinations with the sharp devaluation of the dollar.

An American observer.