Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic is about 44,440 square kilometers big, being the second biggest nation in the Antilles region with Cuba being the largest. Dominican Republic has three major mountain ranges; these are the Cordillera Septentrional, Cordillera Central and the Cordillera Oriental of the East. Situated between the Septentrional and the Central mountain ranges lies the fertile, scenic and rich valley of Cibao, the valley where the Santiago De Caballeros city is located while the Dominican Republic's capital city of Santo Domingo is situated on the northern part.

The Dominican Republic's government is patterned like that of the USA, with a democratic form of Government headed by a President who serves as both the head of government and the head of the state. Just like most democratic countries in the world, the Dominican Republic's formations of power are shared by the Head government which handles the executive power, the National Congress handles the Legislative power while the Supreme Court handles the Judiciary which stands by itself and is independent of the legislature and the executive.

Elections are held and practiced every two years for both the Congressional and Presidential level as well. There are three main political parties in the Dominican Republic namely the Dominican Liberation Party, Dominican Revolutionary Party and the Reformist Social Christian Party.

The climate and weather condition in the Dominican Republic is ideal for most part of the year. Generally Dominican Republic has a tropical climate; rainy season comes in the months of may to november with periodic average to strong hurricanes from june to november. Average rainfall is measured at 1340 mm; temperature varies from 21 degrees celsius in the mountains and 25 degrees celsius in the low lying areas.

The official currency of the Dominican Republic is the Dominican Peso, with the US dollar still being used and accepted especially in most tourist areas. The current rate of the Dominican Peso to the dollar is about 31.00 pesos per US Dollar.

The demographics of the Dominican Republic are composed of 72% mixed race, 11% Black, and about 17% White. More than 90% of the more than 9,000,000 inhabitants of the Dominican Republic are composed of Christians; a lot of them are Roman Catholics with Protestants making up the rest of the Christian block.

Dominican Republic enjoys a rich culture filled with influences by its neighbors in the Caribbean, it is said that the culture of this country is a mixture of African, Tainos and European traditions. Spanish or Castilian is the official language but most citizens also speak English.

The most popular sport in the Dominican Republic is baseball, no surprise for a country which has produced a lot of Major League players in the past number of years.

Over all the Dominican Republic is a very interesting nation with a rich culture, history and tradition every traveler would surely appreciate.