What You Need To Know
Santiago de los Caballeros is a city in the north of the Dominican Republic. On a hilltop, the 1944 Monumento de Santiago, topped by a white column, is dedicated to the heroes of the Dominican Restoration War. Dominican art is displayed at the Centro León cultural center. The 17th-century Fortaleza San Luis is now a museum, with tanks and military equipment. Park Duarte has paths, tropical trees and a bandstand.
Santiago de los Caballeros has historically been the capital of the country, and was an important strategic city in the Dominican War of Independence. The name of the city, Saint James of the Knights, refers to the Hidalgos de la Isabela, a group of knights who had come from La Isabela city to stay in Santiago. Sometimes the city is called Santiago de los 30 Caballeros (English: Saint James of the 30 Knights).
Currency
The Dominican peso (DOP, or RD$) is the national currency, with the United States dollar (USD), the Euro (EUR), the Canadian dollar (CAD) and the Swiss franc (CHF) also accepted at most tourist sites. The exchange rate to the U.S. dollar, liberalized by 1985, stood at 2.70 pesos per dollar in August 1986, 14.00 pesos in 1993, and 16.00 pesos in 2000. As of September 2018 the rate was 50.08 pesos per dollar.
Culture
Economy
Santiago’s economy is mainly based by the commercialization and industrialization of its products and finished goods, production of goods in the free zones, and by commerce. The city has headquarters and branches of all the main stores, supermarkets, restaurants and financial entities of the country. The city also has several shopping centers and multinational companies.
Since it is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic, it currently produces the second highest percentage of the nation’s GDP, while also having one of the highest incomes per capita, and a large middle-class population. Telecommunications, such as; wireless phones, cable service, internet service and other services are important for the local economy. Tourism, to a lesser extent, also accounts for a portion of the city’s economy.
Santiago, like most cities and towns in the Cibao valley, has historically benefited from the fertile lands of this region. This makes Santiago de los Caballeros an important area for farming and livestock. Santiago’s industrial sector is also one of the most dynamic in the country. It has the concentration of 15% of domestic industries. This means 308 manufacturing companies, which in 2004 employed more than 14,000 people or 12% of the labor of Dominican manufacturing work. The products range from cigars, coffee, and alcoholic beverages, to concrete, plywood and sheet products. The Mercado Modelo on Calle del Sol is a shopping center where there are various stores of handicrafts and native articles made by hand.
Health
Facilities include Hospital Cabral y Baez, Clínica Corominas, Hospital De Especialidades Medicas Materno Infantil, Union Médica, and Hospital Metropolitano De Santiago (HOMS), being the largest hospital in all of the Dominican Republic and in all the Caribbean.
Language
The population of the Dominican Republic is mostly Spanish-speaking. The local variant of Spanish is called Dominican Spanish, which closely resembles other Spanish vernaculars in the Caribbean and the Canarian Spanish. In addition, it has influences from African languages and borrowed words from indigenous Caribbean languages particular to the island of Hispaniola. Schools are based on a Spanish educational model; English and French are mandatory foreign languages in both private and public schools, although the quality of foreign languages teaching is poor. Some private educational institutes provide teaching on other languages, notably Italian, Japanese, and Mandarin.
Transportation
Santiago has share taxis (often called carros públicos or conchos) and private and independent bus owners who form their own routes according to their demands.
The city has private bus transportation to other cities. Bus companies include Dioni, Metro, Caribe Tours, Transporte Espinal, and Aetra Bus.
The Autopista Juan Pablo Duarte highway, officially known as DR-1, passes by the city center and connects the city directly to Santo Domingo. Other minor highways connect the city to Puerto Plata, Samaná, and the northwestern region of the country.
The Cibao International Airport serves mostly Dominicans living in the United States and other Caribbean islands like Cuba, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Puerto Rico, as well as Panama. The airport of the city was the Santiago Municipal Airport, a regional airport that closed in March 2002. It serves destinations such as San Juan, Port-au-Prince, New York City, Miami and Santo Domingo with regular services.
On March 30, 2022, President Luis Abinader formally commenced construction of the first rapid transit system in Santiago De Los Caballeros. The Monorail project will be the first of its kind in the Caribbean and Central America. Completion is estimated at the end of 2024.
Education
Santiago is home of several universities including the prestigious Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) and Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago (UTESA). Other higher learning institutions present in Santiago are: Universidad Organización & Método (O&M), Universidad Abierta para Adultos (UAPA), Universidad Nacional Evangélica and one regional campus belonging to the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo
Santiago is also home to a Binational Center, the Centro Cultural Domínico-Americano (CCDA), which was founded in 1962 by a group of Dominicans and Americans living in Santiago. At the beginning, the CCDA set about providing English language courses. Later, the library was opened and included the lending of overhead projectors and documentary films. These last two were sponsored by the American Embassy.
CCDA is located on Estrella Sadhalá Avenue. These facilities of the CCDA were opened on July 23, 1962. Throughout its 50 years of existence, the CCDA has taught English language courses, painting classes and manual activities.
Weather
Santiago features a tropical wet and dry climate under the Köppen climate classification. The average temperature varies little in the city, because the tropical trade winds help mitigate the heat and humidity throughout the year. December and January are the coolest months and July and August are the warmest. Santiago and the rest of the country are in the Caribbean and have a tropical climate, which, when coupled with the city’s altitude, 183 meters above sea level, causes cloudy conditions to persist through much of the year. While the city lies within the Hurricane belt, Santiago is more sheltered than other parts of the country from hurricanes because of its location in the Cibao Valley.
