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This well-known steak house is a treat for meat-lovers. It has an extensive wine list and a piano bar.

The steaks here are large and juicy, but there are other items on the menu, notably fish, for those who don’t like red meat. A piano bar and a fine wine list are a bonus.

The versatile and efficient raptor that feeds on small mammals and reptiles is actually a buzzard.

The general term for soda-style soft drinks of different colors and degrees of sweetness.

The Jaragua is one of the top business travelers’ hotels, with rooms and communications facilities designed to meet modern standards. Leisure activities and nightlife attract Dominicans as well as foreigners.

The grandiose Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración is the scene of a huge party to commemorate the country’s “second independence” from Spain in 1865 after a guerrilla struggle that started in Santiago (see Santiago). Another celebration, with plenty of music, takes place in Santo Domingo’s beautiful Plaza España.

The big lizard up to 4-ft (1.2-m) long gets its name from a horn-like bump on its nose. Naturally shy, they have become used to humans on the Isla Cabritos, but normally seek refuge from the heat in burrows. They bask in the sun to become active and live on very sparse vegetation.

Carty was so impressive as a youngster that ten clubs tried to sign him up.

A left turn off the coastal Carretera 5 takes you into the small and still unspoilt village of Río San Juan, until recently an isolated rural outpost but now increasingly on the tourist map. There’s still a working fisher-man’s harbor, and the gridiron Barrio Acapulco is filled with boats and other fishing paraphernalia. The village’s beach is pretty but very small, so most visitors tend to head farther east down the coast. Rio San Juan’s relaxed and friendly atmosphere can be easily sampled in the cafés and restaurants that line the central Calle Duarte.

A couple of tour operators organize trips up this wide river near San Pedro, during which you pass idyllic palm-lined meadows and pretty wooded hillsides.