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Up to 15 ft (4.5 m) in length, these crocs can look fearsome, but are in fact much more timid than their African or Australian relatives. They live up to 50 years on a diet of fish, waterfowl, and small mammals, thriving in the protected salt-water environment of Lago Enriquillo.

A Dominican cross between a thick soup, a gumbo, and a Spanish paella, this mix of rice, chicken stock and spices can be served with chicken or seafood. A slightly less liquid version is called locrio , again featuring rice, vegetables and your choice of meat or seafood.

The charming fishing village, now the venue for an all-inclusive hotel, is situated close to a wonderful white-sand beach (see Playa Baoruco), behind which steep wooded hillsides tumble down towards the sea.

Watching a Dominican baseball game is as much a social as a sporting experience. The crowds are passionate but good-natured and the match is interspersed with a lot of chat, drinking, and snacks. If you’re interested in this sport, you’ll make new friends (see Baseball).

Baked sweet potatoes are cooked over embers and scooped out of the skin. Can be eaten either hot or cold.

Stores or market stalls selling religious and superstitious icons and potions for use in brujería .

A large grouping of eye-catching plants, of which the pineapple is a member, and increasingly popular as exotic indoor ornamentals. Here, they grow wild, either in the ground or sprouting from a tree, shrub, or even from a telegraph post.