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The golden resin makes beautiful jewelry, but before buying make sure that the piece is authentic.

The long, straight street of this commercial center cuts through downtown, lined with old-fashioned department stores, banks, and street stalls. You’ll find almost everything including “designer” sunglasses from Haiti.

Santo Domingo’s traffic-free central shopping street is the place for merengue or bachata CDs, cigars or cheap T-shirts, and other bargains. The surrounding side streets are also worth exploring for the many gift and souvenir shops.

The best known are the multicolored papier-mâché devil masks from La Vega, available in Santo Domingo.

The choice of merengue and bachata albums is bewildering. Ask the shop assistant to play a few.

Some aficionados rate hand-rolled Dominican cigars even higher than Cuban and they are certainly better value.

Some of the best mountain-grown aromatic beans in the Caribbean are sold in vacuum-sealed tins at fairly reasonable prices.

The friendly little corner stores doubling as bars are the place to go for day-to-day items such as drinks, snacks or soap. You might not find much to buy, but you’ll find the rum cheaper than in tourist stores.

Sunday mornings see the hustle-bustle of several mercados de pulgas in the capital. The outdoor gatherings at the Centro de los Héroes, the bottom of Avenida Luperón, and Avenida 30 de Mayo offer unlikely household implements, occasional antiques, day-to-day clothing, and cheap food.