Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
INLAND
Three highways lead west to the Haitian border. Fifteen kilometers west of Ázua the high-
way branches west to San Juan de la Maguana and the border at Elías Piña, and south to
Barahona. At Barahona the road splits again - the interior road runs past Lago Enriquillo to
the busy Jimaní border post, and the southern road hugs the coast before dead-ending at
Pedernales and the residential border crossing to Haiti.
TOP OF CHAPTER
San Juan de la Maguana
POP 78,313
Momument-heavy San Juan de la Maguana is a pleasant place to kill a night in transit.
Haitians are increasingly moving in as Dominicans move away, bringing a Vodou influence
to the city's Dominican Catholic culture. It's known as La Ciudad de los Brujos, the City of
Shamans - most shamans live in the hills outside the city however, and are definitely not
tourist attractions.
Sights
El Corral de los Indios
Despite being referred to as 'the Stonehenge of the Dominican Republic,' this pre-Colom-
bian site - one of the few in the Antilles - doesn't quite live up to the hype. The site is
composed of a large circular clearing, with a 1.5m-long gray stone with a face carved on
one end. Research here is thin, but it's said to have originally contained two rows of block
stones forming two concentric circles around the center. One theory is that it was formerly
a ceremonial place for the Caonabo and Anacaona Indians as well as an astronomical in-
strument. Today, the only thing surrounding the center is a football and baseball field. It's
located 5km north of Calle Independencia.
HISTORICAL SITE
