Santiago de los Caballeros: the heart of Dominican tobacco

Dominican Republic's second-largest city, Santiago de los Caballeros remains the center of the country's cigar production and traditional merengue music.

Taxis and motorcycle taxis remain the most common way to get around.

The Monument to the Restorers, towering over sixty meters, celebrates the Dominican independence war from Spain in 1863 with internal wall murals.

Just nearby, the Cathedral of Santiago Apóstol, with its neoclassical facade, houses the mausoleum of General Gregorio Luperón, a national hero.

Continuing, you visit the cigar factories of the city center, where artisans still roll tobacco leaves by hand, cultivated in the nearby Cibao Valley.

As evening falls, the Los Jardines neighborhood enlivens merengue and bachata venues, musical genres born in this Dominican region.

The Cibao Valley, surrounding Santiago de los Caballeros, produces some of the world's finest tobaccos, exported for premium cigar manufacturing globally.

The Monument to the Restorers, originally built to celebrate dictator Rafael Trujillo, was rededicated after his fall to the heroes of the Dominican Restoration War of 1863, with a name change but unchanged architectural structure.