Zoë Sheng

Chinese-Canadian - 21-Aug-19 -

It's me again with a review of the Dominican Republic's rubbish tentative sites. Today we have Ruinas De La Vega Vieja and once again I want to point out that this is on the way from Santiago to Santo Domingo and not a huge detour. Google map is currently wrong and leads you behind the ruins so don't follow the icon for the Ruinas but instead for Fortaleza de la Concepción. Why the name change I don't know, see more in a minute. There is definitely nothing at the icon and it perhaps stands for the general area that holds more than the fort.

As you arrive at the fort ruins there is surprisingly a guy sitting here taking your money (it is cheap though) and maybe if you come across with more Spanish skills he would give you a quick guided tour, but for me he just lead me to the ruins and told me there are five spots to visit. Now if those other 4 belong to the tentative site or not I wouldn't know, maybe someone in the forum will know and I can update this. He talked about "Capilla Bautismo Del Señor" which is clearly not historical enough to fit the bill. The Google "homepage" for the ruins links to a blogspot with description and pictures.

Ok, so this place sucks. I picked the "best" picture here although the above mentioned website has a nicer topdown view. There are basically two buildings that may at one point have been connected. The round one you see in the picture with some cross windows and the rubble next to it. You can walk around the place in 5 minutes. I neglected to ask about the museum I read about but I'm so disinterested with the DR's tentative places by now I don't want to waste more time and get to the cave art already (which was a thousand times better so good choice!)

Again, it's on the way if you are driving along here but otherwise steer far clear of it.