Reason 4 to NOT live in the Colonial Zone: Lack of sport activities

Now, this is more an individual observation than a general fact. But I had my problems finding places where I can do sports. That of course depends on the sports I was interested to do. But finding a well-equipped gym, a professional school of martial arts or a dancing school was not possible in the Colonial Zone.

Although I tried to find them, I haven’t had luck. Most of the offers are unfortunately of minor quality and I had to accept that. Some friends of mine who wanted to do some alternative activities like Yoga or Pilates reported the same issue to me. Other indoor and outdoor sports like swimming, ball sports, and other athletics, etc. are scarce goods in the Colonial Zone.

Some aerobic groups or outdoor fitness instructors exist at the Malecon and other places in the Colonial Zone. But training for hours under the scorching sun and difficult temperatures with all the urban emissions was never an alternative for me. I was looking to pay a decent amount of quality for some professional equipment and people to train with. Except for one small and chaotic gym with old-fashioned training devices, I couldn’t find good options to do sports in the Colonial Zone. And that gym was a mess: The owner lived in the gym with his two pit bulls. A really special situation I didn’t encounter before or after.

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It seems like maybe the same structural problem occurs that I already described in the previous chapters. On the one hand, the Colonial Zone can’t grow in terms of geographical or architectural size and bigger store areas are limited. On the other hand, it might be more lucrative to adapt the existing space to tourists instead of business ideas or services for residents.

Thus, I mostly did sports across the Malecón. Santo Domingo’s beach boulevard lasts for miles and offers some good DIY-alternatives. I was skating very often during the lockdown when anything else had closed to stay active.

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Fortunately, the emissions there are lower than in the middle of the historical center and were during the lockdown even lower. It’s a beautiful route for running, walking, or cycling activities to compensate for the missing sports activities in the Colonial Zone.

Next page: It’s not easy to get out of the Colonial City