Understandably, most tourists who make a beeline for the eastern shores of the Dominican Republic do it for the ivory-white beaches that cluster with their concomitant all-inclusive resorts around the bustling town of Punta Cana. A little further inland Higüey dominates the plains, commanding the surrounding sea of sugarcane farms and urban sprawl with the episcopal citadel of the Basilica of La Altagracia. In fact, it’s to this pious central hub that most Higüey tour guides will point visitors to the city straight away; to sight some of the most startling Christian architecture in the Caribbean and the miraculous Virgen de la Altagracia painting that has been the source of this site’s sacred nomenclature since colonial times. And while most of the rest of the city is now given over to blue-collar life—bustling cocoa factories and a hubbub local cafes and drinking dives—there are still glimpses of old Arawak and Spanish alike to be had. To do it like the locals, flag down a motococho to ply between the 500-year-old Church of San Dionisio and the earthy foodstuffs of the city’s sprawling marketplace.