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Altos de Chavón, a fake mediterranean village near the city of La Romana in the south east of the Dominican Republic, is a fanciful combination of Italian, Spanish, and southern French references. The village includes shops, restaurants, an amphitheater, as well as an art school affiliated with New York's Parson's School of Art and Design, and an artist in residence program. It overlooks a beautiful river valley, in which some scenes from Apocalypse Now were filmed.

It was built, beginning in 1976, so that the (mostly American) tourists residing at the nearby Casa de Campo resort, could stroll through picturesque streets, shop and dine, without having to set foot in the actual Dominican Republic and possibly feel uncomfortable with the local conditions. The genuine, attractive, and reasonably historic La Romana is not walled in and protected by armed guards, and thus by comparison appears unsafe. A vicious circle develops, in which the neglect of the real town, increases the very social problems that tourism organizers prefer to hide from the visitors. The local population does benefit somewhat from the tourism to the resort (and also from the scholarships and events of the cultural foundation) but does not have much control of its impact, let alone its profits. Furthermore, tourists are kept from a genuine impression of the cultural and economic reality of the country.

This separation of tourists from locality, is common in many caribbean countries, including in Cuba, where it has been called "tourism apartheid".

This tour includes over 80 "nodes," linked panoramas, through which one can fly through the village and visit nearby Casa de Campo via bus or by air (line of sight) and its artificial beach.

But this tour allows no escape to the real Dominican Republic.

Max Becher, artist in residence, 1999