Santo Domingo: More Than Just a Stopover

Santo Domingo is not always treated like one of Ecuador’s obvious travel highlights. Many people pass through it on the way to somewhere else — to the coast, to the mountains, to Quito, to Guayaquil, or to the waterfalls and green landscapes beyond the city.

But that is exactly why it interests me.

Santo Domingo feels like a working city: busy roads, market stalls, colourful umbrellas, street signs, murals, buses, traffic, small details and ordinary moments that reveal a lot about everyday life in Ecuador. It may not always present itself like a postcard destination, but if you look closely, there is character everywhere.

These photographs are not about luxury travel or perfect tourist images. They are about noticing the real city: the colours of the market, the public art, the movement of the streets, the strange beauty of urban details, and the atmosphere of a place that many travellers might pass through without really seeing.

That is what What the Gringo Saw is about — real places, real people and real stories from across Latin America.