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Santo Domingo Travel Blogs

Background: Explored and claimed by Columbus on his first voyage in 1492, the island of Hispaniola became a springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and the American mainland. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western third of the island, which in 1804 became Haiti. The remainder of the island, by then known as Santo Domingo, sought to gain its own independence in 1821, but was conquered and ruled by the Haitians for 22 years; it finally attained independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844. In 1861, the Dominicans voluntarily returned to the Spanish Empire, but two years later they launched a war that restored independence in 1865. A legacy of unsettled, mostly non-representative, rule for much of its subsequent history was brought to an end in 1966 when Joaquin BALAGUER became president. He maintained a tight grip on power for most of the next 30 years when international reaction to flawed elections forced him to curtail his term in 1996. Since then, regular competitive elections have been held in which opposition candidates have won the presidency. The Dominican economy has had one of the fastest growth rates in the hemisphere over the past decade.




Links: Santo Domingo Travel Blogs (67) | Santo Domingo Travel Photos | Map of Santo Domingo | Dominican Republic Travel Forum | Hotels in Santo Domingo | Hostels in Santo Domingo | Cheap flights to Santo Domingo | Santo Domingo Map | Dominican Republic Facts | Map of Dominican Republic

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Today was uneventful. I worked most of the day, I took a break to work out at the gym for an hour and a half. Then I came back to my room and finished up some more work. That’s it. I also sorted some laundry. Some of you wanted to see the picture I took of Jesus, yesterday when my camera was acting up. So I attached it to this blog. I expect tomorrow to be way more interesting than today. I’ll let you know!! [View Full Entry]

lauren92677 - Lauren Zeiner | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
89 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 1 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 19th 2008 | 68 Views | [diary=336259]


This morning I had a blast!! I looked at two apartments and I really liked one of them. I will look at some more on Monday. There is an apartment that has a gym that I’m looking forward to seeing. After looking at apartments I went exploring. I went to the boulevard were vendors and shops line the streets. I looked around at everything. Then I went to see the oldest church in all of the Americas. There is a statue of Christopher Columbus in front of the church. Across the street from the church was the Hard Rock Café. I [View Full Entry]

lauren92677 - Lauren Zeiner | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
306 Words | 3 Comment(s) | 9 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 18th 2008 | 115 Views | [diary=335831]

school zone
Front of Church
church bells

Hey everyone…. I missed yesterday - sorry!! I was busy with some work stuff…. So today was another great day in training. My team is really coming along. Yesterday, I was picked up at the office buy a different driver. His name was Julio. Julio wanted to show me the DRs version of the White House. So he drove me past it on the way to my hotel. I have some pictures attached. But he didn’t slow down and my camera doesn’t just take a picture when I hit the button, so sorry, the pictures aren’t very good. One thing the [View Full Entry]

lauren92677 - Lauren Zeiner | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
306 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 5 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 18th 2008 | 47 Views | [diary=335578]

DR WH 2
Sugar Cane Mem
Sugar Cane 2

Today was a GREAT training day! We got a lot done. I hope every day from now on is like today! I will try to remember to take some pictures of my new team. I was going to take some pictures of the crazy traffic on my way home tonight, but my camera went dead. I will put new batteries in and make sure to take some pictures tomorrow. Today would have been the greatest day for pictures! It was pouring rain and we passed a couple of bad accidents. Nangy pointed out one car that was totally smashed and said [View Full Entry]

lauren92677 - Lauren Zeiner | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
288 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 16th 2008 | 53 Views | [diary=334818]


Every morning I pass Christopher Columbus’ memorial on the way to work. This memorial is somewhat of a controversy here. Christopher Columbus is a bad man to the Dominicans. He is responsible for killing all the original Indians here in the DR. No one here likes him at all. The memorial was built, but no one wants it. It is also part of another controversy between Spain and the DR. Spain says they have the bones of Christopher Columbus and the DR says they have them. I guess even Cuba says they have them. It’s a big deal. The pictures attached [View Full Entry]

lauren92677 - Lauren Zeiner | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
213 Words | 3 Comment(s) | 2 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 15th 2008 | 75 Views | [diary=334373]

memorial2

Today felt long to me. I think I may still have a touch of jet lag. Plus working from 9 to 6 is hard to get used to. I met my new team today and I think we are going to do great! We all get a long well. They are really a great group of people. I’m going to enjoy working with them over the next five weeks. I rained so hard this afternoon. The windows in my work area are boarded up and I asked if they did that when the last hurricane hit. They said the windows have [View Full Entry]

lauren92677 - Lauren Zeiner | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
274 Words | 4 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 14th 2008 | 54 Views | [diary=334137]


Well I’m finally here! I traveled all day yesterday and was too tired to post a blog, last night. I have a great hotel room at the Hilton. It’s small but I have an awesome view of the pool and the ocean. Looks like the Hotel sits right on the water! I don’t have much to report now, I just woke up and I haven’t explored yet. It’s pretty funny how everyone here speaks Spanish and they ask me questions I don’t understand. Even after I tell them “I don’t speak Spanish” they still try to ask me stuff, in Spanish. [View Full Entry]

lauren92677 - Lauren Zeiner | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
151 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 12th 2008 | 41 Views | [diary=333515]


I am going to try to post the picture of my view from my room. I took this pic sitting on my bed. [View Full Entry]

lauren92677 - Lauren Zeiner | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
23 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 1 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 12th 2008 | 47 Views | [diary=333609]


Independence monument
Independence monument
This monument is in the Colonial Zone and and is a tribute to the Dominican Republic Independence.
After a long flight and only 1 hours sleep i got up and made my way to the bathroom for a well deserved shower. The 1 hour of sleep was hot, humid and buzzing with exitement. I sorted my room and made my way to the reception in the hostal, and to get familiar with my new surroundings. Downstairs a lovely patio, bar and common area awaited me. The staff was friendly and chatty. I got pointed in the direction of the town centre of the colonial zone EL CONDE! I felt a little out of place, and felt like i [View Full Entry]

Toons - Toons | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1439 Words | 3 Comment(s) | 21 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 30th 2008 | 215 Views | [diary=329497]

Me in the park...
Entrance to the park
Lizzard

I have always been so unlucky whenever travelling before, but this trip so far has been one lucky break after another :=) I got to Oslo Airport Gardemoen with flat battery on both my Pc and mobile, a backpack that weighed toooooooooooooo much for comfort. I checked in, and the women at the check in desk weighed my bag, looked at me for a moment, and i assumed she was trying to find a nice way of telling me how much the extra kilo's were going to damage my future economy, but instead she winked at me and said it was [View Full Entry]

Toons - Toons | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1035 Words | 7 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 24th 2008 | 156 Views | [diary=326917]