Blogs from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Central America Caribbean - page 2

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HISTORIC SANTO DOMINGO Dominican Republic We decided to go to the Dominican Republic, on our way down to Puerto Rico, where Michael will be terminating his adventure in the Caribbean. We had two choices of airports in the Dominican Republic. We finally settled on flying into Santo Domingo, the capital city. Michael is very comfortable in big cities and likes to visit a country’s capital. I was happy to take advantage of his experience and broaden my travel skills. We got a hotel right on a busy expressway. It was a comfortable hotel and featured a very nice complimentary breakfast. At my instigation we took a taxi to the university area looking for a vegetarian restaurant…big mistake. The restaurant didn’t exist any longer and the taxi driver, trying to please us, took us to another restaurant ... read more
La Fortaleza de Santo Domingo
At the top
Church


The assistant leaders and I had dinner the night before travel with Derek from Courts for Kids, after I had coffee with my former student and returned Peace Corps volunteer Sarita, who had worked in the DR, participated in a Courts for Kids project, and is planning to take part in another this summer in Nicaragua. Derek brought us up to date--for example, we'll be staying in a house, not a community center. We will carry several very large duffel bags of a fiber that replaces metal mesh in the court surface, portable showers, and a first aid kit. Everyone showed up at the airport on time, which is always something with an early morning group departure. There are 17 of us. This trip has taken some doing to stay viable, and I was very happy ... read more
Santo Domingo hostel


Après un peu de repos, nous partons, ce 26 mars visiter la capitale de la République Dominicaine. Nous en profitons pour visiter le musée Christophe Colomb puis le centre de la vieille ville.... read more
SAINT DOMINGUE
SAINT DOMINGUE
SAINT DOMINGUE


The blog post really deserves more than one entry. The Dominican Republic was, for me, two experiences. One of culture, and one of convenience. And it is confirmed, I will take culture anyday over unlimited buffets and an open bar. Andrea and I spent half our Spring break trip in the capitol of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, pretending we were NY times travel writers and we were researching our previous article title, "36 Hours in Santa Domingo" . We followed our guide to a T. Somethings were now closed or lacked their previous allure, but overall it was a perfect guide to a few days in the country's capital. The food was amazing. Andrea with her mastery of languages sweet talked every waiter in to giving us the non-tourist special. So we were treated to ... read more
Free tour
Santa Dominigo
Downtown Santa Domingo


A Neighbor, Hipermercado Olé LA RUBIA La Rubia lives across the street in a small pink wood house with a galvanized tin roof and sells chicken every morning. She is tall, lean, strong and perhaps in her fifties with a gauntly aged face and is missing her top front teeth. She builds a fire outside where she boils a big pot of water to scald the chickens for plucking after cutting their throats. She rinses them with water and covers them with plastic bags, hangs a scale from a tree limb and sells the poultry for about 15¢ more per pound than Hipermercado Olé, the nearest supermarket. Usually she wears jeans when she prepares the poultry but if she has just gotten home from the disco or been dropped off by one of her chulos, she ... read more


The Beginning La Primaveral de Villa Mella, where we live, is on the outskirts of the city of Santo Domingo about 9 kilometers up Maximo Gomez as far as the blue water tank on stilts and then our house is a 1 kilometer walk or a 10 peso per person ride on a Honda 70cc Cub Special motorbike away. When we use such a concho Altagracia rides sidesaddle in the middle pressed between me and the chauffeur. From our roof we can see mountains, and our street, Loma de Chivo, which was asphalt at one time but now is mostly paved with dust, is virtually a dead end as it narrows to a dirt trail near a stream a few blocks beyond our house. There are a few big houses like ours with three bedrooms and ... read more


Resumo:Passagem comprada! Santo Domingo tem muita história (pena que ninguém tem interesse). Comprei! Amanhã as 8am vou para Porto Príncipe – Haiti. Espero chegar durante o dia, pois disseram que é impossível andar a noite sozinha. A moça do orfanato que irei trabalhar irá enviar um motorista para me buscar. Parece luxo, mas descobri que isso é normal, quase que obrigatório, por lá. ... cenas dos próximos capítulos. Enquanto isso, fui passear pela Zona Colonial. Quanta história!!! Primeira igreja das Américas, primeiro monastério, primeiro forte militar, primeira rua ‘pavimentada’, ... Pena que está área não recebe os cuidados necessários. O turismo poderia ser maior nesta região. O calor infernal atrapalhou a minha vontade de devorar tudo e de fotografar as ruas e pessoas maravilhosas. Preciso mencionar a simpatia das pessoas. De verdade, o povo dominicano... read more
Catedral Primada de America
Catedral Primada de America (inside)
Ruinas del Hospital San Nicolas de Bari


Hello all! It's been a few weeks and a busy time in the office, but I snuck out for 4 days to go to the D.R. for their 2nd Intl. Bachata Festival the weekend before last. After an 8 hour busride I was in Santo Domingo for an incredible first trip to other country that shares this island. Not only was the contrast in city infrastructure striking between Haiti and the D.R., but even on the busride over there was a notable difference in the agriculture: organized fields, tools, tractors, irrigation systems for rice fields, etc. (another convo about international investment and country histories would be great to have here, but I can't do it justice now...). Anyways... It was the first time I've ever paid for a hotel in my adult life (granted I shared ... read more
Dancing dancing dancing
Workshop time
Hotel! Buffet! Hot water!


The Dominican Republic was awesome. I was in Santo Domingo mostly but took a day trip to Santiago de los Caballeros. Santiago de los Caballeros is about 2.5hrs by bus from Santo Domingo and the city is very rich in Arts and Culture. I visited lots of Arts Exhibitions. In Santo Domingo, I stayed 10mins walking distance from the zona colonial and again I enjoyed being close to the colonial zone. My host was great and I felt like a part of the family. I didn’t do lots of touristy stuff here; I just hung out with the locals and immersed myself in the culture. This meant that I attended classes with my host at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), I took the guagua (public transport) and went to a local discoteca. One of ... read more
On the streets toward the Malecon
Photo 28
Photo 3


Sorry for the long delay between posts, but I had something written down before leaving for my volunteer visit, but the power went out and my work just wasn’t saved. And of course, I was lazy in trying to write it again cause it was late and well, I was tired. Okay so back onto my story to grandma’s house. So we pick up the story, where the dashing protagonist has left his quiet, safe, and lawful home to aid a fellow knight in his battle against the evil dark lord in the lawless town of La Barrera. Before arriving to give aid, he proceeded to have a long journey. This first started with a meetup with a fellow trainee, Jeff, and eventually , this dashing, roguish protagonist, (you would think I should put Tal here, ... read more
Typical




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