Santo Domingo

The drive to Santo Domingo is beautiful.  There is every bit as much color as the drive north to Puerto Plata, but just more of it.  The freeway we took was a major one, connecting the two largest cities in the country, and well maintained.  Although there wasn’t paint marking the lanes, there was very little trash on the sides of the road and the ditches were clear.  The drains for rainwater are different here.  Instead of being underground, they are visible on the sides of the roads, being rock lined ditches water flows into.  When it rains, little rivers and creeks follow you as you drive.

Santo Domingo is divided into three parts: the Colonial, the New and the Modern.  Our hotel was in the Colonial section, where emphasis has been placed on preserving the historical architecture.  We took a walking tour and saw the second church (and the oldest still standing) build in the western world.  A little further down is the oldest Cathedral and past that is the castle Diego Colon, the son of Cristobel Colon, live in. 

And what an amazing castle is was!  Most of the original furniture is still there and the detail is incredible.  In one room, the ceiling beams had been stenciled with all these little flowers and swirls and designs.  Very cool.  There was the original kitchen and bed rooms- of which there were two, one for Diego and one for his wife.  Our guild joked that he didn’t know how they had had 7 children if they slept in different rooms. 

Los Tres Ojos National Park.  The first of three lakes.

We also visited a National Park called ‘Los Tres Ojos.’  The three eyes are three underground lakes and legend says that if you touch the water, you’re going to have twins.  Of course, we didn’t find this out until most of us had dipped our hands in, so I guess there’s going to be a lot of babies in our futures.  The water was this deep aqua blue with little turtles swimming around in it. 

On the second day of our trip we visited a zoo.  We all got onto this bus/train car to take a quick tour of the entire site, them they let of off to further explore.  The engine quit out on us once and the guild was speaking in rapid fire Spanish- “this animal is a vegetarian and this animal is found in South America” – that by the time we stopped it was nice to walk around and take pictures.  The big cats were my favorite, then the alligators.