The gringas go to Haiti!

Well, I’ve been keeping busy and getting around as usual! We had a three day weekend this past weekend. The kids had a four day weekend! On Friday, we had a planning day to write exams and a surprise baby shower for Micah and Kaitlin. My finals are all written now, and I’m completely planned through the end of the year, which is really nice! Then Monday was the Día del Trabajador, essentially Labor Day, so we got the day off.

Lauren and I headed off for our adventures on Friday night. We took off from school at exactly 3:00, went to the money exchange place to get some dollars to pay our tour guide and the border offices, got out some more pesos so we would have some money, and made it back to the bus station in time for the 4:15 bus to Monte Cristi. The bus was late, but we were still in Monte Cristi by 7:00 and caught a motoconcho to our hotel which was right on the water. From there we enjoyed the sunset, our wonderful view of El Morro (the huge flat topped mountain that is the highest costal elevation in the Dominican), and had a Presidente under the stars while listening to a crazy Dominican guy play “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion on his cell phone. We went out and got some dinner: chivo and tostones (goat and fried plantains), which was fairly delicious, and then went to bed.

Saturday morning we got up, ate breakfast, and headed out for our adventures. From our hotel, we walked into town. On the way, we passed huge salt flats where the pump in ocean water, allow the water to evaporate, and then gather the salt. Apparently Morton Salt gets a lot of its salt from in and around Monte Cristi. The town of Monte Cristi is small, dusty, and run down. In the central park is a clock tower that was designed by Eiffel (yeah, the Eiffel Tower designer) and given to Monte Cristi as a gift from France. In town we caught a motoconcho to Playa Detras del Morro, or “beach behind the Morro”.






The Playa Detras del Morro in the Parque Nacional Monte Cristi was amazingly beautiful. For the majority of the day, Lauren and I were the only people on the beach. It was super relaxing and calm. The water was really warm, the sand super soft, and the view breathtaking! Around 3:00, the tide started to come up and more people were coming. We met some nice Dominicans who we visited with for a while, and then went hiking with them up to the top of the second peak. It was an amazing view of the Bahía (the bay) and the beach. You could see the mountains in Haiti from one side and the playa from the other. It honestly felt like we were standing on the edge of the world!







On Sunday, we got up and met up with our Dominican friends and went to the Isla Cabra, a little island off shore. We went out in a little, tiny, wooden fishing boat. The island beach wasn’t nearly as pretty as the Playa Detras del Morro, but it was still nice. We explored the whole island. On the back side the beach was rocky, and had lots of fossilized coral and shell creatures in huge rock slabs. It was really neat. Then we climbed to the top of the island where there was an old falling down monument and a cool view of the ocean. Getting there was a little rough. For some reason, we had left our flip flops on the beach when we went exploring. So, we were barefoot. The sand in some parts was sooooo hot you had to sprint between grass patches where your feet could cool off enough to do it again. Anyways, there was this patch of trees with lots of fallen leaves and shade. So, I was super pumped to get to run to that one! Anyways... I kind of missed seeing the broken branch that was sticking straight out... So, I ran straight into it full speed. It cut my cheek open pretty nicely. My kids have been laughing at me all week! Anyways, after a relaxing day on the island, we headed back to the mainland for a quiet dinner at the hotel, a beautiful sunset, and star gazing with a Cuba Libre and a cigar.







Monday was quite the adventure. We hired a guide for the day. He was a French man who has lived in Monte Cristi for over 20 years and speaks French, Spanish, Creole (what they speak in Haiti), and some English. He picked us up at our hotel at about 7:40, and we drove to Dajabon. Dajabon is the northern border crossing in the Dominican. We got some breakfast there, looked at the Haitian market where people come twice a week (Monday and Friday) from Haiti to sell stuff, and where Dominicans come to get a bargain. As soon as the border offices opened, we stamped out of the Dominican, walked across the bridge that separates the two countries, over the river which is considered “no man’s land” and then got motoconchos a short distance to the Haitian immigration offices and got stamped in to Ouanaminthe, the Haitian border crossing city. From there, we took motos to a bus stop where we boarded a huge, brightly painted school bus that was packed full of Haitian people. There were between three and five people in every seat. The man behind us has a rooster in a cloth bag that he kept letting half get out before stuffing it back in the bag after which it would crow for like five minutes before he’d do it again. Driving along the north coast of Haiti some eighty kilometers was really interesting: seeing people selling things on the side of the road, people riding donkeys, women carrying baskets on their heads, people bathing in the river, women doing their laundry in the rivers, cows crossing the road, etc.









When we got to Cap Haitien, we went to the Mercado de Hierro or Iron Market which is like a huge market more or less where people go to buy and sell things like food and coal. The name comes from the building most of the market is housed in. It’s made of iron and from French colonial times. The market spills out into the surrounding streets though. After that, we walked through the main square, saw a huge church, got some lunch, and wandered around the city some more. We went to an artisan market where we bought some cool, handmade wooden bowls and enjoyed the view looking back at the city wedged between the mountains and the ocean.










After a brief stop to get water, we got a taxi at about 3:30 Dominican time (2:30 Haitian time), and started what was supposed to be about an hour drive back to Ouanaminthe/ Dajabon to cross back into the Dominican before the border closed at 5:00. Well, the taxi driver drove like 10 miles an hour the whole way, stopped for gas, stopped again to put oil in his car, and stopped a third time to fill up his tires. Anyways, we got to Ouanaminthe at about 5:05… So, our guide took his passport along with mine and Lauren’s and stopped at the Haitian immigration offices, and sent us running across the border. We honestly, ran through a bunch of parked cars, up a hill, and across the bridge that’s the border. We ran through the Haitian set of gates without saying anything, and got to the Dominican gates slightly out of breath, very stressed, with no passports. So, I had to beg the Dominican soldiers to let us through the gate, even though the international border was closed, with no passports and to keep the border and the immigration offices (so we could get stamped back into the country) open for us. It was quite the workout for my Spanish. And I’m pretty sure I bit off all my finger nails! Anyways, they ended up letting us through and held the border and the offices open for us until our guide, who was busy bribing the Haitian officials to stamp his passport and our two passports when the white American girls who the passports belonged two were clearly NOT with him. Anyways, we made it! We got into the DR, drove back to Monte Cristi, and caught a gua gua back to Santiago. Home sweet home! It was a pretty sweet weekend all in all though!

If you want to check out more pictures, go to:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010385&id=88400178&l=73a941977a
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010387&id=88400178&l=5299752531

Can we throw a picture?!?!

Life has been pretty crazy around here lately. Coming back from Easter, we essentially had a week and a half to prepare for the science and social studies fair. It’s a little different than a science or social studies fair in the United States is. Instead of each student doing individual project, the entire class works on something together and comes up with a big presentation. I worked with my ninth graders along with the Spanish chemistry teacher on the development of the atomic theory. I know, kinda boring… But she was dead set on it, so I didn’t argue. We had the kids split into various groups, each one presenting on a different major scientist who contributed to the modern idea of the atom and building various models that showed how the theory developed from Dalton all the way up through the modern atomic model that is based on ideas from Heisenberg, Einstein, Schrodinger, and de Broglie. They kids really did a good job. They set up the science lab like a tunnel/ museum using sheets as divisions so they could “walk through” the development of the theory with their audience. They did very well. However, since St. David tends to be a little disorganized about things, we didn’t really know about this at all in advance… So, I ended up having only 1 free period the ENTIRE week! The rest was spent working on the project/ presentation with my crazy kids. Here are some pictures I threw of my 9th graders as well as some they threw when they “stole” my camera. (The Spanish for “take a picture” that they use here is “tirar un foto”. Tirar literally means to throw, so the kids always ask if they can “throw pictures”, even the ones that speak English perfectly!)


Pamela and JD introducing the "tunel de tiempo"


Oasting talking about Thompson's cathode ray tube experiment


The Rutherford group discussing his gold foil experiment


Arnold being a "retrato vivo" or living picture of Bohr


JD (Heisenberg), Yang Gi (de Broglie), Frankie (Einstein), and Rony (Schrodinger) discussing the modern atomic model

The tenth graders presented on Africa.


Mike, Harold, Carlos, and Beverly


Chris doing an "African dance"

The eleventh graders presented on various Caribbean islands.


The eleventh grade presentations... Maribel is talking about her islands


Fabio working the computer/ projector during the presentations


The twelfth graders presented on hurricanes.


Chris, Eduardo, and Priscila with Profe Rosanna


Alana


The "Ed Scislow Fan Club": German, Eduardo, and Jamie

Various ninth grade shenanigans from working on the presentation


Juan and Marcel decided it would be really funny to switch shoes for the whole day


Hanging out in the ninth grade classroom between presentations


Eduardo, Yang Gi, Sebastian, and George


The girls


Priscila, me, and Nicole


Camilo and I


Priscila and George

So, this is basically what my last two weeks have consisted of! If you want to see more pictures, you can check out my facebook album that has all my science fair pictures in it at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010233&id=88400178&l=c1266feb04

Presidente and Pigs? aka: Spring Break 2009!

Spring Break 2009!

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is a big deal in the Dominican. The kids all have off of school and then most people have Thursday, Friday, and the weekend off of work for Easter. Even though most people aren’t very much into “practicing” religion, a vast majority claim to be Catholic, so Easter is kind of a big deal. To start off the week off, I headed to Costambar in Puerto Plata to meet Mom and Grandma. They came on the 25th, I showed them around Santiago and brought them to school for a few days, and then we went to their hotel in Costambar for the weekend. I came back Sunday night to teach, and then headed back to the beach on Thursday night after school. My high schoolers had a field trip on Friday and so they didn’t have class. So, Thursday night, I took a taxi up to their hotel and hung out with them until Saturday afternoon. It was really fun. We got to see a traditional Dominican dance, drink piña coladas out of pineapples on the beach, try some typical “beach” treats like peanuts and coconut in sugar cane sugar, and just visit and enjoy the beautiful weather. Costambar is #2 on the map. (Santiago, where I live, is #1.)


Me and Mom in Costambar

On Saturday, their flight left out of the Puerto Plata airport at 4 something, so we spent the morning on the beach, and then jumped in a cab to the airport. I had the driver drop me on the side of the road at the entrance to the airport and picked up a gua gua to Rio San Juan. (#3 marks the drop off point.) Gua guas are like 14 passenger vans that they smash like 20 some people into that run routes. Rio San Juan is #4. That’s where I had to make my first gua gua transfer. There, I got on a gua gua to Nagua (#5). In Nagua, I picked up a gua gua to Sánchez (#6). In Sánchez, I got “public transportation to Las Terrenas. This consisted of sitting on the side of the back of a pick up truck and driving 20 minutes through the mountains in the dark to Las Terrenas. In Las Terrenas, I got a motoconcho (a motorcycle taxi) to our hotel where I met up with my roommates who had arrived from Santiago about half an hour before me. It was a very interesting day. I met some interesting people, talked to a lot of random people, saw a lot of things typical to Dominican life, and was able to drive along pretty much the entire north coast which was pretty sweet. All in all, it was a very long day, but definitely interesting! The whole trip took almost 6 hours, but when I saw the beaches in Las Terrenas the next morning, it was ALL worth it!



Map of My Spring Break Travels

Las Terrenas is in the Samana Peninsula, which the American government tried to buy from the Dominican to use as a Caribbean naval base before they got Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Anyways, it’s gorgeous! We hung out at the beach pretty much all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. It was so quiet! The first and third day we went to Playa Bonita which means pretty, or beautiful, beach, aptly named! The water was so calm it was almost like a swimming pool. The second day, we went to Playa Coson. It was about a 15 minute motoconcho ride away and even more deserted than Playa Bonita. It was amazing! We had a good time relaxing, sleeping, reading, swimming, and forgetting about school. Oh wait, we ran into our boss there! Dang it! Oh well! anyways, it was pretty great. At night, we cooked dinner at our hotel or went out, met some cool people, hung out with our friends Julianna and Anne who were there as well, had some adventures, the usual! I lost my ATM card in the machine one night, which was slightly annoying to get canceled, but all in all, that was about the worst part of the trip. It was absolutely amazing otherwise!





Playa Bonita


Sunset at the Beach


Playa Coson


Driving over a bridge on a motoconcho


Me and Jessie on the motoconcho with the wild hogs

Anyways, on Wednesday, we got up and going kind of late and ended up taking a gua gua that was nearly empty (which was awesome!) to the capital, Santo Domingo. We bummed around there, ate at Wendy’s, drove around for about an hour, and then headed back to Santiago. (Santo Domingo is #8 on my map.) We got home late, got showered up and went to bed.

On Thursday, Raul, Jennie’s husband, brought me to the bank to get a new ATM card since the machine “gobbled mine up” as she put it. Then that afternoon, Kaitlyn, Jackie, and I went to Salcedo (#9) to the Mirabel sisters’ museum. There were four sisters, three of whom were murdered for their work against the dictator Trujillo in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. You should read the book In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. It’s pretty awesome and talk about their lives and struggles against Trujillo’s tyranny. Anyways, we visited their house which has been converted into a museum, and the gardens around the house where they are buried. Dedé, the only sister not murdered, is still alive today and was there when we were, but we didn’t want to be rude and ask her tons of questions. The Mirabel sisters are considered national heroes now, are on the 200 peso bill, and are still referred to as Las Mariposas or “the butterflies” which was their code name in their fight against Trujillo.


The Mirabel sisters’ house


Their graves


Busts of the sisters who were murdered: Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa


In the Garden


A Mariposa in the garden

Friday was a much needed lazy day of lying around, sleeping, reading, and watching TV. On Saturday, I went to Cabarete (#10) for the day. I’ve never seen the beach as packed as it was! It was pretty crazy, but I still got to enjoy being outside by the ocean. I’m definitely going to miss that a lot when I move home. Today, Easter Sunday, has been pretty low key. I searched for my Easter candy that the Easter bunny left me (thanks Mom, you are the best!!!), webcammed with the family back home, went to church this afternoon, and now should probably get going because we are having some friends over for dinner. I hope you guys all had a great week celebrating our Savior’s ultimate sacrifice and his resurrection, the best gift ever! Jesus is Risen, He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

To see more pictures from break go to my facebook albums:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010115&id=88400178&l=02af8f12e1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010116&id=88400178&l=8707d841ab

Winning Money and Exposing Yourself? What's going on at Saint David School???

Spanish and English are interesting languages. There are a lot of words that are similar to each other and mean the same thing. Like animal is the spelled the same (pronounced a little differently), but means the same thing in both languages. Sometimes there are things called false cognates though, which don't mean the same thing. For example, embarazada in Spanish doesn't mean embarrassed as one may think; it means pregnant! Also, a lot of times there is one word in Spanish that can translate to several things in English. Like querer is a verb that can mean to like, to love, or to want depending on the context. So, there is one word in Spanish that can translate several different ways.

Sometimes these language quirks lead to funny situations. For example, Oasting came in from recess one day and angrily informed me, "I broke my pants playing basketball!!!" In Spanish, the verb romper means break, but it also includes rip, tear, etc. So, apparently, he "broke" his pants when he wiped out and tore up the knees. Another funny one happened with Juan. He was sitting and working with me because due to certain actions on his part, he was kicked out of one of his classes until he apologized for something he did. So, I made him come sit with me during that time and work on his homework. Last week he asked me, "Miss Scislow, how much money do you win?" And I was like, "What? How much money do I win?? Doing what?" And he's like, "Uhh, teaching!?" And I was like, "Well, I don't really win any money teaching..." And he was like, "What the ****?!?!? I can't believe Miss Jennie doesn't PAY you!" That's when it clicked to me. In Spanish, the verb ganar means to win as in like to win a game. It's also the word they use for earning a salary. So, he was trying to ask how much money I make but asked me how much I won teaching instead. It was fairly amusing. Finally I was in the ninth grade class yesterday helping them work on their Spanish presentations for the upcoming science fair. Here the word they use for presentations is exposicion, and the verb that means to present is exponer. So, the kids were working on their various atomic models for the science fair. One group is writing a little play about an experiment that lead to the discovery of the nucleus. So, George calls me over and asks, "Miss Scislow, how old are the kids I'm going to be exposing myself to?" I just about died... Anyways, that's it for now! Life is crazy busy as usual, spring break is coming up, and I'm excited to spend the week at the beach! Hope all is well back home. Love you all and miss ya!

"I'm just rich, so I buy lots! I didn't know she wanted any. I'd give her some if she asked!"

School has been crazy lately, but what’s new? Other than that, life has been pretty normal. I’ve had some rough days and some really good days lately. I’ve been really, really busy with my seven classes. For the most part, things are going well. This past week ninth grade was really good, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because there have been soooo many out sick lately. I had one with dengue, another that’s been in the hospital with a bacteria infection in his stomach, and then a bunch that have had a weird strain of the flu that’s going around. We did a cool lab this week to calculate how many calories are in peanuts and cheetos by burning them under cans of ice, measuring how much ice melted, and then using that in various calculations that ultimately tell us the number of calories, based on our experimental data, are in each. In eleventh grade we did a lab by heating baking soda until it decomposes. We then used that data to figure out which of three possible decomposition reactions had occurred. It went well except the Bunsen burner malfunctioned. I was adjusting the side valve when all of the sudden flames started shooting out the valve I was holding. I have never, ever, ever seen a Bunsen burner do that! It sucked because I burned my forearms pretty bad. I couldn’t wear a watch for the rest of the week because it hurt too much!

My math classes have been pretty normal. In geometry, we went outside and measured a bunch of shadows of things like trees, the basketball hoop, the flag pole, the building, as well as the height of kids and how long their shadows were. Then, we used those measurements to calculate how tall things were. In twelfth grade, we’ve been doing a lot of trig and a lot of graphing which is tough because they don’t have graphing calculators. In eleventh grade we are working with polynomials. In ninth grade, we are factoring.

Other than that, we haven’t been doing too much around here… We’ve been to the beach, down to the monument, around Santiago, but haven’t had any big adventures for a while. On Wednesday, Mom and Grandma are coming down to visit, so that should be fun and exciting! Then, in two weeks, we have spring break. Our plan is to go to Samana which is a peninsula on the east side of the Dominican known for it’s beautiful beaches and waterfalls for the first couple days of break. I’m going to have to figure out how to meet Jessie, Kaitlyn, and Jackie there because they will be coming from Santiago, but I’ll be going from Puerto Plata where I’ll be with Mom and Grandma. It should work out ok though. Jackie and I are going to try to get cell phones this weekend so it will make meeting up and stuff easier. In the middle of the week, we are going to come back to Santiago, and then go climb Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in the Caribbean. So, it should be a fun, exciting week! Only two weeks to go! And only four days until Mom and Grandma come! Yay! Let me know if you want anything from the DR sent home with them :) Love you all!

We're off the the Capital!!!

So, February 27th is Independence Day here in the Dominican Republic. So, we had a the day off of school. So, Lauren and I decided, "Hey, let's go to Santo Domingo for the long weekend!" Here is the run down of my awesome weekend in the capital. I have links to my facebook pictures at the end. You might want to have them open in a different page so you can check them out as you are reading since they go through most of what I talk about in this entry.

On Thursday, we had an Independence Day presentation at school. The kids had this march they did across the basketball court as patriotic music played, they sang the national anthem, and each class did something in the presentation whether it was recite some important piece of Dominican history, sing a patriotic song, act out the Dominican independence day events, or dress up as famous Dominicans. It took all morning, but was actually pretty cool. Jennie asked me if the kids marched at school on our independence day, and I told her, "No, we don't have school on ours." "Well, we don't have school on ours either!" she snottily told me , but looked a little sheepish when I was like, "Well.... Ours is July 4th... So, it's the middle of summer vacation...." Any ways, the kids did a good job. After the presentation, I had some of my little cheaters retake their chemistry test, and then corrected until 3:00 when we were free for the long weekend! Lauren and I got packed up, got some snacks, went and got money, and then hit up Caribe Tours to catch a bus to Santo Domingo, the capital. We got in around 8:30, taxied to our hotel, got checked in, and then went out and got some yummy dinner before heading to bed.

On Friday, we got up and out around 9:30. We walked down to the Zona Colonial. It's listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and contains a lot of "firsts" for the new world. We started off in the Parque Colon, a big park dedicated to Columbus himself, with a big statue of him in the middle, a lot of big shade trees and benches, and the Catedral Primada de las Americas, the oldest cathedral in the Americas. We didn't get to go into the cathedral though because the president was in there. We had a guide book that had a walking tour in it, so we decided to follow their advice. We walked through the Parque Duarte first, and saw the outside of some cool churches. Our first stop after that was the Ruinas del Hospital San Nicolas de Bari. It's was the first hospital in the New World, built in 1503. It survived several hurricanes, pirates, and earthquakes, but was finally done in by a massive hurricane in 1911 and then partially knocked down by the government for public safety reasons after that. Then, we headed to the Monesterio de San Francisco, the first monastery built in the "New World". All that's left of the monetary now are cool ruins thanks to the pirate Drake and some earthquakes. It was rebuilt after each of those disasters, used as a mental asylum for a while, and then destroyed by a hurricane. Now, it's just a bunch of cool ruins. We next hit up a small rum museum, which talked about how rum is processed traditionally and today. They had some cool old sugar cane presses, old rum boxes, and bottles, and some cool pictures. The tour ended with a shot of rum. It was pretty neat to see. After that, we headed up to the Plaza de la Hispanidad, a huge open plaza surrounded by two museums in old historic buildings. The first we went to was called the Museo Alcazar de Colon, which is the house Diego Columbus and his wife lived in. It's been restored as accurately as possible, and contains a lot of period objects, so it looks as much as possible like it would have when they lived there. (Diego was Chris's son and governor of Hispaniola.) The other museum is El Museo de las Casas Reales which for a long time was the seat of Spanish authority for the entire Caribbean region. It has a ton of old stuff from all periods of Dominican history, including Taino artifacts, Spanish galleons, period furniture, and antique weaponry from around the world. It was cool! Outside on the edge of the plaza where it could be seen from the people working in their government offices, is a cool old sundial. It's way bigger than me! From there, we headed down Calle Las Damas, named for Diego's wife and her friends who strolled down it daily. It was the first paved road in this hemisphere. Along that road, we stopped in the Panteon, the burial site of a lot of famous Dominicans. It's full of tombs, contains an ever burning flame, and is guarded by uniformed soldiers. Continuing down, we saw some more churches from the outside, some cool old buildings, including the house were Nicolas Ovando, an early governor, lived. It's now a hotel. That brought us to the Fortaleza Ozama, a huge fort located where the Ozama River meets the Caribbean Sea. It's the oldest colonial military edifice in the New World. It's got several buildings and statues inside. The first is the Torre del Homenaje (Tower of Homage) that we climbed for a cool view of the river/ sea and the Zona Colonial. We also saw El Polvorin, the Powder House. Along the walls surrounding the fort are rows of very old canons dating from 1570 to the mid 1600's. It was pretty cool. From there, we headed back to the Parque Colon, got some water, and trekked out to the Puerta del Conde where on February 27, 1844 (165 years to the day from when we were there!) Juan Pablo Duarte, Father of the Dominican, entered the city and executed their bloodless coup to overthrow the ruling Haitians. Also there is the Altar de la Patria where he, Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, and Ramon Matias Mella are buried. (They are on the 100 peso bill!). After that, we headed back to the hotel. On the way, we watched part of the military Independence Day parade and a cool air show they were having. After resting, showering, and getting dressed up, we headed out for dinner, eating at this really cute little place in the Parque Colon before heading back to get some sleep.

Saturday was just as busy! We got up, ate breakfast at the hotel, and headed out. We took a taxi to Faro a Colon, the Columbus lighthouse, where he is supposedly buried. (Italy and Spain also claim to have his bones.) When you walk in, there is this huge mausoleum thing built of Italian marble. The whole thing is shaped like a Latin cross. Down the sides are small little museums with different things in them, most related to Columbus's voyages/ life, but some that to me seemed TOTALLY random. It was pretty interesting. Equally interesting was when we arrived, we got told to sit down on this rock wall leading up to by some really scary looking guards, which we did, when this big motorcade of SUVs, police cars, and essentially what looked like a Dominican SWAT team pulled up. They told us later that an "important VIP" was visiting the monument, but it was really weird, and we had to sit and wait a while. It was worth getting to see it though I thought. After that, we went to Los Tres Ojos, which are limestone sinkhole caves. It was SO cool! They are dark, humid, full of cool stalactites and stalagmites, and just really interesting to see. There are three main lakes in the cave (which is where the name three eyes comes from), and one more that is back behind the third and reachable only by boat. That one was discovered late, after the place was already given its name. Anyways, it was really neat to get to see, and none of my pictures do it justice at all! After that, we taxied back to the Zona Colonial and went exploring again. We went inside the Primada Catedral de las Americas, which is really big and open with vaulted ceilings and stuff. It was neat. Then, we went to the Museo de la Familia Dominicana. There is a really cool double Gothic window in the front, which is supposedly the only one of its kind in the Americas. It was set up how a rich Dominican household in the 19th century would have been and had a lot of cool period pieces as well as a really neat little courtyard in the middle. Then, we stopped in the church Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes. It has a really cool front alter that is made of tropical hardwood and a pulpit on the side that is supported by a demon/ dragon sculpture. After that, we went to the Museo Mundo de Ambar, which kind of goes through how amber is formed and how it's used and stuff. It was cool. Lauren bought a cute pair of amber earrings and an amber necklace. From there, we headed up and saw the church Iglesia de Santa Barbara and the ruins of the Fuerte Santa Barbara. It was really cool, and we got to hike up and around them. From there, we headed back through the Plaza de la Hispanidad, back down Las Damas, back to the Parque Colon and a little further to the Larimar Museum. Larimar is a light blue stone found only in the Dominican Republic. The museum was small, but interesting, and talked about the formation, mining, and use of larimar. I got a cute necklace. From there, we headed back to Parque Colon for a beer and a rest. Then, we headed back to our hotel, stopped for ice cream on the way, took naps, showered, and changed. After that, we went to this cute little restaurant right on the water. It was delicious food and a really cool atmosphere. Then, it was back to the hotel, watch a little Night in the Museum, and get some much needed shut eye.

On Sunday, we got up, ate breakfast, and taxied to the Plaza de la Cultura near the center of the city. The first museum we went to was called Museo del Hombre Dominicano, and went through the history of the Dominican people. The first room was Taino artifacts and history, then there were rooms about how the Spaniards and the African slaves contributed to Dominican culture as it is today. Then was also a room dedicated to Carnaval, a month long celebration in February that culminates the last weekend of February/ first in March (conveniently, that very day!). After that, we went to el Museo de Historia Natural, or the Natural History Museum. While not amazing, it was worth a stop of this science geek. Finally, we went to the Modern Art Museum. While I’m not usually a huge fan of modern art, I must admit, I really liked the photography exhibits there. Then, we headed back to the hotel, checked out, ditched our backpacks and headed out to the Carnaval celebration. It's totally crazy, and very Dominican: loud music, bright colors, lots of beer, tons of people, no respecting personal space, and totally crazy. They wear crazy masks/ costumes and run around hitting people with real or imitation cow bladders in the butt. If you are a white girl, lots of people try to hit you and take pictures with you. We got some Presidentes and sat down to people watch and soak it all in. Eventually, we made our way down to the parade route and watched the huge Carnaval parade that is comprised of the best entries from each city in the DR. Each city has its own characters and stories. Santiago has lechones and pepines which are from La Joya and Los Pepines, rival neighborhoods in down. The lechon, or piglet, represents a devil and lechon masks have smooth horns. The pepines are mythical creatures that are supposedly a cross between a cow and a duck. Their horns are covered in spikes. They run around hitting each other and whoever is close with inflated cow bladders and crack huge rope whips on the street. Each town has their own characters and stories, but I don't know them all. Anyways, we watched the crazy carnaval parade which was pretty cool! Then, we headed back to the bus station after picking up our bags, caught a 6:00 bus and were back home and very exhausted and sunburned by about 9:15. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend!

Picture links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009748&id=88400178&l=fc1b2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009751&id=88400178&l=691c9
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009757&id=88400178&l=96394