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
