Back Home
Got back from Santo Domingo last night and it's nice to be "home". I guess its interesting how your mindset changes when you spend an extended period of time somewhere. I don't think I'll ever really think of Cabarete as home, but compared to anywhere else on this island, it certainly has that feel. A brief summary of Santo Domingo, for those who may not know: Santo Domingo is the capital of the Dominican Republic and has somewhere around 2.5-3 million people. It was the center of the Spanish colony during that era (although Columbus actually first landed on the North Coast a little West of where I am) and has contintued to be the focal point of the country since the country won its independence. Santo Domingo is a bit like Cabarete in that it has extreme poverty, but also a group of affluent people. The difference is that the people with money here seem to all be foreigners, while in Santo Domingo there are upper class Dominicans. One evening we went to a mall to watch a movie and have a little taste of being an American again (I saw Pirates of the Carribbean) and it was a little odd to see Dominicans shopping at all these boutique type clothing stores and whatnot. We stayed in the colonial zone which is contains many old buildings and remnants of the colonial era. I could actually walk around the corner from my hostal and see the 500 year old house where Diego Columbus, Christopher's son, lived. Christopher didn't really spend much time in SD, but his son Diego was, I believe, the 3rd or 4th governor of the colony and had a much more substantial role in the early years fo the colony. Also near there, is a large cathedral which is the oldest still opperating cathedral in the western hemisphere (there was one in Mexico City that was built a few years before this one, but it was destroyed after a few decades). There are also various other smaller churches, colonial buildings, and remanants of the old city wall that protected the city from actack by land and sea. Outside of the colonial zone there are some interesting things to see, but SD is by and large a sprawling mass of people and uninteresting city environments. One thing outside the colonial zone that all mention is the Columbus Lighthouse. This is a monument that was finished in 1992 to coincide with the 500 year anniversary of the "discover" of the new world. It supposedly contains Columbus's remains, but Italy and Spain also claim to have those. The best part is that this building has the ability to shoot an enormous beam of light into the night sky that takes the shape of a cross that can be seen for many miles. In a country that has chronic power outages, it was decided that a good idea would be to build a monument that would require an ungodly amount of energy to display. Brilliant. The end result is that the light beam is almost never turned on. So, after 5 nights in SD, I was definitely ready for the 5 hour bus ride back here to Sweet Home Cabarete. I may go back again sometime in the winter to see a baseball game, but I'm not even sure about that because I could also do that in Santiago, which is 2 hours away. So that may be my only trip to el capital. We'll see. |