santo domingo - the oldest city in the new world
i am telling you upfront - this blog entry is not going to be very funny. miraculously, i had no episodes of misfortune or stupidness today, which generally translates to a rather boring day. i guess if i have time left at the end, i can tell you the story from yesterday that i just remembered regarding the cuban cigars. that was pretty amusing...
so today mom and i were up at the crack of dawn, with the crowing of the roosters (literally - there are roosters somewhere nearby) to catch our bus to have a day full of being hearded around like the tourists that i generally pretend not to be.
to start off, the bus was about 15 mins late getting us at the hotel which gave me enough time to run to the buffet adn grab a rather disgusting (i didnt know that the time) donut looking thing that turned out to be lemony and better looking than tasting. whatever. it was still food which fully qualified it in my book.
after picking us up, we went to another place and picked others up and then set out on the highway looking for adventure (sorry, i have this problem where i constantly have the compulsion to break into song adn sometimes i cant supress it). about 15 mins out, our tour guide Elvys - yes, thats right, elvys is alive and on the bus - informed us that we were going to switch busses. so they parked the bus adn we got off and got on a new one. so i sit down and the seats on teh new bus were so close together that my knees were jammed into the back of the seat infront of me. not a pleasant way to spend 3 hours. trust me on that one.
so for most of the ride in, i slept with my headphones on or read my books.
when we got to santo domingo, we got some more history lessons and then we were dropped off at the alcazar de colòn (the house of colombus) which was the home of cristobal colòn's son diego. it was pretty cool. they had all this old artwork and religious stuff. plus they had the armor of christopher (as well as that of the first horse he rode in teh new world) on display. portraits of king ferdinand and queen isabella. they also had a lot of maps and books that columbus brought with him when he came. the dork in me was in heaven looking at all the stuff. it was either the original or very old (17th centuryish) replicas of the originals. it was all stuff that belonged to christopher or diego and maria luisa.
next we went to another museum that i cant remember the exact name of but it was more stuff that had to do with the early spanish occupation of hispañola and the early history of the island since santo domingo was the first city founded in the new world (by the spaniards).
after this museum we went to lunch at this hotel place and it was so so. although i highly recommend the piña coladas to anyone.
after lunch, they took us to the cathedral which is the oldest cathedral in the new world. it was a pretty little place. it holds 900 people on the weekends for mass. apparently, "chreasters" as father jasper likes to refer to them as, even exist in the dominican republic because we were told that at christmas and easter they have to have mass outside in the courtyard because there are so many people (and they also pray that it doesnt rain on christmas).
my favorite most exciting part of the day came next. we were allowed to shop until it was time to come back home. i spent the majority of my time in the jewelry shop (as if that shocks any one at all... lol) where i ended up purchasing a pair of larimar (its the national stone, only found in the dominican republic, blue, very very pretty) earrings, a pair of amber earrings and a cross made out of amber stones. i think i am going to buy another piece of larimar before i leave. either a pendant or a ring. larimar is supposed to be the stone of love in which case i suppose i need to invest in an entire mine of it. i think i made the women at the shop feel bad for me because i was joking around saying that i needed to get a huge hunk of it to carry around on my back to see if it worked and also a large piece of amber as well (because supposedly amber is supposed to bring good luck) so that maybe i would eventually have good luck and love. ok, maybe i was only kinda joking when i said that. i guess as jen said the other night at danas "dont lie. you know you werent joking." after my wonderful purchases, i also acquired three bottles of rum for less than ten dollars a piece. yes, folks, i paid a whopping $3 for a bottle of rum. i think i just need to move to this country.
on teh walk back to the bus, we met this cute little dominican kid who gave me a flower and helped us find the bus. mom gave him 10 pesos which is the equivalent of about 35 cents. nice lady. but the kid was happy and he was really cute, so i dont think he cared much.
pretty much, the ride home was about twice as long as it was out. we got back just alittle after 8 adn dad was waiting for us sitting on the couch drinking rum and 7up. i think we got him hooked. apparently he had a good day. he went to check out the golf course after we left and ended up running into someone he knew from back in the day at keco. the guy was there with otehrs on a business/schmoozing trip and they were 4 people short for their golf outing so the invited dad along (i think me must have looked sad and pathetic - kinda like a dog staring into a butcher shop or something like that... dad staring away at the golf course... lol) to play with them. no cost to him and the one guy let him share his clubs so he didnt have to rent any. it turned out to be a pretty good day for dad too. got to golf, got a good lunch and won $50, a hat and some golf balls. all for free. so he did manage to keep occupied while we were gone all day.
i am out of time again so i gotta run before i have to start selling plasma or something to pay for the internet session. tomorrow should be an easy day becasue we have no activities planned except for bumming at the beach.
can i also tell you that i am so sick and tired of hearing about my cousin sammy that im gonna go nutty soon...
also, the quad is feeling much much better now although i think i am starting to have knee issues... pains... i suppose that with me if it isnt one thing its another right? ¡LOL!
so today mom and i were up at the crack of dawn, with the crowing of the roosters (literally - there are roosters somewhere nearby) to catch our bus to have a day full of being hearded around like the tourists that i generally pretend not to be.
to start off, the bus was about 15 mins late getting us at the hotel which gave me enough time to run to the buffet adn grab a rather disgusting (i didnt know that the time) donut looking thing that turned out to be lemony and better looking than tasting. whatever. it was still food which fully qualified it in my book.
after picking us up, we went to another place and picked others up and then set out on the highway looking for adventure (sorry, i have this problem where i constantly have the compulsion to break into song adn sometimes i cant supress it). about 15 mins out, our tour guide Elvys - yes, thats right, elvys is alive and on the bus - informed us that we were going to switch busses. so they parked the bus adn we got off and got on a new one. so i sit down and the seats on teh new bus were so close together that my knees were jammed into the back of the seat infront of me. not a pleasant way to spend 3 hours. trust me on that one.
so for most of the ride in, i slept with my headphones on or read my books.
when we got to santo domingo, we got some more history lessons and then we were dropped off at the alcazar de colòn (the house of colombus) which was the home of cristobal colòn's son diego. it was pretty cool. they had all this old artwork and religious stuff. plus they had the armor of christopher (as well as that of the first horse he rode in teh new world) on display. portraits of king ferdinand and queen isabella. they also had a lot of maps and books that columbus brought with him when he came. the dork in me was in heaven looking at all the stuff. it was either the original or very old (17th centuryish) replicas of the originals. it was all stuff that belonged to christopher or diego and maria luisa.
next we went to another museum that i cant remember the exact name of but it was more stuff that had to do with the early spanish occupation of hispañola and the early history of the island since santo domingo was the first city founded in the new world (by the spaniards).
after this museum we went to lunch at this hotel place and it was so so. although i highly recommend the piña coladas to anyone.
after lunch, they took us to the cathedral which is the oldest cathedral in the new world. it was a pretty little place. it holds 900 people on the weekends for mass. apparently, "chreasters" as father jasper likes to refer to them as, even exist in the dominican republic because we were told that at christmas and easter they have to have mass outside in the courtyard because there are so many people (and they also pray that it doesnt rain on christmas).
my favorite most exciting part of the day came next. we were allowed to shop until it was time to come back home. i spent the majority of my time in the jewelry shop (as if that shocks any one at all... lol) where i ended up purchasing a pair of larimar (its the national stone, only found in the dominican republic, blue, very very pretty) earrings, a pair of amber earrings and a cross made out of amber stones. i think i am going to buy another piece of larimar before i leave. either a pendant or a ring. larimar is supposed to be the stone of love in which case i suppose i need to invest in an entire mine of it. i think i made the women at the shop feel bad for me because i was joking around saying that i needed to get a huge hunk of it to carry around on my back to see if it worked and also a large piece of amber as well (because supposedly amber is supposed to bring good luck) so that maybe i would eventually have good luck and love. ok, maybe i was only kinda joking when i said that. i guess as jen said the other night at danas "dont lie. you know you werent joking." after my wonderful purchases, i also acquired three bottles of rum for less than ten dollars a piece. yes, folks, i paid a whopping $3 for a bottle of rum. i think i just need to move to this country.
on teh walk back to the bus, we met this cute little dominican kid who gave me a flower and helped us find the bus. mom gave him 10 pesos which is the equivalent of about 35 cents. nice lady. but the kid was happy and he was really cute, so i dont think he cared much.
pretty much, the ride home was about twice as long as it was out. we got back just alittle after 8 adn dad was waiting for us sitting on the couch drinking rum and 7up. i think we got him hooked. apparently he had a good day. he went to check out the golf course after we left and ended up running into someone he knew from back in the day at keco. the guy was there with otehrs on a business/schmoozing trip and they were 4 people short for their golf outing so the invited dad along (i think me must have looked sad and pathetic - kinda like a dog staring into a butcher shop or something like that... dad staring away at the golf course... lol) to play with them. no cost to him and the one guy let him share his clubs so he didnt have to rent any. it turned out to be a pretty good day for dad too. got to golf, got a good lunch and won $50, a hat and some golf balls. all for free. so he did manage to keep occupied while we were gone all day.
i am out of time again so i gotta run before i have to start selling plasma or something to pay for the internet session. tomorrow should be an easy day becasue we have no activities planned except for bumming at the beach.
can i also tell you that i am so sick and tired of hearing about my cousin sammy that im gonna go nutty soon...
also, the quad is feeling much much better now although i think i am starting to have knee issues... pains... i suppose that with me if it isnt one thing its another right? ¡LOL!
posted by Amy @ 8:52 PM
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