Adventures to the City...

The last few weeks have been full of action and adventure. Two weeks ago Laura and I travelled with some friends (Christina, her 3-year old daughter Julia, and Greibys) who work at the other Christian school in town. Christina decided that it would be fun to go to Playa Dorada, a sort of resort town on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, where she also had a friend who worked in a resort there. It was another beautiful beach, with palm trees lining the landscape, clear water, and a blue sky throughout the day. It was incredibly relaxing and a great break from the "small-town" life in Jarabacoa. I did manage to finish a book I had been working on over the weeks proceeding the trip (Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller), so the day was a fairly productive one :) We even got a sneak peak into one of the all-inclusive resorts from a friend of Christina's who is an assistant manager at the resort. It was some of the most glamorous decoration that I have seen since being here in the D.R., which definitely told me that it was mostly for foreigners. It was a relaxing day to spend with friends and a great way to get to know some people better here in the D.R.

The next day we travelled to Santo Domingo as a sort of "birthday trip," for my birthday, with Robert and Alida. They took us all around Santo Domingo for the day and we were able to see many of the famous sights throughout the city. Santo Domingo is actually the oldest city in the New World, as it was the first place where Columbus ("Colon") landed in the New World. We visited the Colonial District, which contains buildings that are around 500 years old, including the oldest Cathedral and fort in the New World. I was amazed at how underdeveloped many of these sights were. In the U.S. we would have thrown fake guards and people in re-enactment clothing all around this area but we saw none of this the whole day. We paid around $1 U.S. to a guy in a Nike t-shirt to go into the oldest fort in the New World. The whole thing just struck me as odd... but anyways... We also went to the sight where Columbus is believed to have been buried, which is now an enormous rock structure that was commissioned by a former president. The building is quite impressive, but wear is starting to show only a quarter of century after it was built largely because of a lack of funding. We also went to the Santo Domingo Botanical Gardens, which were quite impressive considering they are right in the middle of a booming city area. The Japanese garden section was the most impressive of all the areas. There are plenty of pictures of this area at our Picasa picture website so check them out. We ended our day by traveling to Tres Ojos, which is a series of underwater lakes in Santo Domingo. The water of these lakes was some of the clearest water that I had ever seen and it was teeming with fish and turtles. Laura especially found a liking to all the turtles in the water. The day was a great way to see the many important and talked about sights in the Dominican Republic. Many Dominicans that live here have not seen as much as we saw in a day... What an experience...