Santo Domingo

I've had 2 final "exams" (scantron = middle school memories!), 2 presentations, and a couple of improvised dramatizations this week. The presentations are a good measure of how much I've improved in Spanish, since they were given with almost no preparation. I also had a mild fever during all this, but I'm just happy that it's gone and I most likely don't have malaria or dengue :) Anyways, this week has been a hot reguero (mess) mostly because we spent the entire weekend touring the capital, Santo Domingo.

Did you know Santo Domingo was the third place Christopher Columbus discovered in the New World?? Now you do. We visited lots of historic places, the names of which I don't remember because I was distracted by the humidity and heat. And my fever. But here's a picture of the palace where Diego Colon - Christopher's son - lived:

It was located in a large plaza that overlooked a river and was lit with old-fashioned street lamps that lined the cafés and restaurants on one side. There was even a public jazz concert and couples danced under the moonlight. So romantic. But my camera is too old to capture the ambience.

We spent our first morning on a guided tour of La Zona Colonial, which is home to the first hospital-turned-prison, university, and cathedral of the New World. We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, with 300 pesos to spend for lunch. Naturally, I spent almost all of it on ice cream. Surprisingly, I had only bought ice cream or froyo 3 times before this.

BON!!! The ice cream carts from heaven. These guys made bank from our tour group. 

Santo Domingo - at least the Zona Colonial - was much more European than I'd expected.
But then I remembered the whole Christopher Columbus this. 

After my "lunch" of a chocolate Magnum bar and delicious chinola (passionfruit) frozen yogurt, we went to Calle El Conde for some shopping. I had been pretty frugal up to this point, but I ended up splurging on a saucy, new dress. Even though we split up into several smaller groups, somehow all of us girls ended up at the same store, Divas. I tried on a bandage dress that required a surprisingly amount of exertion to take off. Everyone tried to persuade me to get it, but it wasn't worth $50. It was also a little difficult to walk while wearing it. After looking at what felt like 10 million dresses, I finally bought one.

Deepesh, the lone gentleman who endured hours of shopping and even offered very practical commentary. 

At Mercado Modelo, I used my Chinese-ness to haggle with the shopkeepers. One of them chatted me up, asking me where I was from. When I told him I was Chinese, he went on about how there are so many Chinese people here, they're so hard working, and sell things for the lowest prices. When it came time to bargain, he wouldn't go below 450 pesos while I was trying for 300.  Then I pulled out the "Ya tu sabes! Soy china" But you already know...I'm Chinese!  We all laughed...300 pesos. bam.  I was exhausted and dehydrated (this is a reoccurring theme) after shopping, but the best was yet to come.  LOOK WHAT I FOUND ON THE WAY BACK TO THE HOTEL!!!

Chinatown in Santo Domingo. Obligatory Asian tourist pose. 

Deepesh and I ventured through all of Chinatown (read: 2 blocks) in search of bao zi - steamed buns - in the rain. After speaking to a couple of Chinese store-owners in a mixture of Chinese and Spanish (españchino??), we finally stumbled across the one Chinese bakery that sold vegetable steamed buns and tao sao bao. NOMS. My damp shirt, muddy shoes and grimy limbs melted away as I bit into my derricious veggi steamed bun. To be honest, it was only mediocre, but I was so content.

On Sunday, we visited Tres Ojos, which is home to a collection of beautiful caves and lagoons. It was pretty eerie. And humid.

I felt like I was in "The Goonies"! 

On the way back to Santiago, we bumped into an Dominican-American family at a road-side cafeteria and chatted for a while. These random, spontaneous conversations with strangers are one of my favorite aspects of traveling. I really appreciate it when people start a conversation just out of curiosity instead of watching and wondering. I usually end up doing the latter, but it's something I might change, though I also don't want to be a total creep. We'll see how that goes.