Colonial Day

We got up this morning and had breakfast before heading out to do our tourist's duty and explore the Colonial Centre of Santo Domingo. Armed with our camera, a map and a large bottle of water we headed out the door and turned left, walking along until we came to a large archway through which we passed, finding that this was one of the many 'puertas' or 'gates' of the city leading to within the walls. From here we walked along a street which contained about 8 convents, 2 plazas and 4 random houses of famous people including the 'toastie' house which of course made us crave for cheese toasties!! Reaching the end of this street we found our selves facing the crenellated wall surrounding the old fort, we peered through the gaps but declined the tour guides offer of entering as apart from there being a fee we could see pretty much all of it from where we stood anyway. Leaving his protests behind we continued along the wall and found ourselves among an increasing number of other tourists with various guides, some of which we were able to eaves drop on and find out bits of information about the places we were seeing. Our next sight was a small plaza to the side of the National Pantheon which was lovely and shady and surprisingly contained what used to be a small swimming pool, whether for public or private use we aren't sure but now it is a photo spot and we saw the usual queueing up of people to get their picture taken there. Leaving them to it we left most of the other tourists outside and entered the Pantheon, relishing the cool interior almost as much as its beauty. This appears to be a building dedicated to the independence of the country and as such has tombs of various important people, original documents framed and presented under glass as well as more than a few Dominican Republic flags dotted all over the place. All this surrounded a central walkway upon which was a thick red carpet and a guard, splendidly attired who walked solemnly up and down the length of it whilst people meandered about and took pictures of him. As it started to get busier with people coming in from outside we decided to move on and found ourselves in a courtyard we had visited previously that, sitting atop the city walls gives a fine view out across the river but also acts as a sun trap, so that after taking a few pictures we quickly left to continue on to the Plaza Espana. This is really quite huge and with the presidential palace along one side and rows of restaurants and bars along another provides a great spot for concerts, markets, fairs etc with a capacity of probably 5000! Again we had already been here before but this time we took the time to go and see the palace which is not quite what you would expect, being part of the original colonisation of the island and therefore looking more castle like with bare stone walls and a gallery type front with archways providing the basis for the balcony above. We again declined to go inside as again there was a fee of about $5 and instead walked across the plaza towards the restaurants and were surprised to see one of them was called Museo de Jamon....ham museum!! Very odd as we couldn't see anything museum like or indeed ham like about it so after a quick photo carried on down a little narrow street, cobbled and winding past various houses until we came to another portion of the City Walls. Clearly not so much visited by tourists despite being on the map as the amount of rubbish along the roads and the smell reminded us of some parts of Havana! We found another pretty little church with a small square in front of it before heading back beside the walls to the Palace once more. From here it was a short walk to Parque Colon where we decided we would go and have a look inside the lovely cathedral here and were welcomed by deliciously cold air due to the huge, snugly fitted, glass doors that help to keep out the heat of the day. We walked around finding it surprisingly small inside and listened to some of the groups guides as we passed before deciding to have a sit down in the wooden pews and relax for a bit. We had picked a good spot as we were able to follow what some of the tour guides were saying as well as see what was going on around us and enjoy the air from the many fans stationed around the building. After half an hour or so the pews started to get a bit hard however and we left to walk down La Conde, the pedestrian street where our dance school was and think about buying some presents and souvenirs for people back home. Finding some of what we were after and haggling hard we came away fairly satisfied and thought to head back to the apartment, before doing so however we stopped to have a look around the small park opposite the entrance to La Conde as it was open and frequently wasn't! Walking past 3 guards we found ourselves in a pleasant area with some trees and shrubs, a brick pathway that led in a round about way to a large memorial in the centre and several people enjoying the shade and quiet that the high walls all around brought from the busy, noisy traffic outside. We followed the path, over what we presume is a continuous 'moat' around the park but that at present is being repaired and so half of it is drained whilst the other presents a calm water on which ducks float and flies hover. Reaching the memorial we entered, for it is in fact a large, tower like structure, and were confronted with giant statues of 3 men important to the independence movement and a crypt below, lit with candles in a blue marble chamber. It was another cool spot which we enjoyed before heading out into the heat again, fully intending to now go back to the apartment and get a shower, but our attention was attracted by large posters on the outside of the park walls to do with the Olympics. In fact, the British embassy has prepared a display that circles the entire park depicting various places of interest and beauty in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which we spent a long time looking at, finding that we had been to many of them and knew of the rest, all in all serving to make us feel quite homesick and glad that we would be back there in a weeks time, despite the weather which we heard was turning to rain once more! Tearing ourselves away we did eventually make it back tot he apartment where we showered, slept for a bit, had dinner and then got ready to go out. Leaving at about 10pm we made the long, perhaps not the safest, journey to a place we had been told about called Terreza Olimpica...a car wash by day but by night, one of the best places to find Dominicans dancing Bachata!! We arrived after passing over a rather awesome pedestrian bridge that split off into 4 different directions over the busy motorway below, making it a very cleverly designed structure, and tried to ask for a beer each over the exceptionally loud music, we ended up pointing to make ourselves understood! Finding that the prices here were half that of la Canaria we sat ourselves down near the tiled dance area thinking that really there weren't many people here and those that were, were watching one of the several tv's showing various sports. That was until we saw outside in the car park/wash lots more tables where the majority of people seemed to be sitting. We watched and waited and were rewarded with people dancing!! Throughout the next few hours we happily watched the Dominicans, for we were definitely the only tourists there, dance enthusiastically to both Bachata and Merengue and were content to join in when we fancied, which was most of the bachatas and a couple of merengues! Soon enough though it was 1 o'clock and the tables and chairs were being gathered up and stacked ready for the morning so we had a final dance and headed off to walk the 2 ½ miles back to the apartment where we had a quick rinse in the shower to cool off before bed.