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Day Sixty Six and Day Sixty Seven - March 12 - 13
Saturday's arrival was for 07:00 with an overnight stay.
I was surprised to read that the island itself has a population of just over 10 million inhabitants while the capital of Santo Domingo's metropolitian area has a population of 3.3 million inhabitants.
The country itself is the oldest country in the Americas as it was dicovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. The Dominican Republic economy is the largest in the Caribbean. It is amazing to think of the Dominican Republic sharing the island with Haiti. Dominican Republic prospers while Haiti does not.
Today was a walking tour of the old city which is considered a World Heritage Site.
At one point, we visited the Catherdral of Santo Domingo where a wedding was to take place that evening. It was incredible to see the quantity of flowers and bouquets - all white with some greenery. Janice practicing her spanish conversed with one of the workers who said that it was not a famous person getting married, just very wealthy. We were thinking of coming back to see a glimpse of the bride but never did.
Sunday was mostly cloudy as it had rained most of the night.
We decided on a visit to the the Botanical Gardens. It is advertised to include flowers and plants native to the island. It was good just to spend time there as it was very quiet compared to the area where the ship is docked. We walked for about 2 hours and only got wet once.
A final stop before we headed back to the ship was to the Columbus Lighthouse. It is a mausolem monument located near the port in tribute to Christopher Columbus. Construction began in 1986 in order to be completed in time for the 500th anniversary of his first voyage to the Americas.
Inside are varous artifacts and items from many countries of the world. You should take time to review the site on the internet.
Did you know that Santo Domingo, the capital of Dominican Republic was founded by Bartholomew Columbus in 1498. I did not know of this.
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Steve Fletcher Martin and Janice, Enjoying your blog. Ursula and Steve