Sunday, April 24, 2016

Santo Domingo, part 1

My cousin suggested that everything that has already happened might be sufficient sacrifice for the MUPTG. That may be the case, as our travel here was uneventful. I recommended the Dominican Republic to my mother in part because it is a direct flight from Baltimore, and it's in the same time zone during the summer. As a result, I felt pretty terrific when we arrived. In contrast, I always feel practically hung over from lack of sleep by the time I'm going through passport control on a trip to Europe.

Almost everyone that vacations in the Dominican Republic stays in Punta Cana, which appears to be the all-inclusive capital of the hemisphere. My mother and I aren't the types to sit on a beach and fruity cocktails, so we'll be spending the week in Santo Domingo, which is the oldest continuously habited city in the Western Hemisphere, as long as we're talking cities founded by Westerners. Columbus landed here, and his family rules for a while. Stay tuned for way more history than you ever wanted to know in the coming posts.

The Dominican Republic is the poorest country I've ever been in, and my first on the Caribbean. I'm looking forward to learning about the culture and history, which is the other reason we came here. Luckily we didn't come for the food, because it's been uninspiring so far...

3 comments:

Gill - UK said...

Take in the authentic local culture, otherwise you get a tourist view of a place.
Perhaps Punta Cana is the place to go for 'inspiring' food, but Santo Domingo will probably be a more realistic experience, including foodwise.

alexis said...

too much history?? Not possible!! Bring it on. And lackluster food reports. Inquiring minds want to know why the food sucks.

de-I said...

Ditto on both fronts to A