Santo Domingo Parque Zoológico Nacional

A few weeks ago R and I visited the national zoo here in Santo Domingo. It was a nice change from the botanical garden where we usually go to walk, and we enjoyed a pleasant afternoon wandering around the grounds. I've heard that the children's area of the zoo is particularly nice, but we didn't venture there. The weather is a bit cooler here in the DR in the winter months so we were able to stay an hour or two without being uncomfortably hot.

I took my camera, of course, but when I got home I discovered I'd mainly taken photos of birds. I don't know why. There were regular zoo-type animals (tigers, zebras, water buffalo, monkeys, a rhino...) but for some reason I was focused on birds, especially the flamingos:

I loved the murals that were near the reptile exhibit:

But I kept circling back to the birds:

The perpetually grumpy-looking ostrich.

I seriously have no idea. It comes from New Zealand, I think.

Overall, the park is a nice oasis in the traffic-clogged city (we're always on the lookout for places like that!) and was certainly worth the $2 ticket price.

And I do love me some flamingos.

Six Months ... and a change coming

R and I recently celebrated our six-month anniversary at post so we're officially 1/4 of the way through our tour here in the DR. Time does go by very quickly - I'll be bidding on my second post in the next couple of months, which seems crazy-fast. There are many, many places we still want to visit in the next 18 months. We've done quite a lot already, including attending the Dominican equivalent of the World Series:

Where they served empanadas instead of hot dogs. Where they also serve the alcoholic beverage of your choice: Not fond of beer? Have a margarita!

And further adventure beckons nearly every weekend.

Some of the bigger adventures will have to wait, however, until R returns from an epic adventure that he's planning, beginning in March. He's going to hike all 2,100+ miles over five months of that incredible all-American experience, the Appalachian Trail.

To answer the questions that will immediately come to mind:

• Yes, I will miss him.
• Yes, I'm a little worried about his safety.
• Yes, I'll be able to connect with him frequently along the trail through the wonder that is technology (thanks, Al Gore!). I've made him promise to take millions of photos.
• Yes, I'm proud of him. I think he's incredible.
• Yes, he is a badass.

He's wanted to do this for over 40 years, so why not now? It's a perfect time.

After all these years, I still admire his incredible perseverance and will. How could I not? He's an amazing combination of hard work and loyalty, with a little devil-may-care whimsy thrown in. What an ideal partner for life's adventures. He deserves the opportunity to go out there and pursue a dream of his own.

Good times with my guy. Notice the coats? This photo was taken last year in DC....

La Ruta del Esclavo

Recently R and I heard about several historic abandoned sugar mills to the west of Santo Domingo, whose origins in some cases date back to the 16th century, and we decided to investigate. Information on how to drive to the sites proved difficult to come by, however, even after scouring the Internet. Finally we thought we had found an adequate map and headed out yesterday afternoon. We soon found out that our map was not, in fact, adequate. We ended up on a dead-end road surrounded by friendly Dominicans listening to the ubiquitous loud music blasting from a local colmado. I rolled down my window.

"We're trying to find the Ingenio Boca de Nigua," I said. "Are we close to it?"  

You have to understand that Dominican Spanish is not like other Spanish. Many times, it's waaay too fast to comprehend. I finally understood that one of the young men was offering to lead us to the mill - we could just follow as he led the way on this motorcycle. 

Um, okay. 

All the training in the FACT course that R and I had in Virginia immediately screamed, "K-Turn! Do Not Follow! Choke Point! Back away from the seemingly friendly guy on the motorcycle!" After all, we didn't know this guy and he could have been leading us to God Knows Where to rob us. 

We decided to follow him and see what happened. (Our FACT instructors will be slapping their foreheads with the palms of their hands about now.) 

Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that our well-intentioned motorcycle guide didn't know where he was going. We drove all over hell and back without finding what we were looking for. Finally, we stopped and motioned for him to join us. "Look," I said. "Thank you very much for your time. We really appreciate it. But we don't have any more time to go looking for the elusive mills. Here's some money for your trouble." He insisted he could show us. He reassured us that he was honest. In the end, we parted ways amicably and decided to head home. 

And then we accidentally stumbled upon Ingenio Diego Caballero all on our own:

The work in these sugar mills was accomplished by slave labor, and there are three ingenios, or mills, that comprise La Ruta del Esclavo (The Route of the Slave) here in the Dominican Republic. While the Ingenio Diego Caballero was interesting, we were still disappointed, as we were searching for the more dramatic Ingenio Boca de Nigua. It was getting late (because of all the time we had wasted driving around lost), so we grudgingly gave up and drove back to Santo Domingo, determined to return after finding more information for our next outing.

We did see a beautiful river that emptied into the sea on the way back home - I think this is Rio Yubazo, but I'm not 100% certain.

We rose early today and looked out the window to find the city drenched in rain. A little disheartened, we took up our search once again to find a good map to the ingenios. After a few minutes, R had a stroke of genius and searched Google Earth. After some determined scrolling, he was able to find a blurred outline of what appeared to be the Ingenio that we sought. We gathered our things and headed out - rain or no rain. And we're so glad we did.

What appears to be graffiti on the far wall in this photo is actually a really interesting mural. Closer detail of the painting appears below.

A reminder of the slavery used to produce the sugar.

There are no signs on the road helping people to navigate to this fascinating place. (Note to self: Make a map of your own now or you'll never remember.) There is no literature or signage at the site itself indicating the significance or history of the buildings, or explaining the process of milling sugar, or the economic impact to the country, or anything else. This particular site has been proposed to be included on UNESCO's world heritage list, but there is surprisingly little information about it readily available. Perhaps not surprisingly, both yesterday and today we were the only people there.

There is one more mill we want to locate: Ingenio de Engombe. We're enjoying connecting with our inner-investigator, so maybe we'll tackle this next weekend!