Hotel La Casona Dorada & Restaurant Santo Domingo

... built in the Americas. We walked along Calle de las Damas and saw beautifully restored homes - like that of Hernan Cortes. We went into the Panteon Nacional - a former convent - where many members of the Dominican Order are buried. We headed back to the area around Plaza Colon (Columbus Plaza) where we attempted to have dinner. We sat outside - then it started to rain - so we went inside - but there wasn't enough ...

... through Santiago, the second largest city in the DR, and then started climbing into the mountains themselves. The higher we got, the rougher the road became and the poorer the communities became. It started to look more like the impoverished part of the Dominican Republic I'll be seeing in Neyba. After about 40 minutes we reached our destination: a community center for the Catholic church in Puerto Plata. CSA isn't a parochial organization, but ...

... phone numbers, and business cards for me to contact them (I am not sure in what capacity, but I rolled with it!). We then joined the other larger group for the end of the seminar. La Gobernadora was there, and she made a point of speaking to me and welcoming me to the session, which was very nice of her. Following the session, there was a meal, and then we were back in the car en route to Consuelo. All told, it was a really ...

... rooms with capacity from one to four occupants. Each room is fully equipped with air conditioning, ceiling fans, in-room TVs with more than 80 channels both national and international, room safes, refrigerators, phone, free wi-fi and Hair dryer. A 24 hour taxi service is available from our Hotel lobby Within walking distance from our hotel is "El Malecón" - the city's ever busy ocean side boulevard, where ...

We have left Cuba and find ourselves in the very capitalist Dominican Republic. There is something very comforting about a big luxurious airport sporting KFC, Burger King, Pizzas, cafes etc after leaving a plain and barely adequate Cuban one. I guess that shows I´m used to it. As I stated in the last email I did enjoy aspects of Cuba and if I were young and single it might have been a different experience - like that of our Sicilian friend Luca, who also travelled to Cuba ...

... into and holding my inhaler at the ready, because I am just that cool. Santo Domingo itself is a large, dirty metropolis full of scary cars and noise. The city is very polluted: the air is like molasses and the ground is covered in refuse and, occasionally, people who may or may not have died. The people drive very quickly despite having a very Caribbean attitude towards time and timeliness. I had many moments in Santo Domingo when I was seriously afraid that I would die ...

... which is fabulous! I am in the northern part of the country, about an hour south of some gorgeous beaches, so I'm excited to do some traveling and exploring. I will be working with two schools in the area and was able to visit them this last week. They are adorable, and even though they need a lot of help, I am so excited to ...

... but he called me 'mama' today, because they just call every woman 'mama', but it freaked me out, and I was like, ok, let´s go find your real mom! :) The doña and I are also walking every morning together down to the ocean and around the town, and she is so cute about it...they are into exercising here, which is great. I´ve been able to go running without people looking at me like I am the weirdest person they have ever seen. I´m all about the smaller ...

... round or not. I have a new best friend named Jerry, he has 4 legs, is white with yellow spots, and loves following me around EVERYWHERE. My new k'nine friend is wonderful...I am so happy that my host family has a dog. Besides having a loyal pet, I´ve also observed some more things about my community. EVERYBODY works in the banana fields. On saturday my host dad wants to take me to one so that I can see the process. I am really curious to see what the ...

... let us off. But I realized that this was not the usual stop we take. But since some of the girls paid already, they would not let us back on the bus, and the bus drove off. This happened even though I told them that we needed to get back on and that this was the wrong stop! So there we where 5 americans on the side of the highway, wondering how the hell we were going to get to the training center. The people told us that we needed to cross the highway to get to the enterance of the ...