Port 35 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Hola!
Early on Mar 12, 2022, we entered the narrow harbor of Santo Domingo! This was worth getting up early to see! For the first time ever we actually saw a tug boat doing more than hovering as a safety backup! This one actually connected to us and pulled us around!
We are in Santo Domingo for two days! This is our first overnight since Barbados, and there is not a bubble at this port so we are free to roam! We have a tour on our first day, but not for the second day, so we’ll be walking! Let’s get to the photos! I’ll warn you up front this is a long post!
The city of Santo Domingo appears on our port side.
Soon after the breakwater appeared very close on our starboard side!
The wall of the old city begins to appear on the shore. I later learned there are two obelisks along the malecon (waterfront road) that are in this photo at about the 1/3 and 2/3 points. The white one is the female obelisk, and the taller colored one is the male obelisk.
This is the monument of Friar Antonio de Montesinos. This is as close as we ever came to it, and never saw it from the front.
A tug chased us down and kept getting closer, closer, closer…
Then they backed up and unreeled a line attached to us! As noted above, this is the first time we ever saw a tug hook on to our ship (any ship)!
Then the tug backed and pulled the stern to port! He was spinning us around!
Before we turned too far I spotted this nice brigantine at dock on our starboard side, along with a Navy ship and the lighthouse! (A brigantine is a sailing ship with a foremast square rigged, and main and mizzen masts fore and aft rigged.)
It was amazing how much “stuff” was in the water and along the water just outside of this beautiful city wall! Boats. Containers. Equipment. So sad to distract from the city walls this way.
As the tug continues to pull us around we see the river and the dock that will be our home for the next two days. The mats of green stuff floating in the river prove to be interesting and surprising, and will get worse!
As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, we do have a tour. So we were out early, and were greeted by this great little ensemble! The costumes are beautiful! The music was great, assuming you like accordion! And the dancing was simple but sweet!
We boarded a bus to head to the botanical garden, so here are a few interesting snapshots along the way. This is one of the entries into the colonial city. Of note in this image is the statue on the right is of Juan Pablo Duarte, a major figure in the liberation of the Dominican Republic from Haiti and then again from Spain. And on the left and bottom are two of the Politur police like the ones we saw at the Chavron River boat ride yesterday.
As we turned away from the malecon (waterfront road) and turned north to the botanical gardens I noticed this sculpture in the plaza. Would you believe this is a statue of George Washington? It is!
And the road we travel to the botanical gardens is Abraham Lincoln Avenue! Another of the main throroughfares in Santo Domingo is John F. Kennedy Avenue. Pretty cool, huh?
We finally arrive at the botanical gardens!
Once inside we see beautiful brick mosaic plazas and an abundance of trees. A train is visible in the center of the photo. We’ll ride that around the park!
This beautiful clock is huge! It is 20 meters in diameter!
This is our transporation around the park – the park is incredibly large!
I am only showing a few of the tree images – there are hundreds of varieties from all over the world here! The train actually drove too fast to really enjoy much of the park – the narrator barely kept up with the trees she was identifying as they flew by!
Many of the trees are too close to the train to have good photos. Be thankful!
We leave the train for a short walk through the Japanese Garden portion of the botanical gardens.
This part of the garden was designed by Mamoru Matsunaga. He is memorialized near the entrance.
Clean lines, tortured cherry trees, scuplted trees, and bamboo fences decorate this corner of the botanical gardens.
Even a toolshed is decorated to honor the Japanese garden.
My only complaint in this garden is all of the water features are green. This feels unnatural and is distracting. Any paintings I make of this will ignore the water color.
This is one of my favorite views! Overall, the Japanes gardens section of this botanical garden is clearly my favorite part, despite the water’s color!
These ducks were peacefully hanging out – many others were in the water being fed by a kid on a nearby rock.
After another train ride we return to the park center.
We see this sign as we exit the park. Beautiful! But the skies are getting gloomy!
Shortly after leaving the garden I spotted this statue of Benito Juarez. He was identified as a distinguished person in the Dominican Republic.
I catch my first glimpse of this statue on top of the city’s northern wall corner. This is Fort Santa Barbara. I hope to get a better view tomorrow.
I am humored to see this, not the police shack in front of the wall, but the port-a-potty behind it!
This is the plaza at the Puerta de las Atarazanas gate. We can see this from our veranda on the ship! This is where we said goodbye to our bus and began the walking tour of Colonial Santo Domingo.
We pass this statue of Juan Pablo Duarte on our way to the Puerta de Don Diego to enter the city – he’s facing our ship!
This is Duarte’s view, and my requisite ship photo!
And this is the Puerta de Don Diego, our entrance into the Colonial City. I love the view through the gate, with the steps and plaza rising in an unreal, Escher-esque way compared to what we see outside of the walls.
This is the view from inside the walls of the plaza and steps looking back toward the gate. Cool, huh? And a note about that gentleman on the far right. I felt like he was following me. And indeed he was for quite a while!
This display is the UNESCO World Heritage Site decree for this colonial city.
At the top of the plaza we arrive at the cannon row, and there is a unique sculpture of a horse! I guess they want us to know that animals were common up here. Behind the horse…
…is an interesting sundial!There is the scale on top, and two additional scales on the sides we see. But with a cloudy day I can’t see what a decent shadow should tell me.
Then behind me, near the sundial, is a cow!
From the plaza we next wandered down Calle Las Damas. The story behind this name is Diego Columbus, Christopher’s son, became the Viceroy of Santo Domingo, and his wife brought her 30 or so ladies in waiting. One night they held a celebration for the vicereine (Diego’s wife) on this road and the road was aptly named after all of the women marching down the street.
This church is the Pantheon of the Fatherland along the Calle Las Damas. It is not a very glamorous facade, but the roofline is striking with the statues and cage protecting the bells.
Then there is this interesting tidbit. It appears to be a pond with arches. It is clearly not of the colonial era. Curious.
We arrive at the central street, Calle El Conde. This entire street is only for pedestrian traffic. It is lined with restaurants and shops, probably with living quarters above them. It is a lively street, with wonderful smells coming out of the restaurants, and loud music out of the bars!
This wonderful sculpture greet people at this restaurant!
We find this chu chu train, similar to the one used at the botanical gardens.
Then we enter Columbus Plaza.
No surprise – we find a magnificent statue of Christpher Columbus in the center!
We’ll revist this plaza tomorrow. For now we’ll complete the tour we’re on.
Passing through the plaza, we are on our way to a jewelry shop to complete the tour. Just outside of the jewelry shop is this marvelous gate with the six face panels. There is no description telling us if there is any significance to the faces chosen. But it is very interesting!
Inside the jewelry store everyone is directed to the larimar jewelry. We learn they also provide samples of “mamajuana” juice. We heard about this on the boat ride. So we are curious. Mamajuana is made with twigs from the mamajuana tree in the bottle. A mixture of honey and rum, or honey, rum, and red wine is poured in the bottle with the twigs, and they absorb the mamajuana. It’s supposed to be good for just about anything that ails you! It is not only an aphrodisiac, it also helps with nausea and digestion problems. We sample it made with rum only and with rum and red wine. We are told we can keep refilling the bottle for 20 years! We bought a couple fo bottles!
Back outside waiting for everyone to finish their haggling and shopping, I step back from the gate I photographed earlier, and take in the church behind it! I have two pictures here of the same church. But the different angle make it look like two different churches. I like them both, so you get to see them both!
Then a horsedrawn buggy come by, but without the horses! I’m feeling a Harry Potter moment here. This is cool!
On our way out of the city we find another one of the buggies! They are very quiet – all electric motors. There must be a bunch of batteries in those compartments under the seats!
We reach the end of the Calle El Conde and descend the stairs back to the street.
More stairs finally bring us to another gate – not the one we entered. There is another set of stairs after this, but I decided to spare you…
Crossing the street, we are at the cruise terminal. Yes, that’s Joy’s hat at the bottom!
Fast forward to Day 2. We have a low bridge behind us that we’ve been watching. I hoped to see it open so I can see how it operates. I got my wish in the morning! This first image shows how the bridge is when closed and operational for traffic to cross.
We woke on Day 2 to find the bridge open! But the mystery – how did they do that?
We didn’t have to wait long! A tug boat pulled up to the bridge, moved to the end, and hooked a line to the bridge. Then…
…it pulled the span closed! It waited while the ends were dropped to lock the bridge into place and open the bridge for operation again!
OK, back to our wanderings! No excursion today, but we planned to walk Calle El Conde, the pedestrian way, all the way to the park at its end, then wind our way to China Town. We make it back to Columbus Park and find something absolutely wonderful! There were music lessons happening everywhere in the park! Let’s see a bunch of them!
This small group was playing the congo drum. The kids are learning!
Here is an adult learning the bongo drums! The gentleman on the right is the student.
Under a tent lessons in trap set drumming were happening. Even better, they were learning to read and play drum music!
This instrument is the guiro – the equivalent of a washboard in the method and sound it makes.
We have multiple acoustic guitar groups around the park! (I never saw any 12-string guitars.)
There are electric bass guitars!
And electric 6-string guitars!
And even ukuleles!
More classic are the violins!
It is more beautiful that are kids learning music notation! Shortly after this photo the teacher drew a treble cleff.
Then for older kids is music notation and probably music theory!
Having reveled in the music being played all over the park, we finally resume our journey down Calle El Conde. I leave the park with this final shot I love, of two of the violin students playing in front of the church Nuestra Senora de la Encarnacion.
We continue down Calle El Conde. This entire street, running east-west, is not open to vehicle traffic. Many of the shops appear to be gentrified. By this, I mean they are not just mom and pop shops. They have nice displays, good window and door signage, etc. But where there are not shop windows or doors you will find an artisan peddling his or her craft and wares on the ground or in a push cart. Tall metal statues grace the ends of every block, as well as photo images of young ladies “coming out” and declaring their chosen professions. Their faces were veiled with needlepoint fabric! You’ll see both of those in this photo if you look closely!
There are many beautiful buildings, several wrapping around the corner to give a view like this!
…and this!
But then there is the understated and curiously tiny building. As the alleyway between this and the building on the right is unpassable, someone decided to stuff it with scrap lumber to guarantee no one can wiggle through! Maybe to keep their dog from running away?
As we pass Calle Duarte a gentleman asks if we need directions. We tell him we’re walking to the park at the end of the street. He points out that the street east of Calle Duarte is the colonial (old) part of town, and the street to the west of Calle Duarte is the new part of town. I don’t recall where that was in this series of photos.
And down one of the side streets a beautiful white church tower appeared several blocks north. We added finding that church to our journey to China Town. More on that in a bit.
But we arrive at the end of the Calle El Conde, and see this gate ahead of us. This is the entrance to the Independence Park (Parque Independencia).
Inside we see a row of busts leading to a building at the end. All of the busts recognize people who played a role in gaining independence from Haiti, and/or the restoration of their independence from Spain.
At the end of this park we learn the building is the final resting place for three of the great figures in the Dominican Republic’s fight for independence and restoration – Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Juan Pablo Duarte and General Matías Ramón Mella, left to right.
A crypt with an eternal flame lies below the three statues.
Back outside I discovered the guard’s turret in the old wall. Joy couldn’t resist taking this photo!
We made our way toward China Town, but with a slightly altered course to find the white church. We first find this church. This view seems peaceful enough, but loud music and singing reverberated from inside! (You may notice someone has spray painted markings on the base of the statue. Hmmm, I wonder why? I have a theory. Do you?) This is Iglesia Nuestra Senora de Las Mercedes cathedral.
It is Sunday, but church had already been let out. Music persisted, so we snuck inside to find this glorious view! A small choir and an electric keyboardist were playing, and the music was amplified throughout the cathedral through speakers on the columns!
This view of the same church from the other end reveals the age of this cathedral! Remarkable!
Next we stumble across this Evangelical church. It is the Primera Iglesia Evangelica Dominicana church. Once again, music was coming from inside, but people – surprisingly young familes! – were pouring out of the side door on the far left of this photo. Joy tried to slide in, but couldn’t swim upstream. So we moved on.
And then the white church we sought came into view! The bell tower is remarkable from a distance! But what is interesting…
… is the tower almost disappears when you stand in front of the church! The name of this church is a mouthful. It is the Santuario Arquidicesano Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia cathedral.
All was quiet here, and the doors were closed. Mission accomplished, we moved on.
On our way to China Town we headed for a park that was marked on our map, and stumbled across this. This is the Monastery of San Francisco, and is the “park” on the map!
I love to look at these structures and envision the people who lived here. Imagine them ascending steps, moving through doors…
…kneeling in prayer, and going about their daily tasks. This was once a beautiful, perhaps austere, sanctuary.
The entrance to the sanctuary is massive, and the building is beautifully architected! It is clearly designed to humble the people walking through the doors.
Resuming our trek to China Town I spotted this painting on a wall. A little Cuba in Santo Domingo! My interpretation may not be totally accurate, but should be close.
“There will be nothing impossible to achieve from what we are today.” Is there a Cuban movement in the Dominican Republic? This appears to be relatively new.
At last, Chinatown! There is a north gate and south gate on the main street. We entered the south gate, but this photo is of the north gate – much more complete and prettier! Paper lanterns hang across the street almost the entire length!
Vendors line the street. Fresh food is being cooked everywhere!
Lionfish are being cleaned in this stall.
It’s amazing how much these people move to sell!
On the corner of the block is an amazing market! The decorations are absolutely stunning! Dragons on all of the columns, and amazing tile paintings in between! We stopped for lunch in one of the restaurants, just for something different than cruise ship fare. Yummy!
On our way back to the ship we find this statue on the corner wall again!
It is clearly a clergyman, not a warrior. Looking for an entrance we can see multiple sculptures in the garden below this wall.
I could see the statues of kids playing, and two men seated on a bench, talking. We go around the wall, seeking an entry point.
On the other side, we see the statues seen from the other side, but this view is through the bars again.
There is a beautiful nativity, on display year-round!
And more children playing!
But the gates were locked. No way to enter. The church stood quietly. The statue I sought is on display in the fort behind the church.
As we approached the east wall we stumbled across this wall. The paintings are beautiful, but large, so it took four photos to capture it all. Enjoy! I start on the right and move left, toward the city wall.
We arrived at the wall and find a staircase to a lookout. We’re not far from the ship!
Straight ahead is the bridge behind the ship, and where we’ll soon be walking. We added Christopher Columbus’ Lighthouse (Faro de Colon) to our journey today during lunch!
We walked along the top of the wall to the next gate.
There were steep stairs to negotiate, up…
…and down! No handrails!
We headed over the bridge and headed south to Faro de Colon. We were surprised to see this building! Nice!
As we began our trek eastward we encountered our first Politur. She asked where we were going and we told her “Faro de Colon.” She said “Follow me!” We walked a block, then she handed us off to another Politur. He helped us cross the street, stopping the traffic, then handed us off to another Politur who began leading us through a park-like area. This is where we found this statue. The Politurs told us this is The Thinker. Not quite Rodin’s statue, but pensive nonetheless.
We were handed off to two other Politurs before we finally made it to the park with the Lighthouse. This was an interesting journey! We first see the Queen Isabella.
Behind her is the Lighthouse. Big and bold on a stark landscape.
We finally reach the steps. This is a massive structure!
We finally reach the interior, and find this fabulous tribute to Christopher Columbus! Supposedly this is one of three resting spots for Columbus’ remains.
I believe this chest is what hold his remains. On this side the year is 1492, the year he “discovered” the new world. On the other side it is 1506, the year he died.
Behind the mausoleum is a hall with years inscribed above each door. Memorabilia from those years filled each room. It would take days to explore all of the rooms!
This is what that hall looks like on the outside! Massive! This is truly a grand gesture for this man!
Joy asked for a taxi back to the ship. One of the security guards called who we think was her boyfriend who agreed to take us for $3. Nice taxi ride! I’m glad Joy remembered a cruise terminal is “crusero”. Back on board we watch as we push away from the pier.
We had dinner plans with another couple in the Toscana specialty restaurant, so my farewell shot is taken through the restaurant’s tinted window.
I know this has been a long post, but it covered two days and a lot of sites we were able to see. I hope you enjoyed it, and promise to start making these posts more crisp!
Next stop – Port Antonio, Jamaica!
