Heidi Dugan

We’d booked (through Carnival) the Santo Domingo City Tour.  We docked about an hour late (9am), but then everything proceeded smoothly. We walked up the pier to our waiting tour bus. There were rows of buses waiting to take all the various excursion groups away, and plenty of Carnival and independent tour staff around to assist everyone.

Our tour guide, Franklin, made the tour a real pleasure. He narrated regularly throughout the hour and a half ride to Santo Domingo, pointing out local sights such as sugar cane fields, sugar can factories, important rivers, towns along the way, etc. He gave some history of the island and of Santo Domingo in preparation of our upcoming walking tour. This is a poor country, and we saw trash along the sides of the road and other signs that this isn’t a touristy area, yet. We arrived in Santo Doming, drove to the Colonial section of town, and got off the bus. It was no problem carrying water with us, and we left other stuff on the bus.

The tour included such significant sights as the Alcazar de Colon (the home where 4 generations of Columbus’ family lived, still housing original furniture and paintings), the Calle das Damas (Street of the Ladies, one of the oldest streets in the New World), a building housing the remains of many of the Dominican’s significant patriots and heroes, a couple of impressive Plazas, and the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. We heard the story of the disputes over where Columbus is, in fact, buried: (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030603/ap_on_re_eu/spain_columbus__bones_3  )

After the Cathedral, they took us to a gift shop, gave us some freebie drinks and we had time to shop. There was a later shopping opportunity with better prices later. But, this first store had fancier stuff, if that’s what you’re shopping for.

We walked back to the bus and drove to a coastal hotel for a complimentary lunch buffet. After lunch, we re-boarded the bus and drove through the newer part of town. Photo opportunity at the President’s house, the US embassy, then off to the Columbus Lighthouse. There wasn’t time to tour through the Lighthouse, but we could get out for a few minutes for some pictures. We all pretty much crashed on the bus on the way home. Near La Romana, we stopped for more shopping. From the outside, the place looks like it only sells pottery, but they also have jewelry, T-shirts, mahogany carvings, salad sets, paintings, liquor, tobacco, food stuffs, local handicrafts and other souvenirs. It’s much bigger than it looks, and there are some bargains to be had!

We got back to the pier at about 5:05pm. The ship was to have sailed at 5:00pm. The other Santo Domingo tour bus was even later than we were.

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