Dominican Republic pt 2 of 2

So here we go with the rest from La Victoria, DR…

Of course, more roosters…

And these things.  No idea.

Locals playing dominos.  One guy keep saying “no pictures” but apparently he was just joking.  Still seemed pretty serious to me, haha.

This little guy was staring at me the entire time and didnt flinch when I felt the need to get a photo of him as well.  Overall the dominos shots I got were not fantastic.  Opportunity lost I guess.  My memory card got full and we decided to continue walking.

Dirties.

He was playing with another boy.  I could tell they were checking me out, and when I asked if he wanted his photo taken he got way excited.  Again, I wish my viewfinder was functioning.  Framing this and all the others was a guessing game.

Sign signaling the different areas of La Victoria.  Again, it was very spread out.  We walked for a good four of five hours.

Very typical scene in the area…

…not a pet tarantula.

One of the rare cats I saw the entire time.

Beautiful scenery on the island.

One of my favorite shots from the trip.  There were lots of taxi motocycles taking people around the area, to and from the city center I assume.

Getting back into the more densely populated area.  There were three “major roads” thru town, this being the one least traveled.

Lots of toy guns all over the place.

I played a fun game with these two.  They would hide whenever I put my camera up.  It was pretty mutually hilarious without a word spoken between us.  I love the colors, though!

Showing the kids you have a camera and are ready to use it is a good way to get tied up for 10 minutes.  Everyone wants a photo and they dont let you leave!  It was hard with the broken viewfinder, unfortunately.

Simple.

Details.

 And there you have it!  A bit of the more rural side of the Dominican Republic.  It was a nice country with lots of nice people.  I’d definitely love to go back some time and explore the country some more.

Enjoy,
Clayton

Dominican Republic pt 1.5 of 2

One day I was lucky enough to get to travel to a smaller town named La Victoria outside of the capital. Here are some photos.

Ever try to catch a rooster? Good luck.

Yeah, yeah. Rooster fetish.

So we went to a house to have lunch. There were a few American families living there and doing missionary work. I thought it was interesting to think about being a child in a foreign country like these kids do.

The colors in DR are perfect for taking photos

Dominican coffee, muy delicioso!

So a local dude took us on a 5 hour walking journey thru La Victoria. The district is big and includes many different areas of settlement, sprawling far outside the main city center.

“You are the first Americans to walk this path.” He told us. We decided to walk the path thru the forest instead of the main roads.

So here we are in the more rural area of La Victoria. Lots of the houses contained large amounts of land and farm animals.

Kids playing stickball. Obviously materials are not easy to comeby. They use thin sticks and water jug caps which kind of hover in like a smaller frisbee. They let me hit a few times. Poped it up foul and hit a grounder. It’s pretty tough!

A few women let me take their photos. They were pretty excited about it, actually.

Kids hanging out at the baseball game.

More photos to come from La Victoria. I’m going to split it into two parts because I’m hungry and need to go find some food

Enjoy,
Clayton

Dominican Republic pt 1 of 2

These photos are all from within the capitol, Santo Domingo. I can’t say they are the greatest photos ever, but there are a few good ones in the bunch. I was down there for 5 days and stayed with my friend Ryan who is doing missionary work on the island. Here are some shots…

These are on the main tourist street. Lots of bad art and knick-knacks. Not very interesting. It started to rain. It rained every day I was there, I think… but it doesnt last very long usually.

Chinese tourist(?) feeding the pigeons in what seemed to be the cities’ main square in terms of tourism and historical spots. It is called Zona Colonial (the Colonial Zone).

Lunch. Chicken and rice, what else? And Presedente beer of course. Ryan had spaghetti (or spaghettis as the menu called it).

Lots of dogs hanging around in DR.

More from the square. This cathedral is the oldest existing settlement founded by Europeans in Western hemisphere. Built in the early 1500’s, some people think the remains of Christopher Columbus ended up in this building.

Inside the cathedral. It’s quite nice. As soon as I got inside I found my camera to be “broken” A mystery indeed! Luckily it was an easy fix. Unluckily I did not know this and spent the remainder of my trip with a non-functional viewfinder…not the best for composing shots.

This street, Calle Las Damas, was apparently built in 1502 and was the first paved road in the Americas. Old man Columbus walked these roads!

Some old castle I didn’t want to pay to explore.

Birds above Calle Las Damas.

Getting out of the Colonial Zone and into the city..

The dogs in the Dominican are not like dogs in the US. They don’t trust people at all, probably because they get beat often. I quickly realized that the normal methods I use to gain a dogs trust are useless here. When I would bend down to take a photo the dogs would freak out immediately and run away. I had to wait here for a few minutes for the dog to continue to eat whatever scrap that was he found.

I liked the windows.

These kids were outside playing. One of them noticed us (two white dudes) and we overheard ‘gringo.’ They were surprised when we talked to them in Spanish, and of course they wanted a photo taken, too.

Here is the National Palace. Exciting stuff.

Guard with gun. Not sure what he was up to.

Dominican fast food. I think they have a location in NYC, as well.

We went to a baseball game. The home team won. I bought a hat.  Baseball here is much more exciting than in the states.

From the rooftop of the house I was staying at. The lights of the city off in the distance.

The road from the airport into town. That’s the Caribbean out there and this is pretty much what it’s like year round there.

This is Peter. He was out cab driver of choice. If you ever end up in DR let me know and I’ll give you his number

A few other things of note:  I twice rode in a cab van with more than 24 people in it.  The first thing we did after I landed was go to a gas station and buy a large bottle of Presidente beer to drink while we drove back into town.  There usually are no lines in the roads, and if there are they are ignored.  Also, driving on the wrong side of the road is apparently not a concern.  Cars seem to be driven until them simply fall apart.  One afternoon we hit rush hour and it took about 2 hours to go a few miles.  I went scuba diving and it was pretty rad.  2 dives, the second one we went down like 30 feet, all for roughly US$70.  One night at a bodega, a local guy seemed to be amazed at my presence.   Light skin is preferred and straight hair is uncommon.  He took a photo of me on his camera phone, and then another one using the camera’s American flag border feature.  Roosters are everywhere.  Usually the roosters would start to crow before I even went to sleep at night.  Mosquitos are everywhere, too.  I got probably around 40 bites (hopefully none with malaria).  Don’t underestimate the line at the airport when you go home.  Luckily I skipped it, probably because I got the you are an American hook-up.  There are lots of beautiful girls in the Dominican Republic.

More to come. Enjoy,
Clayton