Santiago Frenzy   2 comments

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Carnival mask in the Museo Folklorico.

        Everything about Santiago was frenzied. Hopping from one cramped form of public transportation to another, finding a hotel, walking down the street. I guess the only thing that went down at a relaxed pace was our communication. People speak to us, we look at each other, say a few words of bewildered English/Spanish/French back, and then stand dumbfounded when our assailant dishes out more unintelligible words. I feel so stupid in this place where I can’t talk to anyone!

        We survived a night in Santiago. I held off the hungry beggars by giving them my leftovers from dinner last night (I didn’t want them anyway). We didn’t get lost. We got on all the right buses and taxis. We tried really, really hard not to get ripped off for too much but I think it was inevitable. There was a giant hardware store, a Wal-Mart like super grocery/everything store, and lots of street vendors.

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        We saw a fair amount of historical things thanks to an unsolicited tour guide. My favorite thing, by far, was the street market. I have never seen so many fresh fruits and vegetables in my life. There were plantains piled like snowdrifts along the street and the mangoes were so ripe and perfect that I could smell them. The root vegetables smells like dirt and the stacks of fresh ginger added their spicy aroma to the mix. I wanted one or two of everything! I can’t imagine what farms in the cordillera central look like. It must be a vegetable garden of eden.

        Now it’s time to figure out how to get out of Luperon. The trade winds are blowing strong against our direction of travel. The harbors along the rest of the North coast are supposedly much less comfy than Luperon. It’s going to take some nighttime traveling in the calm Hispaniola creates at night to get to the East end of the island. From there we have the dreaded Mona passage to defeat. I think we can do it, though. At least we’re still ahead of schedule at this point.

Posted April 28, 2011 by Rachel in Uncategorized

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