Day 2: Santo Domingo (for real this time) – updated

Yesterday we didn’t see any of the city, so today we had Freddy drive us around from 11:30-4 and hit all the major sightseeing spots. We didn’t go into any of the museums/historical houses, but we took pictures of them so we can still say we went.

La Zona Colonial

This historical house/palace had a peacock and peahen roaming the courtyard

Also, it rained heavily for awhile so some of it was literally seeing monuments from the car. Out hotel isn’t walking distance from much except upper/middle class residential neighborhoods and a big park, so we really took advantage of the car access.

Semi-ruins of historical significance, as seen from the car

The highlights were the Malecón (really high cliffs along the ocean–photos coming soon because my camera was out of commission) and the Tres Ojos park/caves. I took so many cave pictures that I can’t sort through them to pick one to post. Here’s a little gallery of some of them, so you can get a sense of how incredible these underground lakes were.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by a Walmart-like superstore so B could get a DR magnet, C could use the restroom, and Freddy could get something for his daughter. While I was waiting by the sinks in the restroom, the woman who was cleaning showed me a box she had found in one of the stalls and asked me what it was. I read it and told her (awkwardly, because I only knew the word for “pregnant” and not “pregnancy”) that it was a pregnancy test. It was unclear to me whether the box was empty or not, but she put it back in the stall. She spoke Spanish fluently and without an accent, and clearly knew what a pregnancy test was when I told her what the box said, so I was a little confused at first as to why should would ask me about something that was so clearly labeled. I realized as she was putting it back that she might not be able to read. Basic literacy rates are generally very high in Latin America amongst non-indigenous people, since reading and writing in Spanish are both fairly straightforward. (In Nicaragua, youth volunteers called “brigadistas” famously went into the countryside in the 80s as part of a literacy campaign, which increased the national literacy rate from less than 50% to 85% in just 9 months. Similarly, Cuba’s 1961 War on Illiteracy raised their literacy rate from 76% to 96% in just that year.) In the DR, about 12% of the population is illiterate, but I would expect that this is more prevalent amongst the Haitian immigrants/migrants, in the poor rural areas of the country, and amongst the elderly. Nearly all (~96%) of the young people in the DR are literate. That to say, I don’t know whether she was illiterate, but if she was it’s a reminder not to generalize or make assumptions about people. Statistics are just statistics; even though nearly all young and middle aged people in Santo Domingo can read, that doesn’t mean that this woman could. And I was also reminded of my own privilege, as I am so often both here and at home. I was fortunate to have been born into a family and place where formal education through college was expected of me and I was supported all the way through it. I went to excellent public schools for 17 years, had the ability to travel frequently to other neighborhoods, states and countries, and as a result can communicate, read and write in two languages. I am grateful to have been born into such an environment, and know that the best possible use of all I have access to is to work toward social justice–because so many people are deprived of the most basic human rights while others with the power and resources to change the status quo spend their days accumulating wealth and shaping systems for their own benefit.

On a lighter note, here’s a picture of vogueing turtles I saw yesterday outside the hotel.
They were all sunning themselves and being sassy.