Today was our first day exploring the capital, Santo Domingo. Our training center is situated about 30 minutes to an hour outside of the city. The biggest task at hand was taking the public bus, la guagua, into the city. Similar to the carro público, a type of public taxi, they jam people into the guagua as well. This first bus had an extra seat to put down in the middle row. So you had to seat 5 people per row, and it is never enough space for 5 people. The most difficult is when someone behind you has a stop before yours and the two of you in the middle have to get up to let them shimmy behind you.
The Peace Corps office in the city is gorgeous. It is not really a conventional building and instead has very different architecture that makes it unique and stunning. We ended our day with la zona colonial, the colonial zone, and that was probably my favorite. I absolutely adore the architecture of that era, so all of the buildings and the old walls from the fort were mesmerizing to look at. The original cathedral in the Christopher Columbus Square was gorgeous as well. It reminded me of los catedrales in Spain, just a little smaller. We visited Independence Park where they have busts of the various people that were instrumental to the creation of their constitutional democracy. They also have the remains of the main father of the new Republic and also the names of the three fathers (Los tres padres de la patria) above his remains. By the end of the day, only after 4 hours of walking we were all exhausted, especially since it was the hottest temperature so far at 88°F, if not higher. Thank goodness the guagua was not as packed on our way back home and it took half the time with fewer traffic.
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