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While other students are looking forward to some rest and relaxation this spring break, close to 250 FIU students will be spending their time helping others. From March 13-22, the students are participating in FIU’s Alternative Spring Break, a program that gives them a chance to volunteer all over the world. One of FIU’s groups is in the Dominican Republic. You can follow their adventures in this blog.
Today was considered our free day in the Dominican Republic. We went in to Santo Domingo, the capital of this beautiful country, and saw several of the touristy sites. Our adventure in Santo Domingo started before we even got there. On the way there, the taxi started to slow down and we pulled off the side of the road. Everyone piled out of the car. We weren’t sure what was going on, but something wasn’t right. Luckily for us, we pulled over in front of this little sandwich shop that had shade and we got to play darts. I don’t know if they have roadside assistance here, but a guy on his motorcycle pulled up with his little tool box and helped our driver out. Fortunately, they found out it was only a fuse and the guy on the motorcycle went to the store quickly to buy a new one and we were on our way.
Our first stop was the Tres Ojos, and we made it there right as we got a flat tire. Talk about luck, but we had some with us for this day. Tres Ojos means three eyes in Spanish. There were three lakes in these caves. It was so beautiful! To get to one of the lakes we had to take this makeshift boat across the water. Everyone enjoyed this stop for the day. On our way out we saw this huge lizard-like creature that was being fed bananas. He looked so cool. The guy that was feeding him said he was related to the rhinoceros.
From Tres Ojos we went to the lighthouse where the body of Christopher Columbus lies. The design and architecture of the lighthouse was so cool. It looked nothing like the lighthouses back in the states. It kind of reminded me of a building with the Olympic torch on top. Inside this building they had several artifacts from 22 different countries. We got a tour and it was interesting, but I think we were all confused at first why there were artifacts from other countries and not just the Dominican Republic. The tour guide told us because it is considered an international museum and all these countries donated these items.
The colonial zone was our next stop for the day. This area is known for its architecture and tourist shops. We didn’t want to pay for a tour guide so we ended up just splitting up and walking around. All of the buildings were really neat to look at. Most people in our group were also able to buy souvenirs here to take home. At this point most people were tired from walking around Santo Domingo, but we had one more stop.
The Botanical Gardens was our final stop for our free day. I was really looking forward to this because the Santo Domingo gardens are supposed to be really beautiful. Luckily, when we got there they offer this train ride to take you through the gardens with a tour guide. Unfortunately for us, we could not make out a single word this man was saying because he was holding the microphone so close to his mouth. He actual reminded some of us of the character Fez from “That 70s Show.” He would make sexual comments as though that is what all Americans do. He was a very interesting character to say the least. On our train ride we stopped and got to walk around the Japanese garden. I wish we had had more time in there but the tour guide kept pushing us along. However, it was so peaceful and was just a good end to our day. — Valerie Pett
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