A New Day

Well I am on my second day of blogging. So I promised to talk about a few more people I met.

Outside of my hotel last week there was usually a taxi guy. Different guys at different times.

One in particular, I remember from my first trip and have conversed with him several times.

His name is Ligares, and is very fun to talk to, always giving me the scoop on some of the locals.

He is patient and somehow understands my Spanglish.

I also have met and conversed with several of the local shoeshines. These are very interesting characters.

I read online often how people feel sorry for them as they are always hungry and are very poor.

Some of these are poor and some even live on the streets. There are some too that shoeshine for extra money and feign hunger.

To me these kids are very Oliver Twist like, and there seems to be an heirarchy to them. I am sure the older ones take the money of the younger ones, and bully them.

What is funny too, is that some of them seem to be constantly needing tennis shoes for school, but never seem to make it to school.

And each time I visit the same shoeshines seem to have different names, and of course very American names.

But some are kinda trustworthy and are more than willing to take time to tell you about their life and family.

I have to say, they are an entertaining bunch.

Well, thats all for today. I am not sure if anyone is reading this, but if you are please comment so I know this is not futile.

Catching Up

So this is my second post today, but I am trying to make this blog interesting.

I just returned from my second trip to SD last week and of course it was amazing.

I stayed for five days and met many new people.

I took a tour to some of the sites outside of the Colonial Zone with my tour guide, Francisco.

He's a cool guy that is studying to be an English Teacher, and usually can be found hanging out at the Panteon National.

This time I stayed at the La Casona Dorada hotel, which is in the Gascue part of the city, not a bad walk to the Colonial Zone. It is a good hotel with reasonable rates. They treated me well, and had a free breakfast every day. The bed was very hard but I assume that is typical for the area.

On the corner of Indepencia next to the hotel is a small, I guess you would call it a store/concession stand. There are some very nice people that work there and the manager is this short guy with glasses that lived in NY for a while, but I cant remember his name.

He was a good conversationalist, and one of the few people that I could talk to in English. A year ago I spoke no Spanish, but I am learning quickly.

Next blog I will talk more about some of the people I met, the taxi guy, those little pests, the limpia botas, and others.

My New Blog!!!

Hello everyone,

This is my first blog. I have never been interested in blogging until recently.

I am a traveler, and in the last year have made several trips to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic.

It is an amazing place so I thought I would create a blog to share it with everyone.

In the coming days, I will add some pictures and start blogging about my trips and stuff.

Feel free to comment.