I arrived Wednesday afternoon following an uneventful flight. I actually had one of the least painful experiences ever while attempting to pass through immigration and customs. Seriously, no one asked me to further clarify what was on my immigration form (pleasure visit) nor did anyone care about the contents of my bags (OTC medicines to donate).
Darleny (a friend from my SVA Graphic Design class this summer) picked me up with one her college friends, Chris – a Dominican guy born and raised on Manhattan’s LES. We drove into the city and dumped my things at my hotel before walking around La Zona Colonial (the colonial area) and having drinks and snacks at a café. Then we took Darleny home to her family’s apartment where they have a view of the Caribbean Sea.
Chris and I came back to our hostels (he’s staying up the street) to get ready before heading to Darleny’s concert. She plays second clarinet in the national orchestra and the concert took place at a theater not unlike the one in Lincoln Center (on the left – I forget the name). Afterwards we went out with her friends to a taco place near the hostel.
Thursday morning I woke up and ate a colorful breakfast of papaya, passion fruit, watermelon and cantaloupe on the roof of my hostel. They turn the place into a bar at night (although it’s surprisingly not too loud) and from the roof there is a view of nearby (okay, across the street) church steeples and the surrounding area. You can’t really see the water, but there are trees around it and there’s a nice breeze.
Then I walked around the city heading towards the theater to meet Darleny after her practice. I walked by the Palacio Nacional (National Palace), a nice residential neighborhood and the government buildings which were pretty ugly and reminded me of Government Center in Boston. They were in that same brutalist, almost Soviet, too much concrete style. I went to the bus station to try to buy tickets to Puerto Plata but was told you can’t buy tickets until the day of travel, however I was allowed to reserve (no money transaction) tickets.
While wandering around, I discovered I was near the Museo de Arte Monderno (Modern Art Museum) and decided to go in. I was thrilled to discover they had an exhibit of contemporary, LOCAL art. It’s the first international Caribbean triennial (Dad, this is essentially a “first annual” – I know you are grammatically unhappy with this idea). Artwork was mostly from 2009 and 2010. Artists from all over the Caribbean, including Miami, Colombia and Venezula were represented. The exhibit took over the entire museum was divided by the language spoken on the island – Dutch Caribbean, French, English-speaking and Spanish-speaking. The pieces, most of which were installations and video work, were so current that one was on the theme of the BP oil spill and another was actually a video on an iPod touch inside a shell mounted on the wall. I was really glad to have found this place!
I still had time before meeting Darleny so I did one of my favorite things to do while traveling abroad – I went to the grocery store!!!!!! I’m such a food nerd, which is weird for someone with allergies like mine, but still. Here’s the thing: the Dominican Republic has both Spanish and American influences, which means they get foods from both places! I bought Spanish rice cakes (including dark chocolate and coconut covered ones) and Silk soymilk. How awesome is that?
Darleny and I met up with Chris and his girlfriend for lunch at a little café/buffet place. I ate coleslaw, fish, plantains and a side of mashed yautía – a root vegetable, starchier and not as sweet as sweet potatoes. Then, Darleny and I went to a bookstore – a mini-Barnes and Noble – and two shopping malls. The bookstore was actually called Thesaurus; it had a little café, a decent selection of books in English (and a million copies of Junot Diaz), music, magazines and gifts. The first mall we went to (Acropolis) was similar to Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, but nowhere near as confusing. It used to be the “nice” mall until they stated building Blue Mall – which is still incomplete but has stores like Louis Vouton, and many not-so-high fashion foreign stores like Helly Hanson. It was definitely interesting to see both places and understand the cultural influences from American. I’m staying near a pedestrian street which used to be the big shopping area before these malls were built. Now, people would rather go somewhere that’s air-conditioned. The malls are also in the center of city. We drove around a bit on 27 de Febrero street where there’s a walking mall and huge clock.
Darleny had to go back to practice, so I hung out at the hostel (read: in the A/C) and then walked around La Zona Colonial with Chris. We went to an old café where I got a papaya juice shake (with water/ice) and then an espresso. I could drink these fruit juices on a daily basis without complaint. The espresso was good also, and guess what Joseph? They grind the coffee beans themselves.
Next we went to three art exhibits in the area. The first was a series of photographs done in a confrontational, direct style. The photos were of “the other” which we took to mean at Haitians. What struck me most was being able to see the reflections in people’s eyes. Then we stopped in at a the Silvano Lora Foundation where we saw an exhibit of flat, metal collages. Finally, we went to the Spanish cultural center where they had several photography exhibits up. One was called “taxidermy” and was a series of shots of naked people (probably 100 in total)- head (front and back), torso, side, rear end, etc.- each as separate photos, but organized in columns by person. Another was about sports and athletics in Japan and New York, which included a runner in a Yale sweatshirt in Central Park (we determined she was near the Carousel and the Dairy).
After a quick shower, Darleny picked us up and we went to eat on the malecón (the closest English translation is boardwalk, but it’s really closer to the Tel Aviv namal than anywhere I’ve been in the US). We went there specifically to eat mofongo – a dish of mashed plantains served with a side of fried pork, which I barely touched because I’m not much of a meat-eater. The restaurant was right on the water and the food was tasty. They served us a broth-like soup first and then the dinner came with avocado. Here, avocados are green rather than black, and they’re HUGE. Chris got tostones with his dinner, so I definitely had some of those. I also had a zapote-passion fruit juice, which was delicious and a bit tangy.
Friday morning I woke up at 6am and went running along the malecón passing the restaurant we had eaten at. It’s pretty hot here, so this was the only time of day I could run. I passed a few people working out – mostly walking. There were also many people on their way to work and lots of trucks driving by. Their drivers all honked and yelled at me, as they do when they see most women (wearing spandex doesn’t make them any quieter). I didn’t bring anything with me, so I had to stop to ask a woman the time and we would up chatting briefly about dogs. She was super-apologetic where her yippy, little things jumped on me, but I explained I had a Labrador and her dogs could do no harm by jumping. I covered five miles (2.5 out and back) before returning to the hostel to shower and sit under the A/C for a bit. I would have a lot of trouble living here and training for the marathon at the same time.
