History Tour

The western hemisphere's oldest cathedral

You'll have to forgive me. Today I'm two hours north of Santo Domingo in the rural hub of Moca, a town of about 30,000 just across the Septentrional mountain range from the island's north coast. The sad part is that I somehow managed to leave my camera at my host home in the capital so there will be no images for the next few updates.

New soldiers used to swear allegiance to Spain in this tower

On Sunday we had a tour of some of Santo Domingo's historical sites. Our guide, Lynn Guitar is an anthropologist and historian who expatriated to the DR after her doctoral work brought her here for primary research. Lynn's insights and stories were many but in particular one stood out about a wealthy family that adopted a chimpanzee in order to overcome its childlessness.

The ruins of the New World's oldest sanitarium overlook the mouth of the Ozama 

Another story involved a despicable member of a catholic order who used to have his way with the daughters of Santo Domingo's upper class who were placed in a convent a safeguard while their families sought suitable. According to the story, this man bragged to a visiting member of the church heirarchy from Spain who went on to fictionalize the man in order marshal the powers that be to bring him to justice. The fictional account was none other than that of Don Juan.

Julie checks out the country's most-filmed street. It is often used in cinematic portrayals of Cuba.