On our first night, we had supper at a little restaurant suggested to us by Karine and Stephen: Chez Mimosa. I had calamaris and Heiner had dorado, both dishes tasteful and elegantly served. And we loved the green bananas fritters! On our second night, however, we went out the zona colonial and wandered around the Gazcue neighbourhood and the avenues Independencia and Bolivar. We arrived too late for our restaurants in our neighbourhood – they seemed to close around 7h30pm.., very unlike the other Spanish countries that we know, where dinner is not served before 10pm! It was fun, however, to stroll in less touristic areas, and never felt unsafe; on the contrary, we were always welcome and people went out of their ways to help us when we had questions.

One really neat place was La Casa del Dulces (or something like that…). They had an amazing variety of sweets, especially Dulce de leche, honeys, cakes, jams, …and rums and cigars (all good things for our health.?). We felt like big kids in a candy store! PIX 3076

Santo Domingo has many “firsts” in terms of cathedrals, hospitals, monasteries…all erected on the American continent in the 16th century. This city was growing on us and we preferred it to Old San Juan (Puerto Rico): although the restoration of the buildings was far from being as exhaustive, the zona colonial was full of day-to-day life and still home to Dominicans…