Dominican Republic, Catalina Island

 

Dominican Republic                                                               March 11-13, 2022

A happy good morning to all of you!  Please know that we pray for you and that you are in our hearts.

            Probably 17 years ago, Jerry and I joined a medical mission trip with beloved folk from St. Paul Lutheran Church and we came to the interior of the Dominican Republic.  For two weeks, we traveled on dusty roads with school supplies, our own mobile pharmacy, a dentist, an Ob Gyn, nurses, and a few volunteers.  I’m embarrassed to say that I can’t even find those small towns on a map now.  Because tourism was not our agenda back then, we did not visit the historical sites near the airport. 

            As you know, the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti, the first sharing of land we’ve seen so far.  There’s a long and complicated history of occupation and freedoms gained, dating as far back as the island’s occupation of the original inhabitant, the Tiano Indians from South America, to Christopher Columbus claiming it for Spain, to Sir Francis Drake claiming it for England, and somehow the French laid claim also.  Finally, in 1822, according to our tour guide, there was an agreement between Spain and France that Haiti would occupy 1/3 of the island and remain French, and the rest of the island would be Spanish.  This is a gross simplification, but to this day, one side speaks French as its main language and the other Spanish.

            Ok, come back to the present for now.  A few days ago, we had another itinerary change.  The waves were too high for us to use tender boats in our expected port of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, so we sailed to a more protected space next to Catalina Island.   Another day, another unexpected port.  Somehow Destination Services was able to arrange for tours and we decided to take one of the offered options.  We chose to go to The Parque Nacional Cueva de las Maravillas.  That’s quite a mouthful for us non-Spanish speakers.  It is the Cave of Wonders.  

It was only rediscovered in 1926 and finally turned into a National Park in 1997.  The time in between left a lot of time for standard cave vandalism, creating modern pictographs, and taking pieces of the cave decoration.  Needless to say, our expectations were not super high for this trip.  Leaving the Insignia we tendered in to the island which was still a fairly rough trip.  The entire island of Catalina turns out to be a national park of approximately ten square miles, but this was not our destination.  We had to board another boat and head to the main island of Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Caribbean.  We had a rockin’ and rollin’ time getting across the mile and a half between the two islands and the several miles we traveled along the coast.  It took about forty-five minutes.  We parked next to a massive German cruise ship which was snug in a channel away from the waves.  Up to a bus for our thirty-minute ride to the caves.  We found a mostly empty parking lot and our guide turned us over to a park guide.  The guide was very clear about the damage done to the cave, especially about the fact that probably over 50% of the pictographs we would see were forgeries done in the recent past.  Expectations were sinking.  We walked along walkways that were well kept and there was a sudden loud noise in the undergrowth.  It got closer and we were surprised to see a couple iguanas run across the path.  Apparently, this is also an iguana reserve.  We readied ourselves for the 144 steps down into the cave and began the descent. 

I don’t know if you have been in tourist caves, or if you have a conception of what to expect in a tourist site in a non-first-world-country, but this surely would not be it.  The cave itself is quite large and beautiful.  The lighting was very well done.  The destruction of the cave is not evident because of its size and the fact that many of the best features are high and difficult to get to.  The pictographs were not the main feature, and not being a historian, and not being able to see many of the fake pictographs because of the way they’ve chosen to light the pictographs, the fakes did not really affect the experience at all.  

This was one of those experiences that proved to be much better than expected.  Up the 144 stairs, and with all the training we’ve been doing on the stairs in the ship this went easily for us. Then, on to the unexpected iguana reserve.  Tons of them in a large enclosure.  See pics.  They are coming back as they are now a protected species on the island.  Apparently, they once were a food source.  Tastes like, you guessed it, chicken.

On to the other part of the tour, Altos de Chavon.  What is this you ask?  I’m still not sure I know.  It is a replica of 16^th century Mediterranean village.  Here is a link if you want to know more.  Altos de Chavón Mediterranean Village | Casa de Campo

It was better than expected as well.  Very beautiful setting.  Large amphitheater seating 5000.  

Golf course in the distance with the Chavon River down below (don’t slice).  They were preparing for a wedding at the church and the amphitheater.  It is also an art academy now and we saw a display of some wonderful photos of Dominican children.  It was originally intended to be used as a movie set when it was conceived of and built in 1976, but that never came to pass.  We had about thirty minutes to look around before back to the bus, back to the boat, to the island, catch the last tender back to the ship.  Quite a day, and an unexpectedly nice one at that.