Come Monday, Sam had to start the real reason he was there-to work, and Violet and I began our own little adventure of figuring out what to do in a foreign country where we don't speak the language or have our own transportation.
First thing on the agenda: swimming almost every day. Most days Violet was covered with sleeves and a hat when swimming, but here she is in one of the other variations (hat always followed though).
We also enjoyed getting to know our host family better. Sister Cornish has lots of children and grandchildren, so she welcomed the pitter patter of Violet in the house (and the cries and squeals and mess..). We played many games (most nights of the week), enjoyed enriching conversation, swimming and eating together. Violet especially loved the piano:
On Saturday the Cornishes took us to La Zona Colonial, which is essentially Old Town Santo Domingo..like super old town. In fact, the oldest town in the "New World." One of the things we visited was a 500+ year old fort...La Fortaleza Ozama, on the Ozama river. It had narrow steps and very thick walls. It's endurance over 5 centuries got Sam thinking about what materials we should use for our own house...
Some really narrow steps. I felt like I barely fit:
The walls were made of stone and coral, which you could see fragments of :
You can see the Ozama River behind us as well as some of the remaining lush foliage:
The barracks. It's pretty amazing to imagine this fort before industrialization. Just these two buildings surrounded by thick blankets of jungle and a commanding river.
All throughout the fort were tiny slivers in the walls that, presumably, allowed the defenders to aim at targets without being vulnerable.
Violet giving us a lesson on defensive war tactics:
Our only picture in 6 weeks with the Cornishes. Poor Elder and Sister Cornish have to be in Sunday best, no matter how muggy and hot it is:
Violet setting off cannons. If I had known I was in the picture, I wouldn't have looked so cute:
The whole fort was surrounded by these super old cannons. It was pretty cool. Also, really scary if you were their enemy.
After going to the fort we headed into the busier part of the town. The "central park" kind of, town square perhaps. It was the start of a long calle of tourist shops. In the square though there were lots of locals, playing Dominican dominoes, just sitting around, approaching us (in English, Spanish and French) to ask if we needed help, or yelling "Get out Americans!" (in Spanish). Like I've said before, to spare too much attention, I avoided taking pictures of everything. But it was a pretty cool square. The day was hot and HUMID, a good combo to knock any baby out:
In the square is the oldest cathedral in the western hemisphere (says Elder Cornish). The picture is kind of icky, but you can see that the gate says 1523.. that's cool! And old....We couldn't go inside though.
