Notes to self:

1. Piropos, although I had thought meant cat-calls earlier, actually means "compliments." I feel much better about this translation. I definitely prefer being complimented rather than cat-called (although, to be sure, many men still use them that way to get your attention)  
2. It was explained to me that for a man not to "tirar un piropo", or throw a compliment at you as you walk by can sometimes be seen as bad manners. This makes old men here seem far less creepy and much more gentlemanly. 
3. I feel like I have not been receiving as many piropos as usual. From this I can draw only 2 conclusions.
                A. I look less like a lost tourist than I did before, so not as many men are trying to get my attention to come buy   
                    something  from them.
                B. I am getting uglier
4. You never realize just how far 1 1/2 miles is until you are caring 15lbs of groceries back to your hostel uphill.
5. Lean to use the concho system, for goodness sake (conchos are like taxis on a bus route). Or find a closer supermercado. 

With all that said, here are some pictures from my day trip yesterday to Santo Domingo. It's about a two hour trip by "guagua" (bus) from here in Santiago. We took a tour through the colonial zone and then also visited  the ruins of "un ingenio azucarero" or sugarcane plantation near Rio Nigua, just outside of town. The word "ingenio" actually refers to being "ingenious", and sugarcane plantations were so named because of the masterful process of extracting sugar from the sugarcane plants that occurred there.  Sidenote: most sugar now comes form sugar beets, not sugarcane, since they can be grown in cold weather and are more easily processed. In fact Michigan is one of the leading producers of sugar beets in the U.S.

El monumento de Crístovol Colón. 
(Christopher Columbus)
P.S. I find it ironic that there is a Taíno indian woman writing his name on his statue, considering half of those people were made into slaves and wiped out by the Spaniards that Columbus lead to the D.R. 

La catedral front view

La catedral side view

Inside a colonial mansion: can´t you just envision pausing at the top of this staircase in your best gown to listen to the  music before sweeping down into the lively ball below. If you can´t, then you must be a guy. Or have no imagination. You should work on that. 

fortress by the sea

Oh hey, there´s me :)

Las ruinas del monasterio
The ruins of the monastery

Interesting story as best as I can recall it: Much like the Supreme Court, the Spanish colonies had a single governing court whose central location was in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The judges on this court had an immense amount of power. A visiting Spaniard, whose name I can't remember, came to the city of Santo Domingo and struck up a conversation with one of these judges. The judge soon began bragging to the man about all of his wealth and power, and eventually, about all of the young virgins he had deflowered who lived in the convent in Santo Domingo. (In this time period, young women from wealthy families were often sent to convents to protect their innocence until a marriage could be arranged for them.) The man was appalled! He began telling the story to other friends and people in positions of power in Santo Domingo. "That judge!" he would say, "Don't you know what he is doing?" and "Isn't it terrible! He shouldn't be allowed his position anymore. We need to stop him." But every time he mentioned it, he was told to keep quiet and forgot about it, because the judge and his family were very powerful and people were afraid. Not finding any success in the Dominican Republic, the man eventually went back to Spain and told his story to the higher authorities there. Still without result. The man became desconsolate that nobody would listen to him. It was about this time in Spain however, that a new kind of novel, a novel telling of adventure and romance, was becoming very popular, lead by the release of the novel Don Quixote. An idea formed in the man's mind, and soon he began writing his own novel about a man who went around deflowering young virgins. His idea was that people would begin to ask him, "Where did you get the idea for this lead character? Who could this monster be?" And he could then begin to tell them of the judge in Santo Domingo, thereby ruining his credibility and exacting his revenge. Just as the man had hoped, his story did become very popular, and today it is called the story of Don Juan, whom I hope you all recognize as an iconic figure idolized for his charm and sex symbol status. Not quite the end result our poor author was hoping for. And sadly, the judge was never removed from power. 

Las ruinas del hospital (a.k.a the pigeon's favorite place to be)

El ingenio. There used to be a giant  wheel down below that was turned by oxen: part of the sugar producing process

That giant mural in the background features a scene in honor of the slave revolt. In fact, it was this very same ingenio from which Toussaint L'Ouverture declared that never again would slavery take place on this island.