Colonial Santo Domingo

Cristobál Colón, Christophe Colombe, Kristoffer Kolumbus, Christoph Kolumbus, Christoffel Columbus, Christopher Columbus - any way you spell it it means discoverer of the Americas, and it all began here. Mr. C. landed on one side of what is now Santo Domingo, discovered it was overrun with ants, crossed the river and created a settlement that we explored last night. Funny thing, since I didn't know that the Spanish version of his name was Colón, it had never occurred to me that our word colony comes from him.
The Colonial Zone contains many firsts. For example, the Calle des Damas (1502) is the world's oldest paved street. And slavery may have begun here.

An original canon, set to protect the port. Don't mess with Chris.

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These walls are six feet thick, and protected by fairies

Catedral Santa Maria la Menor - the oldest in the Americas

Sunset on the campanula

Our group strolls down Calle del Conde

I just liked the lines

A very serious chess game, complete with fans, on Calle del Conde

 The evening ended it one of the worst meals of my life. I ordered something like "seashells stew in criole", which I took to mean simmered shell fish in creole sauce. This is possibly true if passed through a grinder. What came looked like Sloppy Joes or possibly barf. Barf with a side of mashed potatoes. It tasted mostly like salt, and I ate it. We got there at 7:30 and food didn't come until 9, so I would have eaten just about anything. No more group dining for me.

I'll go back to the zone and stroll around on my own some Sunday. Apparently from 5 to 9, there's lots of free music.