Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Today, I was a tourist going on a tour of Santo Domingo. (location) Our tour bus would be our mobile home-away-from-home from 6AM to 8PM. – 17 adults, a guide and a driver – THE FAMILY! Look Ma – No Washroom – No problem FAMILY – we’ll just stop at the next tourist shop!!! How convenient. There’s one now —– A comfortable ride but a long ride in each direction. Up before dawn and arriving back at the resort after dark.
Aside from a convenient location (‘X’ miles driving from the resort area), and an available public washroom (for tourists!) as a drawing card, I always wondered who decided what tourists would want to buy at these locations and was always surprised at what tourists did buy :-).
For instance, these masks kept calling out to me but I resisted the temptation despite my interest in masks.
Our first scheduled stop of the day was a visit to Parque Nacional Los Tres Ojos, Dominican Republic (location). Entrance fees were included in the cost of our tour package but more than one passenger gasped when looking at this yellow sign. Don’t gasp!!! Prices are in Dominican Republic pesos: Conversion = approx 35 pesos to US$1.
This is a very busy tourist spot and interesting as well. “The Three Eyes” is only a short drive from Santo Domingo and is on a couple of local bus routes so there are many ways for a tourist to get there on their own, if not part of a tour group. The caves and lakes have been used in the filming of Tarzan episodes as well as, more recently, Jurassic Park.
Staircase to Lago de azufre (sulphur lake): After going down these steps you could go right down to the water’s edge by taking the second set of stairs from the lower platform.
Stairways lead you down to three underwater ‘lakes’ (similar to the cenotes of Mexico) and you can access a fourth lake by barge. Our group only did the three lake route. The first lake reached is the Lago de azufre (sulphur lake) with its beautiful blue colouration
Not sure why it is called Sulfur Lake because the primary stone is calcium carbonate as far as I know.
I found out later that this couple shares my penchant for wandering away from the group so we explored a bit of Santo Domingo while others in the group stopped in the tourist shops. :-)Â I think I remember them saying that they were from around Kent, UK and +33C was a bit warm for them too.
Lake Nevera: This was the second of the underground lakes and from this lake you could take a raft/barge ride to a fourth lake, Los Zaramaguyones. We didn’t take that ride so not sure what I missed.
