One advantage of staying at the Aloha Sol is that it's pretty central. Yesterday, I took a walk from the hotel to see the Monumento:
Across the street is the restaurant Montezuma:
This is the Ave Francia in front of the Monumento:
Walking in the other direction along Del Sol I stopped off in Parque Duarte where I met this guy who spoke a little English. With his limited English and my limited Spanish, we actually carried on a conversation! When he found out I was from Canada, he told me he wanted to visit there and asked if I could help him with a visa. Unfortunately, I had to explain that it is very difficult for Dominicans to get a visa to Canada.
When this guy left, I was approached by one of the many shoeshine boys and even though I was wearing running shoes this did not deter him since he even had materials for cleaning them. He was joined by two of his friends and when he'd finished I gave him all the loose change I had (about 150 pesos) and I was surprised to see that he shared this with his two friends. I asked if I could take their picture and they happily agreed:
After leaving the park, I came across this beautiful mural on one of the walls there:
About the Aloha Sol - this hotel is well situated, the rooms are half-decent, the staff is extremely friendly and helpful and breakfast is included.
Robin
(30)
A few pics - Santiago
