Santo Domingo: Zona Colonial and Los Tres Ojos

I love the history of Santo Domingo. Founded in 1492: the oldest city in the new world. Walking around the old colonial streets feels like Pirates of the Caribbean. We went to the Zona Colonial a few times to explore and shop. I would like to say eat, since there a lots of yummy restaurants as well, but we couldn't pass up the chance to eat pretty much every meal at his mom's house, since she and her cousin are such good cooks!

The Zona Colonial feels like a tropical European town. And the rest of Santo Domingo typically looks like this:

 I love this capture from Victor of us walking back from the colmado aka mini mart.

Thanks to pinterest, I heard about a National Park called Los Tres Ojos--it's 3 underground lakes and when I asked my mother in law if it was close to her house, she said it was less than 5 minutes away, but you would never notice it driving by. So crazy that this awesome spot is in the middle of a busy city.

 We had to take a little boat to get to the third lake, and it felt and looked like we were in a pirate movie searching for treasure. So cool.

Santo Domingo has beaches as well, but we didn't bother going, since they don't hold a candle to the beaches we were about to go to up in Samana. It was fun exploring the capital a little more, but I was more than ready to get out of there. The traffic is really bad, mostly because they are really bad drivers. But that's besides the point. Up next: Samana!