It was a very quiet day on Monday as it was a holiday. It was not Juan Pablo Duartes’ birthday but it is the day the government in Dominican Republic said we needed to celebrate the day of our founding father. So the roads were empty of traffic. The Avenida George Washington, better known as the Malecon in Santo Domingo, was empty of cars. Mom said it is dangerous to cross that road and since I am a little nervous she does not want to stress me out trying to cross a busy road. So this day was perfect for us to cross the road and visit the beach.
We went through the Plaza at the statue of Monticino and mom said they really cleaned it up. She said we will take pictures of it another day. The beach is in front of the big statue. Mom is not sure of the name so she just calls it Playa at Montecino.
When we got there there were a few people there. There were a few nuns in their blue dresses looking at the water. There were 2 unformed guard type men in the parking lot. You could look up the coastline and see the big buildings and I even saw a ship in the Caribbean Sea.
A group of kids came and started talking to mom about me. A few did not smell good, I thought they were looking for trouble. But there were two that were very nice and talked to me. I let one pat my head for a second. Then they took off their clothes and went swimming. Two of the kids went into the water naked! Thank goodness mom said the pictures came out blurry so we could not see those boys bare butts.
The waves were a little rough and the noise of the crashing water frightened me a little. I was brave and did not run away and enjoyed sniffing the sand and the trees and buses around the area. I did not want to get near the water. Maybe another day when I get braver.
Then mom and I walked around a little bit. We stopped to talk to friends at Parque San Jose where mom used to live. We then continued on with the walk.
It started raining really hard. I never got stuck in hard rain before. I was afraid and the big umbrella mom had did not do much good. We ran for a doorway. I was shaking. The other people in the door thought I was cold but I was just shaking because I was afraid. But mom hugged me and told me all was OK. Finally the rain stopped and we walked some more.
We ended up in Parque Duarte (the good picture is in the other post about Duarte Day). I liked smelling the flower wreaths that were in front of the statue of Duarte. Everything was wet and fresh and clean, including mom and I.
After this we headed home. It was a good walk-about.
That is THE MOST ADORABLE dog EVER!!!! And now I want one and I’ll call him The Frenchman! And I’m not even a dog prsoen!!