December 14, 2024
SANTO DOMINGO one final time with the Little / Olson Family
Spent a nice afternoon with the Little Olson Family - from the left is Alonia 15 , Whitney, Lucia 13 and Doug. They are from Montana, and are on the ship thru to May. They asked me to join them on a final stroll through the walled colonial city. I enjoy the whole family very much and wanted to see more in town since I was rushed on Sunday morning.
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When Alionia was feeding the pigeons, a very nice elderly guide started speaking to us and he wanted to share so much information about his home with us. He led us all over and took us in and out of so many places, museums, hotels, restaurants and shops - non- stop for a good hour - all free. It was great! He shared so much passion and local knowledge and showed us way more than we anticipated. We shared refreshing beverages at a lovely restaurant in a converted old factory, complete with a waterfall. And saw Larimar stone being made into jewelry. We ended at a large local market. Really felt like we got to know Santo Domingo!
Got to love a place that sells shirts saying " Where the heck is Yap? " Colonia ( population 3,100 ) is the Capital and Harbor town of Yap State ( population 11,600 ) one of four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. We are in the Pacific Ocean or Philippine Sea just north of the equator, Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Ternate, Indonesia, which is both the name of the city and island, and is part of the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia. It is a port that sees maybe 3 Cruise ships a year. However, they really made an effort to show us the best of what they can offer. It's mainly a Muslim country, and we knew we had to dress discretely, but we knew little else. We didn't have our typical port talk prior, due to a technical issue with the AV equipment. Ben a fellow resident, organized an island tour, with about 8 stops, for 90 of us residents.
Cebu greeted our Ship with a big warm welcome, despite having just been rocked by a major Earthquake, days before our arrival. The Minister of Tourism arrived with a motorcade and she proceeded to chat with the residents and thank us, for all our support.