4H Equipo GIS

The trip to the Dominican Republic was thankfully very uneventful. Everything went according to plan. At 8:00 pm, Christian, Gabriel, and myself had arrived to the location of the ESRI Latin American & Caribbean User’s Conference. Once we met up with the rest of the group (Sarah, Luis, and Clara), we decided to grab some dinner. Afterwards, since the weather was warm, we chose to walk back to the hotel. Walking back, we were able to admire the beautiful Spanish-style architecture surrounding the pebble-stone driveways(Building). Pretty soon the rain started to pour down on us and we trotted back into the hotel soaking wet, to the dismay of the hotel attendants, who were only able to say, “You are soaking wet.” With this, we concluded the first night of what is to be a very interesting week.

-Liz

Clara, Luis, and Sarah arrived in the Dominican Republic after nearly 18 hours on planes and in airports!

JFK was a wonderful experience with weather delays (rain) and air traffic issues. We left New York exactly two hours late! Luis like the NY to Santo Domingo leg of the journey!

Descending through the clouds into the Santo Domingo area we flew through a thunder storm complete with cloud bursts over the ocean and lightening! Our first view of Santo Domingo was extraordinary! Heavy, dark clouds to the south, and green city to descend into to!

We cleared customs with minor confusion, and giggling. The sleeplessness was starting to hit us all! We found a taxi to the airport without any trouble, however, the driving skills of our driver appear to be questionable. He took his half out of the middle, cutting of another driver at one point, to which the other driver proceeded to pull up along side of the taxi, and welcome us into the country!

We arrived at the V Centenario in Santo Domingo without actually crashing, only running one vehicle off the road, only ignoring one red light, and without running out of gas…..note: the gas light was on the entire trip!

It is warm and raining hard. Buckets and buckets of rain! We walked (because Luis wouldn’t let us nap!) and found the conference hotel, and walked along the sea front.

We are currently waiting for Liz, Thomas, Gabriel, and Christian to arrive. We have dined on Salmon, capers, and onions….and chicken fingers that had a distinct fish flavor…..

After the rest of our group arrives, we plan to go explore the Zona Colonial.