We Finally Leave the Ship…d’Ovidio and the White Party…oh What a Day

November 19,2023

Santo Domingo experienced a severe weather event overnight as evidenced by the dark brown muddy waters and debris floating in the sea as we waited for clearance into the port. Flood waters carried detritus down the Ozama river, depositing large amounts of trash into the waters surrounding the port.

As we sailed into port, you can see the muddied waters around this ferry.

Breakfast in our suite, then we left the ship around 11:00 am. After 6 days at sea, I felt the need to feel Terra Firma. The port authority provided a shuttle bus into town, dropping us at Columbus square. Pigeons were on hand to welcome us. As were several jewelry salesmen…

If we spot a tan and white pigeon, we immediately name it “Fluffy”

I bet you can guess who this statue honors…

We set out on a 14 minute walk (according to Google maps) to find Modello Mercado. We enjoy local markets, and thought the short walk might afford us the opportunity to get a sense of Santo Domingo.

I took some photos that seemed evocative of the neighborhoods that we walked through. We were struck by the lack of other pedestrians until we realized…it’s Sunday! Here are some pics …most do not require captions.

Because of the way that I cropped this pic, it’s hard to see the steepness of the hill.

I parked my guy and ran off to snap a few more pics…

So here we have the market…after about a 20 minute walk that involved a hill (or two) …and of course…it’s Sunday! Closed on Sunday! Oh well… we got a few steps in and although it’s quite humid, there was no sun burning down on us…lots of cloud cover and even a few cooling sprinkles.

Ever the good sport, Tim said nothing about me dragging him along only to find the market closed…wouldn’t be the first time we winged a port excursion and found the object of our intention closed… it is what it is 🩵

Eagle eye Timmy spotted these peso coins on the street.

Took a pic of this street name to send to our Isabel.

Back at the square, waiting for the shuttle.

As we walked back to Columbus square we searched for postcards…many, many souvenir shops…no postcards…not a one. We finally find a small (25 year old…at least)selection and took our time choosing the least frayed.

I said to Timmy “I have to take a photo of these cards” …please keep in mind that these were the best of the lot…you can see that I was not exaggerating when I said at least 25 years old.

We each scarfed down our own pizza, enjoyed a lovely chat with a very nice fellow guest from Denmark, who stopped by our table to comment on the lost art of sending post cards…then went back to our suite to rest up for the evening ahead.

So in this photo, I’m trying to avoid the unpleasantness of the storm aftermath. The small boat placed a boom around some floating trash and is towing it to a barge.

That’s trash in the foreground of this photo.

As we walked to Bruce Hammond’s show, I snapped the White Party ready Crystal Cove 🩵

Bruce Hammond in the Galaxy Lounge at 6:00 pm…some Bobby Darin, Sinatra and Neil Diamond…highly entertaining.

We popped into the Cove after Bruce’s show and before dinner in Osteria d’Ovidio…we did receive a few strange looks…most folks were dressed in their White Party finery…We were not. Here’s why: in the fall of 2019, when we were last on Serenity, we dined in Prego on the night of the White Party. As we were leaving the table, I spilled the remnants of Tim’s Chianti on his new white shirt. Actually it was way more dramatic than that sounds…I animatedly swung my arm out as I stood up…and the glass actually flew up into the air splashing Tim’s entire shirtfront. Much embarrassment ensued. So we made a bee line back to our suite, and I spent the next half hour removing every last hint of wine from the shirt. After that…no one was in the mood for a party.
When I made the Osteria dinner reservation for this cruise, I had no clue it would be on the White Party evening. Anyway, we dined, then we got White Party fancy 😊