Today has been a very long, but awesome day. Mom and I went on a hike in the national park first thing this morning. We spent the rest of the morning with Cathy -we travelled the Ranch where her works tours take people. It was very peaceful and calm, it was good to get away from the noise and pollution in the city. We had lunch there, and then I wanted to show Mom around Puerto Plata a bit. I knew that we would probably run into some of the kids who work the streets shoe shining. First we saw two of the boys downtown - they were just out riding thier bikes from the bike program at the club. So we walked along the melacon with the boys, and then ran into one of the older boys in the club - his younger brother (10 years old). He was sitting beside a police woman crying and shaking. It turns out he had been arrested earlier for shoe shining. He had been released but the police would not give him his shoe shining kit back.
I told him to walk with us and he cheered up quickly. Pretty soon we had two other kids walking with us. We walked along the melacon, enjoying the beautiful ocean and the view. Eventually we got to the end and the kids asked me if we could go into the old fort (it is a tourist attraction now). We found out that all Dominicans get in free on Wednesday's, so we went in with the kids. The security guards kept asking me if the kids were with me, and whichever kid it was would look at me, as if to say - please say yes. When I said that the child was with me, they left us alone.
The kids went nuts in the fort - they loved running around and looking at the old pictures and old things they had. They loved the different view of the ocean.
When they were tired of that, they decided that they wanted to climb the light house. They all climbed the 75 stairs (one of the boys counted) to the very top. They had so much fun and we loved spending time with them.
What a great day today!!!
(photos to come)
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