Sunday - 2.18.24

Today we said goodbye to Santo Domingo after a bus tour of some of the sites outside of the colonial city. We saw the presidential palace, the "Central Park" of Santo Domingo, and some other important areas. 

We finally arrived in Santiago, checked into Hotel Platino, and made our way to a nearby restaurant called Square One. Although it was very busy (Sunday was an election day here, so everyone was out voting), we were able to get everyone seated and enjoy a nice lunch.

After lunch, all of the students had some free time to hang out and relax after traveling from Santiago. Our next event was our special dinner at Canae! Everybody got dressed up and looked great! We arrived around 6:30pm and everyone immediately felt the good vibes from the music, decorations, and the warm breeze flowing through the restaurant. All of the students saw how a traditional Dominican locrio was made (a mix of rice and chicken) and while it was cooking, we all did some dancing and singing. Some of the family of the owners were there and they taught us some popular group dances as well as helped all of the students to learn how to dance bachata, merengue, and salsa! 

Once the food was ready, everyone was excited to eat and the consensus was that the food was amazing! Some students even got thirds! It was the perfect meal to end a long day. After the meal, we worked off some of the food by dancing and singing again for a bit. We then ended the night with some celebratory cake and then headed back to the hotel. What an awesome time we all had at Canae!