Higuey!

today we took a trip to Higuey, the capital city of the province of La Altagracia, about an hour from Punta Cana.  it is different from every other city i have ever seen.  poverty is visible everywhere.  there are more people riding around on mopeds than cars and there are small disorganized shops everywhere.  there are stray dogs wandering around and sleeping everywhere too. it was so amazing though!  the first thing we did was walk around an open market.  smells of every kind of produce, dirty water, trash, blood, and fresh slaughtered meat. raw meat hanging out and bags of spices, wheat, and corn.  we definitely stuck out as foreigners. people came up to us a few times and asked us if we were from Germany.  Heyddy was with us so she was our tour guide.  next we went to the Basilica de Nuestra Senora ("Basilica of Our Lady") with the famous painting of the Virgin Mary.  the architecture of the cathedral is so strange, the top is a huge arc that is supposed to look like praying hands.  the inside is more traditional and there are stairs to walk up and look at the famous picture of Mary.  from the basilica there is a pathway to the old church in the city.  we followed it and there were random bridges along the way.  there was a small Dominican boy that took a picture with us and someone gave him a little bit of money so he followed us all the way to the old church.  a policeman kept twisting his ear and telling him to stop begging but he kept coming back.  he was so cute.  we ate lunch at Pollo Victorias, a kind of dominican chicken fast food place.  our last stop was a supermarket kind of store.  the store was pretty big and also sold clothes, shoes, and random things, kind of like a walmart.  so many new amazing sights and smells today!