El Centro León in the Dominican Republic

                                Story Time: 

Visiting Centro León in the Dominican Republic

Hello my dearest Story Time friends from around the world, how are you? Today I am taking you along with me to visit el Centro León in the Dominican Republic. This place was quite a ride from the hotel. I don't mean to sound like a nagging or ungrateful person. I know it's all a part of the adventure. I was just tired 😪from all the adventures that I left behind me. No wonder I have baggy eyes in most of my pictures.  This year I have been on more adventures than I could post about. Okay, that's the case most of the time, but I am working on it. I am normally used to long trips. At least it wasn't as far as a trip to Atjonie (2 hours and 38 minutes) or Nickerie (3 hours and 20 minutes). 😉Yes, my Surinamese mind had to make a comparison like that! According to google maps, it's a 2 hour and 14-minute drive from El Embajador hotel to el Centro León. It's certainly a trip worth taking. You get to enjoy the beautiful scenery alongside the road. I always loved admiring the mountains in the Surinamese jungle. The Dominican Republic has beautiful mountains too.😍 I just enjoyed watching them outside of the bus window while thinking to myself how beautiful mother nature can be in different parts of the world. I just figured out that it's funny that I love mountains and my name Sharona means fertile plane.

From this day forward I claim that my new name while traveling and going on adventures should be Queen of the Mountains! I seem to be collecting those mountain pictures in different countries. And I am not even done sharing my footage about the Surinamese mountains! I am getting distracted again. That's probably because I am bursting with stories. So make sure that you subscribe when you see that Story Time UFO pop onto your screen. Visiting el Centro León amused my inner geek more than my tired face could reflect. I like visiting museums and educational centers where I can learn something. Those become a part of my beautiful memories too. Just like that museum in the Netherlands where I got to learn that the first university in the world was opened by a Muslim woman.  Her name is Fatima bint Muhammad Al-Fihriya Al-Qurashiya and she did a lot of awesome things.👏 Now that's what I call an intelligent woman. Sister was slaying it in ancient times. 😎That's why I got really excited to explore el Centro León, from the back of the crowd! 😤 Gasp there goes my inner tired introvert again.

What do you expect when I keep giving my energy away to so many people and things throughout the year? 😝 the fun part about this adventure is that in a foreign country, I get to be alone in a crowd. Back home I would be the entertainment of the crowd. 😂Our group had a guide who gave us a tour of Centro León. But before the tour started we got a chance to help ourselves to some beverages. I had to have my coffee. Make sure to check out their gorgeous garden when you are there. It's also a great location to take some great pictures. Their peaceful and gorgeous garden is a good place to sit down and reflect on the meaning of life after you go through such an intense tour. I say intense because I didn't think it would play with my emotions like that. But we will get to that part later. In el Centro León, they display different cultural, artistic, and historical items. These displays not only dive into the Story of the Dominican Republic but also that of the Caribbean. It's interesting to learn what brings us together. Suriname is a part of the Caribbean Community but we are often left out because of the lack of beaches and our location alongside the coast of South America. But in our colonial and cultural history, I have seen many similarities. Being able to explore El Centro León gave me a deeper insight into that. Especially when I saw cassava bread. I come across that a lot during my adventures throughout Surinamese Marroon villages that are located deep within our tropical rainforest. When I saw the cassava bread display it immediately reminded me of home. A week before this trip when I was still in Suriname I was taking pictures of women baking and flipping cassava bread alongside the river.

They have a lot of archeological artifacts at el Centro  León in Santo Domingo. There is even an art room but it's copyright protected so you aren't allowed to make any pictures at all. I almost lost myself there for a moment, but they don't joke around with the copyrights in this area. So you will have to go and see it for yourself, it's worth it. Especially if you like expressive art about the female body. I kind of liked the paintings better. I could see why they didn't play around when it comes to protecting copyrights in that area. I get it, being a digital content creator. Plus I have had so many written samples of mine being duplicated that I know the pain. The worst part is when other people take credit for your poetry. It almost gave me writing trauma. That is one of the reasons why I was inspired to write this story How to heal writers' trauma? It didn't sit well with me that I poured my soul into my poetry and then you post it on Facebook, and then someone else with a larger following copies it and repost it while claiming credit for it. But then again you can't copy talent. Because the moment I stopped posting my poetry like that on Facebook, the person never created a national masterpiece again 😪. I learned from my young girl experiences like that, and the visit to El Centro León further opened my eyes to how valuable the gift of creation can be. Now here comes the part of the tour that I want to tell you about. They had a display with some skeletons in it. The story behind the skeletons is what made me grateful to be born in modern times. Because a woman like me, with me rocking my crown like I do, Nah that just wouldn't work out. I'd probably get in too much trouble.

What you see in the above picture is the skeleton remains of a very important chief. Apparently, when he died his wife and concubines got buried alive alongside him. They said that you could notice based on the skeleton structure that his concubine was gasping for air before she died. The wife received a drink that knocked her out and then she was buried. But if you were a concubine you didn't have that privilege. Just seeing and hearing that shakes my essence to this day. My rebellious attitude would get me buried alive for different reasons. Like expressing my rights and oh I don't know probably trying to run away from being buried alive. We like to talk about the strong women in history because in a sense it feels like they try to bring a little bit of balance compared to all the sacrifices women have made throughout history. Well, either they made the sacrifices or they were the sacrifices. You get my point, if you are a history and culture geek like I am go visit el Centro León in the Dominican Republic. You get to learn a lot, they also have a nice gift store available, but I didn't get the time to check that out. I did make you guys a video of my experience. I hope you enjoy it and don't forget to support my crown by simply subscribing to my Story Time channels. It's as low effort as that! Have fun and until next time right here on Story Time. Hasta la vista, I have a couple of more Santo Domingo adventures to share with you in the near future.