30 things about Santo Domingo that you didn't know

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, here are 30 facts about one of the largest cosmopolitan cities in the Caribbean: Santo Domingo

11. Santo Domingo’s Museo de las Casas Reales was built in 1511 to house the administrative offices of the Spanish colonies in the Americas.

12. Avenida George Washington runs along the Caribbean Sea and includes its own Washington Monument-like Obelisk. However, the El Obelisco), was built by dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1936 to commemorate the renaming of the city to Cuidad Trujillo.

13. Going into commercial service on January 30, 2009, Metro de Santo Domingo is the most extensive metro system in the insular Caribbean and Central America region by length and number of stations. Operating mostly underground, 61.3 million passengers rode the system in 2014.

14. The National Pantheon was completed in 1746 as a Jesuit church by Spaniard Geronimo Quezada y Garcon. Today, it is the final resting place of the Dominican Republic’s most honored citizens.

15. Recently, $30 million has been invested in streetscape improvements intended to beautify and “right-size” streets to improve pedestrian safety.

16. Santo Domingo’s Barrio Chino is one of only three Chinatowns in the Caribbean.

17. Parque Colon, the central square of Santo Domingo’s colonial zone was named in honor of Christopher Columbus in 1887.

18. June is the hottest month in Santo Domingo with an average temperature of 82°F and the coldest is February at 76°F, making sidewalk cafes a permanent fixture within the city’s bustling landscape.

19. Almuerzo La Bandera for 400 pesos at the Green Bar on Calle del Conde. As of December 26, 2016, one US Dollar is equal to 46.35 Dominican Pesos.

20. Los Tres Ojos (The Three Eyes) is a series of three lakes, located in open-air limestone caves in the middle of the city. Fed by water from an underground river, the site was created centuries ago as a result of tectonic fractures from the collapse of underground caves.