La Isabela was the first European settlement (well outside of the Norsk settlement in Newfoundland) in the New World. Columbus. 1494 on his second expedition. Some 1500 settlers came to find cold, silver, enslave the Taino population, and then move onto other lands in this "India." The settlement lasted only two years and resulted in Columbus's fall from grace. And his imprisonment. The original site is miles west of here...it was excavated by a friend who studied with us at the University of Florida.
The irony was not lost when I passed the sign for Playa Isabela while exploring around this same north coast of Hispanola.
Another ruin but much more recent. The tropical climate has a way of aging construction, but the ruin...multiple condos on the beachfront, buildings stretching into the fields in back...had been picked apart. The way thieves come in the night to rip out copper pipes in Detriot. Or the Bronx.
Termites settling in on wooden window frames....
So it is not all paradise...or rather paradise can be fleeting. Yet hope springs eternal. Further down the road, another sign.
Jacques and Christine have their place on the market. "Simply your dream" says the small print, followed by telephone numbers. Feel free to call.
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Location:Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
