Visited Christopher Columbus's House

Karina & Jorge decided to take a little excursion and see the beach. Brian and Jen, two of the other American Missionaries took off with us for the north shore and a town called Luperón. It is 90km from our home in Santiago. We stayed at a resort on the ocean. We relaxed, ate international food, and met quite a few Canadians and Brits. Ken did a SCUBA dive through the on premises SCUBA shop and school. Karina soaked up the rays and relaxed on the beach. We sat at night and talked, played crazy eights and relaxed some more. It was so quiet, much different than our city home.

The highlight was probably visiting Christopher Columbus's first house in the New World. We got a guided tour of the town of Isabela, founded in 1494, on Columbus's second voyage to our hemisphere. (Cost 100 Pesos for the 4 of us, about $3.)The site is absolutely stunningly beautiful! It's near the mouth of a river on the north shore, between Luperón and Monte Cristi. (Monte Cristi is the birthplace of Tony Peña.)

Pretty neat to step into the house that Christopher Columbus lived in over 500 years ago. We had visited many times the Lost Colony in North Carolina, settled 90 years later. In addition to the house, there was a church and graveyard. Unearthed is the grave of a Spaniard who died over 500 years ago. Hurricane Noel downed quite a few trees on the property, but it was in remarkably good shape, considering.

Now, we're back in Santiago, looking forward to a new week preparing for another mission team. Karina's mom and aunt are on a cruise this week, but will be flying down to visit us for a week, beginning next Sunday. We had a nice visit from Nancy Winfrey and hope that the work in Guatemala will grow and thrive.