***NOTE!! ..DATE OF RUN HAS BEEN PROSPONED TO FEBURARY-MARCH 2012. EXACT DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED***
Donations needed Kiskeya Run
Donations Needed
Re: Funding Urgently Needed for Kiskeya Run Peace and Dignity
Takahi Guaitiao (Greetings Relative):
It is our hope that this message finds you well and in good spirit. We are writing to bring your attention to an historic event that will take place on the island of Kiskeya (Dominican Republic) this ***FEBURARY-MARCH 2012***. This event, “The Kiskeya Peace and Dignity Run: Route of the Redtail Hawk”, is an indigenous led spiritual run that seeks to raise awareness about the condition of sacred sites on the island of Kikskeya (Dominican Republic) as well as bring together in solidarity local indigenous islanders with mainland indigenous representatives. This Run is dedicated to the Children of Kiskeya
The Kiskeya (Dominican Republic) Peace and Dignity Run is intricately connected to the ancient indigenous prophecy of the Eagle and Condor and the Hawk. This prophecy mandates that Indigenous Peoples of the Western Hemisphere shall reunite in a spiritual way to bring healing to the Nations and a better future for our children and generations to come. The Kiskeya (Dominican Republic) Peace and Dignity Run provides a unique opportunity for local communities to honor their indigenous spiritual practices and traditions as well as promote the collective responsibilities we all have to Mother Earth, Father Sky, our communities, and ourselves.
The Kiskeya (Dominican Republic) Peace and Dignity Run will begin at the sacred site of
LA CUEVA NI RAHU with a special commencement ceremony. From there groups of runners and supporters will travel to four different points on the island covering the 5 original kingdoms [ cacigazgos }
1) HIGUEY, 2) MAGUA , 3) MAGUANA , XARAGUA , 5) MARIEN , those gathered with take part in cultural exchanges, workshops, communal meals, and ceremonies. Participants will be gathered together camp ground style with some elders and visiting indigenous dignitaries being provided other local accommodations.
As this is a grass-roots initiative, the organizers are seeking funds to assist with the hosting of this historic indigenous spiritual gathering; the first of its kind to be held in Kiskeya in about 500 years
We are respectfully seeking your financial assistance, which will provide logistical support for local runners and meals at the main gathering and ceremonies.
Your assistance is needed. Donations are tax-deductible.
You can donate to the Kiskeya Peace and Dignity Run via Pay Pal
1-Conduit
via Guanin Center you can donate directely to the Paypal account link, with the credit or debit card. This is the link www.guanin.org go to donate (http://guanin.org/files/members.html)
or by checks, money-order, they would have to made out to Centro Cultural Guanín in order to cash them. with the words “Peace and Dignity” in the memo. Checks or money-orders can be sent to: Kiskeya Run 9421 Wogan terrace Brooklyn NY 11209
2- Conduit for 2011 is KHNIA Inc 2805 University ave Suite B
Bronx 10468 New York
For more information contact Roman Guaraguaorix Perez at kiskeyarun2011@yahoo.com
(thank you) in advance for your support.
Oma’bahari, nabori wa'ka
(With respect, we are at your service),
Roman Perez, Kiskeya 2011 organizer
Possible Route in Kiskeya
I would like to inform everyone that due to our goal not being met in fundraising, we are sad to say that we must postpone the Kiskeya Run to a later date. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused anyone in their plan for running in Kiskeya this Novemeber. The cost of Gasoline in the Caribbean is escalating to over $8 a gallon. Gasoline and travel is one of the key factors for the fundrai...sing of this run. Our goal: is to raise a minimum of $3,000- in order to meet our transportation needs in Kiskeya. We have collected through donations approximately $400. We would like to thank all of those who donated, and encourage you to PLEASE pass on this information. We cannot do this alone. The organizers and runners appreciate your attention to this matter. However, we obviously still need more funding to make this happen. We will be setting up several ways of fundraising, and will be posting it very soon. NOTE: the runners and organizers pay for their own airfare and lodging for the run. ANOTHER NOTE: THERE IS A CHANGE IN DATE (FEB-MARCH 2012), HOWEVER THE RUN WILL STILL HAPPEN ....AS LONG AS WE ALL WORK TOGETHER!
SUGGESTIONS FOR KISKEYA’S PEACE & DIGNITY RUN
ARRIVE at Santo Domingo’s Las Américas Airport & stay at either Hotel Zapata in Boca Chica or the Hotel Europa in the Colonial Zone…. Note that each number represents a day’s journey and adventure.
1) CAPITAL. Start with the Capital, staying at the Hotel Europa in the Colonial Zone: Tour Colonial Zone with special emphasis on the ruins of the Franciscan Monastery, where Enriquillo was taken by the Spaniards to be taught to read, write, and follow Christian ways, and behind which was the original Taíno yukayeke (around 10,000 population in 1494) whose Kacika was baptized Catalina; Parque Duarte, where Anacaona was supposedly hanged by Gov. Nicolás de Ovando in 1503; also visit the new city hall where the beautiful Taíno murals are by the Spaniard Via Zaneti—about 3 hours. Also should visit the Museo del Hombre Dominicano (2 hours) and the Museo Pre-Hispánico (1 hour). --All could be done in one day.
2) JUST NORTHEAST OF THE CAPITAL. Visit the magnificent Tres Ojos, which has a few petroglyphs, indicating that it was a sacred Taíno site (1 ½ hours, including driving time from the Capital). It’s another half hour drive north to Cueva Ni Rahú, a sacred Taíno cave with 21 rooms, dozens of pictograph panels, beautiful petroglyphs, and two subterranean pools of crystalline water located 110’ below the earth’s surface, where Lynne Guitar is developing an ecological/ecotourism center dedicated to the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Be sure to bring good flashlights with new batteries to tour the caves (including the behike’s cave) and eat lunch with Yadaris Medina and her family (Taíno descendants) there at La Piedra. After lunch, visit the La Piedra community center that is in development by Guanín (Lynne and her Dominican son Severino’s NGO), then drive back to the Las Americas Highway and enjoy Playa La Caleta, which was a well populated Taíno beach and fishing village for centuries, maybe millennia. Stay the night at Hotel Zapata in Boca Chica.
3) OPTIONAL DAY--SOUTHEAST. From Boca Chica, drive due east past San Franciso de Macorix (this is, of course, former Macorix territory) to Cueva de las Maravillas, one of the country’s most notable natural wonders, with its hundreds of well preserved pictographs (1 ½ hours, including driving time), then on to the small but delightful Museo Regional Arqueológico de Altos de Chavón (3 hours, including driving time), and finish the day hiking the new Padre Nuestro Ecological/Archaeological Route in Higuey, which offers both 1-km and 2-km versions, both of which include tours of the Chicho Springs Cave, with its crystalline waters and a couple of petroglyphs, a Taíno burial site, and vegetation typical of the Taíno Era in this region of dry karst topography. Stay the night at the inexpensive Hotel Bayahibe—get your photo taken next to the 5-foot-high Taíno trigonolito at the head of the bay.
4) OPTIONAL DAYS—CHOOSE EITHER OR BOTH EAST NATIONAL PARK & ISLA SAONA. If you have time to spend another day or two in the Southeast, you could hire a boat in Bayahibe to take you to Isla Saona for the day, where the Kacike Higueymoto and his family hid out from the Spaniards during the war in 1505, and where Taínos made casabe and sold it to Spaniards for many decades afterwards. The boat tours include a fresh fish BBQ on the beach…. Or you could opt to hike into East National Park to see Cueva Peñon Gordo and the Cueva José María, where, while a massacre/battle was raging above them, several hundred Taíno elders, women, and children hid out—the Dominican specialist Domingo Abreu believes that the hundreds of similar pictographs in the cave were their cries for help to the cemís. The cave also has the famous pictographs that depict a kacike whose entrails were ripped out by a Spanish dog (the beginning of the massacre) and the casabe trade with the Spaniards, using a style that suggests the Taíno were developing a writing system using pictographs. Note that it is a difficult hike of about 1 ½ hours each way to Cueva José María, that you will need to hire a guide at the East National Park entrance, and that access to the cave is difficult—take a sturdy rope that is at least 30’ long and also be sure to bring your flashlights and a couple bottles of drinking water.
5) GO BACK THROUGH THE CAPITAL TOWARD SAN CRISTOBAL ON THE NEW HIGHWAY. Visit the Cueva Pomier Complex, with more pictographs than any other site in the country. Most important are two caves: Pomier #1, dedicated to fertility, and the Cueva del Puente, with ancient pictographs that predate the Taíno and where Domingo Abreu believes the legend arose of the cave where the sun arises…. In the afternoon, head to San Juan de la Maguana to see the artwork that the city has erected to the Taíno and the Plaza Ceremonial de los Taínos (formerly called Coral de los Indios) just outside the city. Stay the night in one of the hotels of San Juan. Note that you could spend DAYS just in and around San Juan de la Maguana, speaking with the Taíno descendants there and visiting all the shrines and sites of religious syncretism where Anacaona and other indigenous entities are worshipped along with local heroes and African deities.
6) THE SOUTHWEST & LAGO ENRIQUILLO. From San Juan de la Maguana, it’s a relatively easy drive to Lago Enriquillo, with its Las Caritas, carved by the Taíno to look out over the salt lake. You can also take a small boat out to the Isla los Cabritos, where crocodiles give birth to their babies before carrying them in their mouths to fresh-water outlets around the lake. At Parque Lago Enriquillo you can see, up close (they love fruit, so take some with you and see them even closer), the two kinds of iguanas that inhabit the region of Bahoruco where Kacike Enriquillo and his followers hid out from the Spaniards for nearly two decades. Driving around the south side of the lake, at the entrance to the town of Galván, you’ll want to stop and admire a stunning sculpture of Enriquillo. Stay the night anywhere between Bahoruco and the Capital—there are clean, very comfortable, cheap hotels in Azua and Baní.
7) CENTER OF THE COUNTRY--BACK THROUGH THE CAPITAL AGAIN, GO DIRECTLY NORTH ON MAXIMO GOMEZ (Highway no. 13) TO YAMASA. Yamasa and nearby Peravilla (also spelled Esperalvillo) were known areas not only of Classic Taíno life but of cimarronaje after the arrival of the Spaniards. The Hermanos Guillén, Taíno descendants, have been teaching the local people about their indigenous heritage for nearly two decades now, while creating some of best known replicas of Taíno ceramics in the country as well as new creations based on Taíno themes and designs. No visit to Taíno sites in the D.R. would be complete without visiting their ceramica and spending a day with one or more of the brothers, exploring the mountainous regions around them that caused them to have such an in-depth and personal interest in their Taíno past, present, and future. Stay in one of the small hotels in Yamasá.
8) OPTIONAL DAY IN CENTER OF THE COUNTRY—COTUI. Drive through the mountains from Yamasá to Cotui to hike out to the Hoyo de Sanabe (also called Guácara Sanabe), a cave whose pictographs indicate that it may have been a locus for healing. You’ll need to hire a local guide or someone who has been to the cave before. Although small in size, the Hoyo de Sanabe has some of the most interesting and well preserved pictographs in the country. It’s a relatively easy hike, but requires a lot of climbing up and down hills and about 1 to 1½ hours each way (take drinking water and flashlights). During part of the hike, you’ll be overlooking the manmade lake formed by the Presa de Hatillo, which unfortunately drowned several other Taíno sacred caves that are said to have been as fantastic, if not more so, as Hoyo de Sanabe…. After your hike, drive northeast through the mountains and spend the night in La Vega.
9) CENTER OF THE COUNTRY--SANTO CERRO & LA VEGA VIEJA... THEN ON TO SANTIAGO DE LOS CABALLEROS. From Yamasá or La Vega, the approach to Santo Cerro and the ruins of the Spanish city of Concepción de la Vega (called La Vega Vieja today) are north and slightly west of the modern city of La Vega. Santo Cerro is the most likely site of the very first major battle in history between American Natives and Europeans (some suggest a site near Esperanza, to the northwest), and Concepción de la Vega was built just to the east of the kacikazgo of Guarionex, who ruled over the gold-bearing Cibao; there is small but very interesting museum on site with some rare Taíno artifacts. (Read Lynne Guitar’s updated version of the story of the Battle of Santo Cerro and colonization of Concepción de La Vega.) Be sure to try some yajardra, the local spiced bread/cookies made from yuka starch and seek out the unusual beehive-shaped ovens where they are baked. Visiting both sites should take only about 2 hours,so you have time to drive to Santiago and see the fabulous Taíno collection at the Centro Cultural León Jiménes. The much smaller and very eclectric Museo Folklórico Tomás Morel is another interesting place to visit, if you have time, and has a small variety of both real and fake Taíno artifacts. Stay the night at one of several small, medium-priced hotels along Calle del Sol in the downtown area.
10) THE NORTHWESTERNMOST CORDILLERA CENTRAL. (Note that you will need “river shoes” today.) Get up early and drive to Los Pinos and Monción (about 1 ½ hours from Santiago), where Taíno descendant Mecho Castillo has a casabe factory and will show you the modernized version of the ancient Taíno process that they use. Her sons can guide you on the hike of the Río Gurabo behind Canyon Grande (Monción), where what appears to be the 50-feet-high head of the cemí of cojoba was carved long ago into the cliff wall, forming an absolutely amazing backdrop to a series of three “Charcos de los Indios,” where indigenous peoples from the big batey at the site of today’s town of Cacique used to prepare for their sacred ceremonies. From where we have to park our vehicle beside a cattle ranch, it’s about a 45-minute hike to the charcos and the Giant Face. Afterwards, it’s back to Mecho’s for a fabulous homemade lunch (nearly everything served is grown on her family finca) and then head further west in the early afternoon for Los Indios, where there used to be a vast ceremonial Taíno plaza and, just a short way further west, to the junction where the Río Chacuey crosses the old highway to Dajabón. Only about a 10-minute hike (in the river) to the left (south) of the bridge that crosses the river, you can see the most famous petroglyphs on the island. In recent years, idiots have been carving over top of them, so I hope they are all still visible. Just a 5-minute hike to the right (north) of the bridge that crosses the river, are a series of deep, clear-running charcos where Taínos used to bathe. (I have found several artifacts among the stones at the bottom of the river.)… Best place to spend the night is Monte Cristi, although it’s another 1 ½ hours away (we drive through Dajabón, then north to Monte Cristi).
11) NORTH COAST—MONTE CRISTI, LA ISABELA, AND PUERO PLATA. After an early breakfast, we’ll go for a swim or at least a walk along the Playa Detras del Moro, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the entire country. Note that archaeologists have found the ruins of hundreds of small indigenous villages all along the mangrove-lined coast between Monte Cristi and the Parque Nacional La Isabela. Although you may be told that it’s not worth going to La Isabela because most of the original foundations of Columbus’s town have been bulldozed into the sea, there is an interesting museum on site and it IS the site of the first sustained relations between Spaniards and Taíno peoples; therefore, I think it’s worth the trouble to get there. From Monte Cristi, you must either circle around the small mountain roads from the Cruce Guayacanes to Los Hidalgos, then through Guananico—an archaeologist named César has a private Taíno museum there that we can probably stop and visit—then from Guananico to Imbert, and finally through Luperón, OR you can take the Cibao Highway (no. 1) from Monte Cristi turning north at the highway (no. 5) that goes to Puerta Plata, turning west at Imbert, then reaching El Castillo through Luperón. Do NOT try to take the “short cut” from Los Hidalgos through El Castillo because the bridge that you see on the map was never constructed! After spending an hour at La Isabela National Park, we’ll go for swim in the bathtub-warm shallow waters of Playa El Castillo, where both Taínos and Colonial-Era Spaniards used to swim. We’ll stay the night in El Castillo, Luperón, or Puerto Plata.
12) OPTIONAL DAY IN PUERTO PLATA AND ALONG NORTH COAST. If it’s a relatively clear day, it’s worth spending a couple hours in the morning to take the teleférico to the top of Torre Isabela. From the cablecar, you can see a huge stretch of the Costa del Ambar, which once had Taíno fishing villages all along it. Then we’ll drive the north coast to the east, stopping for lunch and/or drinks at any of the popular beach towns along the way such as Sosua, Cabarete, Río San Juan, Playa Grande, or Cabrera. If we stop in Río San Juan, we might take the time for a boat ride up the mangrove-filled Laguna Gri Gri to where it opens to the Atlantic. All of these popular beach areas were once populous Taíno yukayekes.
13) SAMANA AND THE NORTHEAST. From Puerto Plata to Santa Bárbara de Samaná is a two-hour drive, and that’s if we only make a brief stop or two. There are two principal destinations for those of Taíno descent: Playa del Rincón and Los Haitises National Park. You can’t do both in one day, especially if we just drove in from Puerto Plata. Playa del Rincón is about an hour and a half north and west of the city of Samaná and is the most likely site of what Columbus called the Bahía de las Flechas, where the first skirmish between indigenous peoples of the Americas and Europeans took place, although most tourists are taken to a site just north of Samaná, which is erroneously called the Bahía de las Flechas. Playa del Rincón today is a gorgeous, off-the-beaten-track, coconut-lined beach with delicious fish dinners available very cheaply, especially where the Río Frío (whose waters are really frigid!) enters the ocean. Stay the night in Santa Bábara de Samaná.
14) LOS HAITISES NATIONAL PARK. Next morning, take a Victoria Marine tour of Los Haitises National Park, visiting the Bird Islands to see nesting birds in quantities like the Taíno probably saw them, and be sure to visit the Cueva Ferrocarril, with its hundreds of Ciboney pictographs, including one of a spouting humpback whale, proof positive that these North Atlantic whales have been coming to the Bay of Samaná to have their babies for millennia. Also a must-see is the guardian petroglyph of Macocael in front of the Sand Cave, which is breathtakingly beautiful. If we have time, we should also visit Cueva San Gabriel, which has an amazing petroglyph of a “belt” like those worn ceremoniously by kacikes or perhaps for a ritual game of batey. All of these bays, inlets, and mangrove-lined rivers were once the fishing grounds of the Ciboney people.
15) DRIVE BACK ALONG THE NEW SAMANA HIGHWAY TO SANTO DOMINGO, a 2 ½-hour drive.
You will need:
• loose fitting, comfortable clothes that “breath” in the humid heat (both exterior clothes and underclothes); lightweight cotton is best, and remember that Dominican men and women wear long pants or knee-length shorts, NOT short-shorts in public
• a sun shirt and sun hat, plus lots of sun protector #30 and up; insect repellant, too
• a sweater or light jacket for cool nights along the ocean or in the mountains
• swimsuit & towel; snorkeling mask and snorkel, if you have them
• comfortable hiking shoes; two pairs are best so you can switch on and off
• river shoes, either the elasticized kind with rubber soles, strap-on rubber sandals like Tewas, or old tennies that you can get wet; no clog-style shoes, for they float off in the river, and while flip flops are fine at the beach, they’re absolutely NOT for river hikes
• at least one set of dressy clothes for an evening out
• a flashlight (forehead kind is best because it leaves you hands-free) with fresh batteries and spares
• digital camera with fresh batteries and spares; bring a charger, too
• notebook and pen for personal journal; most of the hotels will also have wifi, so bring your laptop to type up notes in the evenings (just don’t take it on the hikes : )
• a small fold-up umbrella
SUGGESTIONS FOR KISKEYA’S PEACE & DIGNITY RUN
ARRIVE at Santo Domingo’s Las Américas Airport & stay at either Hotel Zapata in Boca Chica or the Hotel Europa in the Colonial Zone…. Note that each number represents a day’s journey and adventure.
1) CAPITAL. Start with the Capital, staying at the Hotel Europa in the Colonial Zone: Tour Colonial Zone with special emphasis on the ruins of the Franciscan Monastery, where Enriquillo was taken by the Spaniards to be taught to read, write, and follow Christian ways, and behind which was the original Taíno yukayeke (around 10,000 population in 1494) whose Kacika was baptized Catalina; Parque Duarte, where Anacaona was supposedly hanged by Gov. Nicolás de Ovando in 1503; also visit the new city hall where the beautiful Taíno murals are by the Spaniard Via Zaneti—about 3 hours. Also should visit the Museo del Hombre Dominicano (2 hours) and the Museo Pre-Hispánico (1 hour). --All could be done in one day.
2) JUST NORTHEAST OF THE CAPITAL. Visit the magnificent Tres Ojos, which has a few petroglyphs, indicating that it was a sacred Taíno site (1 ½ hours, including driving time from the Capital). It’s another half hour drive north to Cueva Ni Rahú, a sacred Taíno cave with 21 rooms, dozens of pictograph panels, beautiful petroglyphs, and two subterranean pools of crystalline water located 110’ below the earth’s surface, where Lynne Guitar is developing an ecological/ecotourism center dedicated to the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Be sure to bring good flashlights with new batteries to tour the caves (including the behike’s cave) and eat lunch with Yadaris Medina and her family (Taíno descendants) there at La Piedra. After lunch, visit the La Piedra community center that is in development by Guanín (Lynne and her Dominican son Severino’s NGO), then drive back to the Las Americas Highway and enjoy Playa La Caleta, which was a well populated Taíno beach and fishing village for centuries, maybe millennia. Stay the night at Hotel Zapata in Boca Chica.
3) OPTIONAL DAY--SOUTHEAST. From Boca Chica, drive due east past San Franciso de Macorix (this is, of course, former Macorix territory) to Cueva de las Maravillas, one of the country’s most notable natural wonders, with its hundreds of well preserved pictographs (1 ½ hours, including driving time), then on to the small but delightful Museo Regional Arqueológico de Altos de Chavón (3 hours, including driving time), and finish the day hiking the new Padre Nuestro Ecological/Archaeological Route in Higuey, which offers both 1-km and 2-km versions, both of which include tours of the Chicho Springs Cave, with its crystalline waters and a couple of petroglyphs, a Taíno burial site, and vegetation typical of the Taíno Era in this region of dry karst topography. Stay the night at the inexpensive Hotel Bayahibe—get your photo taken next to the 5-foot-high Taíno trigonolito at the head of the bay.
4) OPTIONAL DAYS—CHOOSE EITHER OR BOTH EAST NATIONAL PARK & ISLA SAONA. If you have time to spend another day or two in the Southeast, you could hire a boat in Bayahibe to take you to Isla Saona for the day, where the Kacike Higueymoto and his family hid out from the Spaniards during the war in 1505, and where Taínos made casabe and sold it to Spaniards for many decades afterwards. The boat tours include a fresh fish BBQ on the beach…. Or you could opt to hike into East National Park to see Cueva Peñon Gordo and the Cueva José María, where, while a massacre/battle was raging above them, several hundred Taíno elders, women, and children hid out—the Dominican specialist Domingo Abreu believes that the hundreds of similar pictographs in the cave were their cries for help to the cemís. The cave also has the famous pictographs that depict a kacike whose entrails were ripped out by a Spanish dog (the beginning of the massacre) and the casabe trade with the Spaniards, using a style that suggests the Taíno were developing a writing system using pictographs. Note that it is a difficult hike of about 1 ½ hours each way to Cueva José María, that you will need to hire a guide at the East National Park entrance, and that access to the cave is difficult—take a sturdy rope that is at least 30’ long and also be sure to bring your flashlights and a couple bottles of drinking water.
5) GO BACK THROUGH THE CAPITAL TOWARD SAN CRISTOBAL ON THE NEW HIGHWAY. Visit the Cueva Pomier Complex, with more pictographs than any other site in the country. Most important are two caves: Pomier #1, dedicated to fertility, and the Cueva del Puente, with ancient pictographs that predate the Taíno and where Domingo Abreu believes the legend arose of the cave where the sun arises…. In the afternoon, head to San Juan de la Maguana to see the artwork that the city has erected to the Taíno and the Plaza Ceremonial de los Taínos (formerly called Coral de los Indios) just outside the city. Stay the night in one of the hotels of San Juan. Note that you could spend DAYS just in and around San Juan de la Maguana, speaking with the Taíno descendants there and visiting all the shrines and sites of religious syncretism where Anacaona and other indigenous entities are worshipped along with local heroes and African deities.
6) THE SOUTHWEST & LAGO ENRIQUILLO. From San Juan de la Maguana, it’s a relatively easy drive to Lago Enriquillo, with its Las Caritas, carved by the Taíno to look out over the salt lake. You can also take a small boat out to the Isla los Cabritos, where crocodiles give birth to their babies before carrying them in their mouths to fresh-water outlets around the lake. At Parque Lago Enriquillo you can see, up close (they love fruit, so take some with you and see them even closer), the two kinds of iguanas that inhabit the region of Bahoruco where Kacike Enriquillo and his followers hid out from the Spaniards for nearly two decades. Driving around the south side of the lake, at the entrance to the town of Galván, you’ll want to stop and admire a stunning sculpture of Enriquillo. Stay the night anywhere between Bahoruco and the Capital—there are clean, very comfortable, cheap hotels in Azua and Baní.
7) CENTER OF THE COUNTRY--BACK THROUGH THE CAPITAL AGAIN, GO DIRECTLY NORTH ON MAXIMO GOMEZ (Highway no. 13) TO YAMASA. Yamasa and nearby Peravilla (also spelled Esperalvillo) were known areas not only of Classic Taíno life but of cimarronaje after the arrival of the Spaniards. The Hermanos Guillén, Taíno descendants, have been teaching the local people about their indigenous heritage for nearly two decades now, while creating some of best known replicas of Taíno ceramics in the country as well as new creations based on Taíno themes and designs. No visit to Taíno sites in the D.R. would be complete without visiting their ceramica and spending a day with one or more of the brothers, exploring the mountainous regions around them that caused them to have such an in-depth and personal interest in their Taíno past, present, and future. Stay in one of the small hotels in Yamasá.
8) OPTIONAL DAY IN CENTER OF THE COUNTRY—COTUI. Drive through the mountains from Yamasá to Cotui to hike out to the Hoyo de Sanabe (also called Guácara Sanabe), a cave whose pictographs indicate that it may have been a locus for healing. You’ll need to hire a local guide or someone who has been to the cave before. Although small in size, the Hoyo de Sanabe has some of the most interesting and well preserved pictographs in the country. It’s a relatively easy hike, but requires a lot of climbing up and down hills and about 1 to 1½ hours each way (take drinking water and flashlights). During part of the hike, you’ll be overlooking the manmade lake formed by the Presa de Hatillo, which unfortunately drowned several other Taíno sacred caves that are said to have been as fantastic, if not more so, as Hoyo de Sanabe…. After your hike, drive northeast through the mountains and spend the night in La Vega.
9) CENTER OF THE COUNTRY--SANTO CERRO & LA VEGA VIEJA... THEN ON TO SANTIAGO DE LOS CABALLEROS. From Yamasá or La Vega, the approach to Santo Cerro and the ruins of the Spanish city of Concepción de la Vega (called La Vega Vieja today) are north and slightly west of the modern city of La Vega. Santo Cerro is the most likely site of the very first major battle in history between American Natives and Europeans (some suggest a site near Esperanza, to the northwest), and Concepción de la Vega was built just to the east of the kacikazgo of Guarionex, who ruled over the gold-bearing Cibao; there is small but very interesting museum on site with some rare Taíno artifacts. (Read Lynne Guitar’s updated version of the story of the Battle of Santo Cerro and colonization of Concepción de La Vega.) Be sure to try some yajardra, the local spiced bread/cookies made from yuka starch and seek out the unusual beehive-shaped ovens where they are baked. Visiting both sites should take only about 2 hours,so you have time to drive to Santiago and see the fabulous Taíno collection at the Centro Cultural León Jiménes. The much smaller and very eclectric Museo Folklórico Tomás Morel is another interesting place to visit, if you have time, and has a small variety of both real and fake Taíno artifacts. Stay the night at one of several small, medium-priced hotels along Calle del Sol in the downtown area.
10) THE NORTHWESTERNMOST CORDILLERA CENTRAL. (Note that you will need “river shoes” today.) Get up early and drive to Los Pinos and Monción (about 1 ½ hours from Santiago), where Taíno descendant Mecho Castillo has a casabe factory and will show you the modernized version of the ancient Taíno process that they use. Her sons can guide you on the hike of the Río Gurabo behind Canyon Grande (Monción), where what appears to be the 50-feet-high head of the cemí of cojoba was carved long ago into the cliff wall, forming an absolutely amazing backdrop to a series of three “Charcos de los Indios,” where indigenous peoples from the big batey at the site of today’s town of Cacique used to prepare for their sacred ceremonies. From where we have to park our vehicle beside a cattle ranch, it’s about a 45-minute hike to the charcos and the Giant Face. Afterwards, it’s back to Mecho’s for a fabulous homemade lunch (nearly everything served is grown on her family finca) and then head further west in the early afternoon for Los Indios, where there used to be a vast ceremonial Taíno plaza and, just a short way further west, to the junction where the Río Chacuey crosses the old highway to Dajabón. Only about a 10-minute hike (in the river) to the left (south) of the bridge that crosses the river, you can see the most famous petroglyphs on the island. In recent years, idiots have been carving over top of them, so I hope they are all still visible. Just a 5-minute hike to the right (north) of the bridge that crosses the river, are a series of deep, clear-running charcos where Taínos used to bathe. (I have found several artifacts among the stones at the bottom of the river.)… Best place to spend the night is Monte Cristi, although it’s another 1 ½ hours away (we drive through Dajabón, then north to Monte Cristi).
11) NORTH COAST—MONTE CRISTI, LA ISABELA, AND PUERO PLATA. After an early breakfast, we’ll go for a swim or at least a walk along the Playa Detras del Moro, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the entire country. Note that archaeologists have found the ruins of hundreds of small indigenous villages all along the mangrove-lined coast between Monte Cristi and the Parque Nacional La Isabela. Although you may be told that it’s not worth going to La Isabela because most of the original foundations of Columbus’s town have been bulldozed into the sea, there is an interesting museum on site and it IS the site of the first sustained relations between Spaniards and Taíno peoples; therefore, I think it’s worth the trouble to get there. From Monte Cristi, you must either circle around the small mountain roads from the Cruce Guayacanes to Los Hidalgos, then through Guananico—an archaeologist named César has a private Taíno museum there that we can probably stop and visit—then from Guananico to Imbert, and finally through Luperón, OR you can take the Cibao Highway (no. 1) from Monte Cristi turning north at the highway (no. 5) that goes to Puerta Plata, turning west at Imbert, then reaching El Castillo through Luperón. Do NOT try to take the “short cut” from Los Hidalgos through El Castillo because the bridge that you see on the map was never constructed! After spending an hour at La Isabela National Park, we’ll go for swim in the bathtub-warm shallow waters of Playa El Castillo, where both Taínos and Colonial-Era Spaniards used to swim. We’ll stay the night in El Castillo, Luperón, or Puerto Plata.
12) OPTIONAL DAY IN PUERTO PLATA AND ALONG NORTH COAST. If it’s a relatively clear day, it’s worth spending a couple hours in the morning to take the teleférico to the top of Torre Isabela. From the cablecar, you can see a huge stretch of the Costa del Ambar, which once had Taíno fishing villages all along it. Then we’ll drive the north coast to the east, stopping for lunch and/or drinks at any of the popular beach towns along the way such as Sosua, Cabarete, Río San Juan, Playa Grande, or Cabrera. If we stop in Río San Juan, we might take the time for a boat ride up the mangrove-filled Laguna Gri Gri to where it opens to the Atlantic. All of these popular beach areas were once populous Taíno yukayekes.
13) SAMANA AND THE NORTHEAST. From Puerto Plata to Santa Bárbara de Samaná is a two-hour drive, and that’s if we only make a brief stop or two. There are two principal destinations for those of Taíno descent: Playa del Rincón and Los Haitises National Park. You can’t do both in one day, especially if we just drove in from Puerto Plata. Playa del Rincón is about an hour and a half north and west of the city of Samaná and is the most likely site of what Columbus called the Bahía de las Flechas, where the first skirmish between indigenous peoples of the Americas and Europeans took place, although most tourists are taken to a site just north of Samaná, which is erroneously called the Bahía de las Flechas. Playa del Rincón today is a gorgeous, off-the-beaten-track, coconut-lined beach with delicious fish dinners available very cheaply, especially where the Río Frío (whose waters are really frigid!) enters the ocean. Stay the night in Santa Bábara de Samaná.
14) LOS HAITISES NATIONAL PARK. Next morning, take a Victoria Marine tour of Los Haitises National Park, visiting the Bird Islands to see nesting birds in quantities like the Taíno probably saw them, and be sure to visit the Cueva Ferrocarril, with its hundreds of Ciboney pictographs, including one of a spouting humpback whale, proof positive that these North Atlantic whales have been coming to the Bay of Samaná to have their babies for millennia. Also a must-see is the guardian petroglyph of Macocael in front of the Sand Cave, which is breathtakingly beautiful. If we have time, we should also visit Cueva San Gabriel, which has an amazing petroglyph of a “belt” like those worn ceremoniously by kacikes or perhaps for a ritual game of batey. All of these bays, inlets, and mangrove-lined rivers were once the fishing grounds of the Ciboney people.
15) DRIVE BACK ALONG THE NEW SAMANA HIGHWAY TO SANTO DOMINGO, a 2 ½-hour drive.
You will need:
• loose fitting, comfortable clothes that “breath” in the humid heat (both exterior clothes and underclothes); lightweight cotton is best, and remember that Dominican men and women wear long pants or knee-length shorts, NOT short-shorts in public
• a sun shirt and sun hat, plus lots of sun protector #30 and up; insect repellant, too
• a sweater or light jacket for cool nights along the ocean or in the mountains
• swimsuit & towel; snorkeling mask and snorkel, if you have them
• comfortable hiking shoes; two pairs are best so you can switch on and off
• river shoes, either the elasticized kind with rubber soles, strap-on rubber sandals like Tewas, or old tennies that you can get wet; no clog-style shoes, for they float off in the river, and while flip flops are fine at the beach, they’re absolutely NOT for river hikes
• at least one set of dressy clothes for an evening out
• a flashlight (forehead kind is best because it leaves you hands-free) with fresh batteries and spares
• digital camera with fresh batteries and spares; bring a charger, too
• notebook and pen for personal journal; most of the hotels will also have wifi, so bring your laptop to type up notes in the evenings (just don’t take it on the hikes : )
• a small fold-up umbrella
Registration form Kiskeya Run
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I the undersign clearly understands and have been informed that Kiskeya 2011 PDJ PDJ staff coordinators and organizations connected to are not responsible for
Anybody who voluntarily participates in PDJ Kiskeya Run as stated above as well I’m responsible
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Give PDJ Caribbean Region Route of the Red Tail Hawk
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In some cases, be used with the picture. I understand
That I will not be compensated for such photo use. I
Give my full permission for such photos to be used
both now and in the future.
____________________________________
(Name of participant)
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(Parent/Legal Guardian Signature)
Registration is free please submit by
Name: ____________________________________
Address: __________________________________
City: ______________Postal Code: ___________
Phone: ( ) _______________
Special Health needs _____________________________
Date of Birth: _______________ (dd/mm/yyyy)
Email: _____________________________________
Emergency Contact:
Name: ___________________________________
Phone: ( ) ______________________
I, as a participant of the Kiskeya PDJ Run
, accept full responsibility of any risks,
Liabilities or injuries that may occur to me.
Kiskeya PDJ and its organizers
Cannot be held accountable. Nor will any attempts be made by me to seek any type of compensation from Kikskeya PDJ and or organizations, staff and or coordinators of Kiskeya PDJ Route of the Red Tail Hawk. In the event of any injury and or adverse occurrence to my person as a participant in Kiskeya run.
I the undersign clearly understands and have been informed that Kiskeya 2011 PDJ PDJ staff coordinators and organizations connected to are not responsible for
Anybody who voluntarily participates in PDJ Kiskeya Run as stated above as well I’m responsible
For the cost of all my necessary expenses and international documents of Identification as well as abiding by the laws of country and or countries where PDJ runs are held...
_______________________________________
Participants Signature
________________________________________
Parental/Legal Guardian Signature (if under 18 yrs)
Photo Release
By Signing the form, I ________________________ (name)
Give PDJ Caribbean Region Route of the Red Tail Hawk
Permission to use photos taken of my child at
In their publications and/or websites
And/or videos. I understand that my child’s name may,
In some cases, be used with the picture. I understand
That I will not be compensated for such photo use. I
Give my full permission for such photos to be used
both now and in the future.
____________________________________
(Name of participant)
____________________________________
(Parent/Legal Guardian Signature)
Fund Raiser For Kiskeya 2011
Dinner &Documentary Film Night
500 Years of Resistance
Friday September 23,2011
6:30-10pm
Yippie Museum Cafe
# 9 Bleeker street
Manhattan 10002,New York ,NY.
212-677-5918
Do not Miss this powerful documentary on the TRUWE History of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas begining with the Caribbean
.Documentary format is a college conference enhanced by an excellent slide and oral history presentation by Daniel Osuna, Mexica.
Your Host for the evening and contact for more info
Kiskeya 2011 Run Coordinator Roman Perez Taino
917-482-6685
email-kiskeyarun2011@yahoo.com.
PDJ Route of the Red Tail Hawk
Caribbean Region
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