>Music of Dominican Republic, Rock-DominicanoWatch this video. It’s great. It shows so much of the city of Santo Domingo.
Ok..let me see, what story to tell…
There was this bar I really liked going to. It’s called Parado 77. Its sort of a younger people bar but all ages are there. They play all sorts of music and people sign their names to the walls. On the weekend its packed full with people spilling out onto the streets and taking the party there with them.
One night I woke at about 2AM. I decided I’d take a walk and go to that bar. It was about 8 blocks, more of less away. Maybe about a 15 min. brisk walk. I didn’t want to spend the money on a taxi so I took the walk.
On the weekends its not lonely walking and not that dangerous since there are so many people out in the Zone. I made the trek and when I got there went in and got my beer. It was so crowded inside so I went outside to have my refreshing beverage after the hot walk there. Trying to get myself ready to talk Spanish (Sometimes it took me a little time to get my brain out of the English mode into the Spanish language mode).
I was outside looking around and saying hi to the people I knew when 2 big flat bed trucks came pulling up to the bar. These trucks were filled with army looking men in camo wardrobe with guns. A few cars followed these trucks and a man jumped out with a large TV camera and a lady from the TV got out with him. The army guys on the truck all jumped down, there were at least 25 to 30 of them.
Everyone started putting their hands on the walls, assuming the position. All the people in the street and in the bar were face to the walls with hands on them.
I had no clue what was going on so I did what everyone else was doing. One of the army guys said n to me that I did not have to do that. I guess he thought I was a tourist. But I didn’t want to look like I was a snotty American so I stayed and kept my hands on the walls.
There was a guy standing next to me and I asked him what was happening. He spoke English! Junior was his name and he told me it was the DEA..I think that’s it, the drug enforcement agency. They were searching for drugs.
I got nervous cause I heard that if you were in a place where anyone had drugs and someone got arrested that everyone in the place could be arrested also. Jeez..I had just woke up less than an hour before and now I was amongst the frisked!
I was watching and they had some peoples sitting on the curb making them take off their shoes, removing jackets, hats and such. The army guys were checking purses and pockets. I saw some guns. But they were returned to the people. I was not shocked to see the guns but I was shocked seeing them being returned. It seemed that they were not looking for weapons.
The TV camera was there filming it all. The lady, which I found out later was a TV reporter. She was talking to the camera I guess about what was going on.
The army guys finished and found nothing. When they were finished the crowd had thinned out drastically and the whole party mood had fizzled away. Most of the people were gone. I wasn’t ready to go yet! I just got there and was still on my first beer! I walked all that way. So I had a few more beers with Junior. We talked for a while and when the bar closed cause there were no more humans in the place I said bye and started walking home.
Junior had a car and offered me a ride. I gladly took it cause by that time the streets were empty and I remembered the last time I walked home late (it was a week day) and some bum in the park asked me for a cig. He grabbed My hand when I gave him one and he squeezed it hard. He wouldn’t let me go. He was hurting my hand. I was getting ready to do the old twist release hand thingy when this man came out of nowhere and kicked the cig guy in the butt, yelled at him. Then he walked me home. He was a man I said hi to when we passed in the streets many times and it did me good. He accompanied me to my home and was very polite.
Anyhow..back to Junior taking me home. We got to my place and the bar downstairs was open still and I was not ready to go home yet. So I went there. Junior parked and came in also. It was lively in there. Cafe de Toi. Odalis, the owner lady is a really nice person. She was busy doing the Dance of the Bottle. which is a must see. All the people make a circle around a bottle sitting on the floor. The song is playing. One person enters the center of the circle and dances over the bottle going down as low as they can to the bottle while dancing and gyrating the hips and butt over the bottle. It is fun to watch. Everyone it wahooing and hooting (sounds like those old western movie bars on the movies). I can’t do the dance, my body and knees don’t work that way but it is fun to watch.
Anyhow..Odalis was busy entertaining so I had to mix drinks falling back on my old waitress bartending skills. I was serving the whole bar and cleaning up dirty glasses. Which was fine. From that time on when Odalis needed help she’d call up to me to come down. When she needed to run to the store or something I took over when there was noone else. It was fine, in return I never paid for a drink there. So it affected me just fine.
Junior and I became friends. He used to come and visit Mamita and I at the galeria and he even came to Mamitas home sometimes. All was good and noone went to jail and I never even got frisked!
