We finally went out on our own – no accompaniment from friends of friends, or students of the university tasked with entertaining us – and had a blast. Everyone has talked to me about living it up at the bars of Santo Domingo, and naturally we wound up at the most Miami-esque venue imaginable.
Picture this: three gringas emerge from a taxi during a rain storm and enter an Italian restaurant full of beds. The roof was open, allowing for deafeningly loud house-music (with a bit of trancey dancey pop thrown in for good measure) to escape to the sky. Within thirty minutes we made friends with a slew of artists – photographers, cinematographers, and rock stars (from an,
evidently, acclaimed band) – who showed us how to have proper fun, Dominican style (Merengue lessons included).
Little beats a dance party with new friends – except maybe having an unexpected, mid-week feria/holiday day-off from work! Accordingly, Margaret and I spent a relaxed afternoon exploring la Zona Colonial, the area almost “overflowing” with colonial history that borders our neighborhood (Gazcue).
The next day, another unexpected surprise and I was out the door to Cabarete, the Domincan Republic’s Kite-surfing capital. Even though I spent last weekend at the beach, and have a big week ahead of me, who could say no to a free ride? We rented a condo in the middle of gringo-landia – I barely spoke a word of Spanish the entire weekend, oops – and, again, stared out to sea while lazing about. I’m finally realizing why people have Caribbean relaxation dreams! And for someone notoriously bad at relaxing, this is serious progress.
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