This morning my buddy Keith flew into town from New York to hang out for a couple days. Nice. We all started the day with the “walking tour” laid out in our trustful Lonely Planet guide. A quick and easy way to see a bunch of old fortresses and stuff. Also had a hilarious run in with some kids trying to shine our shoes. Keith and I, as usual, turned that into a kind of game where we had to keep moving our feet as they were reaching for them. That kind of turned into a little dance which the kids started doing too. Don’t worry, I ended up giving them some pesos and we all had a laugh (see pictures).
In the afternoon, we were invited to a private club from one of our local buddies. We spent most of the time swimming in the two pools that were connected with underwater tunnels. It was lots of fun. Sapun made it all the way from one end of the large pool to the other underwater! Way to go Sapun!! It’s very interesting to see the dichotomy of lifestyles in this city… the people enjoying the sun at the pool and those shining the shoes of some crazy dancing tourists. I guess you can say that about any city but I’ve just never personally seen such a wealth discrepancy in one place, not that I’m particularly well traveled. Anyway, that’s a conversation for some other time…
We went tonight to a dance club/restaurant called Retro. I think it’s great that everybody in this country can dance in pretty much any latin dance style. And they love their latin music here. As do I which is fortunate because it seems you hear it at every hour of everyday here. When we got there they were playing standard bar music… a mix of raggaeton and American pop. After a few minutes of this, the music switched to merengue and pretty much everybody in the bar grabbed a partner and started dancing perfectly (gringo’s excluded). I swear it’s like we’re in the middle of a musical like 42nd street (Calle 42) or something. Pretty awesome. After a while the music switches back to popgaeton. We heard a similar rotation in Rio San Juan last weekend except they mix another kind of latin dance called bachata in between their merengue/salsa. Bachata is like their “country music” but with much more hips and a lot less hee-haw. All in all it’s nice to see a place where straight guys have permission to dance.
In the afternoon, we were invited to a private club from one of our local buddies. We spent most of the time swimming in the two pools that were connected with underwater tunnels. It was lots of fun. Sapun made it all the way from one end of the large pool to the other underwater! Way to go Sapun!! It’s very interesting to see the dichotomy of lifestyles in this city… the people enjoying the sun at the pool and those shining the shoes of some crazy dancing tourists. I guess you can say that about any city but I’ve just never personally seen such a wealth discrepancy in one place, not that I’m particularly well traveled. Anyway, that’s a conversation for some other time…
We went tonight to a dance club/restaurant called Retro. I think it’s great that everybody in this country can dance in pretty much any latin dance style. And they love their latin music here. As do I which is fortunate because it seems you hear it at every hour of everyday here. When we got there they were playing standard bar music… a mix of raggaeton and American pop. After a few minutes of this, the music switched to merengue and pretty much everybody in the bar grabbed a partner and started dancing perfectly (gringo’s excluded). I swear it’s like we’re in the middle of a musical like 42nd street (Calle 42) or something. Pretty awesome. After a while the music switches back to popgaeton. We heard a similar rotation in Rio San Juan last weekend except they mix another kind of latin dance called bachata in between their merengue/salsa. Bachata is like their “country music” but with much more hips and a lot less hee-haw. All in all it’s nice to see a place where straight guys have permission to dance.
-Rich
Caption: Keith and I make friends.
1 comment:
You couldn't even give them dollars? Pesetas? That'll be really useful when they're in Haiti. You can take the Jew out of San Francisco...
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