Tuesday, December 30, 2003
It was a quietish Monday with the sun doing its usual swift tropical dart below the horizon as the beach activity wound down for the night. We had a smallish cozy crew around the bar interchanging their varied viewpoints on a familiar range of subjects such as politics, history and not least the capture of Saddam Hussein. It became increasingly obvious though that the male members were becoming ever more distracted by an exceedingly lovely looking woman from Santiago who, annoyingly for our crew in question, was already chaperoned.
The conversation ebbed and flowed as is its wont in an open bar next to the Caribbean Sea, and the intensity of the repartee was such that later on it was barely noticed that the chaperone and chaperoned slunk off their bar stools into the now pitch black night. Some while passed before one of the more alert members of the crew, the only one drinking plain Coca-Cola it has to be said, murmured that he suspected the lovely was skinny dipping down at the water’s edge. You could have freeze framed the instant as all the intense energy of conversation instantly dissipated, tongues lay still and eyes fixed themselves on the beach in the hope of something decidedly more immediate and exciting than talking about what kind of trial Saddam should face.
Alas it was too dark, and the crestfallen observers were returning to their beers when the least crestfallen of the group quickly ran to his large SUV jumped in and drove the vehicle with headlamps blazing for complete beach illumination as far forward on the terrazza as possible. The male throng leapt from their stools and gathered around the fencing and peered out in the direction of the lights. All to no avail… just gentle ripples lapping on the soft sand under a dark sky night. Not a boot lace or bra strap in sight let alone anything more exotic. A few more rounds of beer and Saddam vilification later the recently vanished couple slipped, fully clothed and dry, back into position for a few more beers on their own as quietly as they had left in the first place. There was no mention of dazzling headlights or raucous boys behaving badly and all was cozy once again. The quiet ending of the story could by the way be the prelude to new adventures for our irrepressible crew… because later the telephone number of the chaperoned mysteriously turned up on the bar counter. Next Monday night it sure would make a fine prize in a bar auction!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 09:55 AM CST
Thursday, December 25, 2003
As we come from a continent steeped in the Christian culture and here and now are living in a country that has inherited much of that same culture, we recognize this day as significant in the calendar for a lot of people. Naturally, each country has its own variation of this day and the Dominican flavor follows a common European theme of big family gatherings on Christmas Eve accompanied by large feasting and carousing in their own homes although the giving of gifts is not something that takes place until the day of the three kings (Los Tres Reyes) which is January 6th.
Anyway… back here at Playa Vista we were presented with a very pleasant Christmas Eve scenario. One of the most gorgeous sunsets bathed the horizon and the assembled regular customers. So compelling was the naturalness it was clear that the customers were giving themselves over to it more than usual. The sunset was sublime, the temperature was ideal, there was not a stirring of any wind and quite significantly there was hardly a sound to be heard on the beach because all the locals surprisingly had upped themselves and headed for their home parties quite some time before. It was peaceful, gentle and full of goodwill to all men as the group raised their glasses on more than one occasion wishing each other good Christmas tidings. The sun dropped out of sight and almost immediately popped up the glittering shininess of Venus hanging directly above a barely formed crescent of a new moon. We couldn’t help thinking that the star of Bethlehem was shining down on Boca Chica at that moment – Happy Christmas folks!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 02:25 PM CST
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
To further demonstrate the kind of intertwining and globally extended connections that we see developing here at Playa Vista we skip swiftly on from the city of Philadelphia, as in our last pre-hurricane story, to the eastern European country of Hungary.
It can be reasonably surmised that the numbers of Hungarian nationals visiting the Dominican Republic, let alone living here, are scant, but our own humble operation is beginning to record quite a list of visitors from that other far out republic.
The whole Hungarian thing started one fine day with a medical surgeon who wanted to take a weekend break from his regular round of operations at one of the leading hospitals in Santo Domingo and relax while sipping a beer or two. Another friendly Hungarian fellow who had been able to escape from the country in question in the days when iron curtains were drawn across many European borders popped up at almost the same time. He too lived in Santo Domingo but soon became a more regular visitor as he searched for a place to start his own business in Boca Chica. These two guys met through the Playa Vista forum and before long they introduced us to another Hungarian DR resident who, after being a very regular guest together with the surgeon, last year had some “very personal” reasons for heading back to Hungary. The next Hungarian to be a regular visitor was a guy who lives here with local commitments to a lady friend and this week the circle was kind of closed when a Hungarian couple came directly to us on recommendation and as friends of our original contact from good old Budapest with their own plans of making a longer term commitment to this country, starting right here in Boca Chica.
Long live the Hungarian invasion !
Posted by Playa Vista @ 05:46 PM CST
Monday, December 8, 2003
True to the spirit of Playa Vista we kept the bar hatches open most of the day on Saturday in spite of having Odette breathing down our necks, as some of our local visitors understandably came down especially to soak up the atmosphere of the surging surf and rising tide, although some also confessed simply to having nothing better to do back home as the storm was already denying them their electricity supply.
The party continued into the evening but all was shut up safe and sound by the time Odette really came a calling. Round about 11.30 pm the wind rose quite a few notches and the rain cascaded down. We were not aware though of any falling trees or flying roofs compared with George 5 years ago, and within an hour the peak of the tropical storm had passed by.
Despite the strength of the onslaught, judged by the sound from outside, to our relief the next morning revealed very minor damage to the roof and really only a wet floor and a wet Menu-card in the bar. The bar hatches were opened, the sun came out and the good old customers thankfully came trotting in again and we had one of our busier days. After all the show must go on!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 06:34 PM CST
Saturday, December 6, 2003
We do not have a weather forecast but we do have a weather view… and a very watery one at that.
It is raining and has been raining all night, though mostly not heavily. However, we are getting a little edgy about Odette because the satellite photos seem to indicate that some nasty stuff is about to arrive. As of writing we have opened the bar and even have two/a bunch of intrepid customers peering out at the imminent storm as passers by also give their own views on how they see Odette developing. We hear that she contains winds circling at about 100 km/hr and is therefore categorized still as a tropical storm although building on hurricane force and she is heading directly here ! The sea is rising and the surf is surging and our Odette is remarkably late in the season with most hurricane activity having passed away by the end of October.
We are disturbingly reminded of the visitation of hurricane George some 5 years ago. In those good old days it was a tale of two phases of build up and descent complete with half-time interval in the eye of the storm. During the half-time break last time the wind completely disappeared and the sun even shone before the full vengeance of the storm descended on us. Beware and behold folks… right now there isn’t a breath of wind !
Posted by Playa Vista @ 02:04 PM CST
