Best memories of the DR? (I)

Here are mine, from 1993-1996:

1. Sitting on my terrace in El Millon on a sunny day, drinking Presidente and eating "pollo guisado" with a close friend.

2. Coming early to a party and watching as the whole room went silent (one guy even cried) when someone put on "Por Quien Merece Amor" by Silvio Rodriguez.

3. Walking through the shady streets of Gazcue on my way to the Hellen Kellogg library (still open?) to get some English-language books.

4. Reading those books while lying in a hammock in my in-laws' beautiful backyard.

5. Driving to Constanza, marveling at the mountains and rivers ... stopping off to get real fried pork skin with limon ... entering the gorgeous little town.

6. Seeing Juan Luis Guerra in concert at Duarte Stadium (?) in 1995. Feeling pride (although I'm not Dominican) at seeing all the Dominican flags waving around.

7. Drinking red wine outside El Museo del Jamon in the Colonial Zone. Drinking Presidente at Cafe Atlantico. Drinking Presidente outside my local "colmado." etc. etc. etc.

8. Taking a boat around Samana and taking in the site of thousands of palm trees.

9. Floating in the crystal-clear blue water in front of the Hamaca. Thinking, "This is paradise ..."

10. Going to a show (at Casa de Americas?) called "De Trova a Trova," in which various musicians got up on stage and played the greatest songs of Silvio, Pablo Milanes and others. Later, we all went to a bar on the Malecon, where the musicians took guitars off the wall and played the most wonderful music in the world for us.

You can't recapture the magic of youth. I made two trips back to the DR, and both were disappointing. One can't relive the past.

Yes, "jruane" is right: It was only 10 years ago, but I'm now in my 30s instead of my 20s, which makes it much harder to just drop everything and go. Plus, for me , it was kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime experience - one that can't be recaptured (not because I'm too old, but because the initial excitement just wouldn't be there).

Chrimoya, I am the biggest Silvio fan in the world, and it's HIS music (as opposed to, say, Juan Luis Guerra's) that reminds me most of the DR. Listening to songs like "Companera" and "Casiopea" reminds me of sitting on my terrace during an apagon, with only my walkman, a bottle of Presidente and a candle as my companions. I would let my wind wander as I looked out over the dark neighborhood (El Millon) and let myself be lifted upward by Silvio's voice and guitar. It was a transcendent experience.

Funnily enough, we just had some week-long apagones here in Florida (due to Hurricane Wilma), so I was able to relive some of this. It was strange to hear the sound of generators again and look out onto total darkness. But the whole experience was missing something: heart, soul, depth ... things that I found in the DR and do not see here. Florida is sterile and dull; Santo Domingo is rich and vibrant and teeming with the "real stuff" of life. And that's why I miss it.

PJ,
Do you live in Florida now? At first, I thought it might recapture some of that special Latin American "feel" (which, in my mind, equals tranquility, a real zest for living and an easy acceptance of whatever comes your way), but it most certainly does not. Everything here is strip malls, chain restaurants and consumerism run rampant. Even with the big Latin population, there's no soul ... more like an "air-conditioned nightmare" (to quote some writer whose name I forget).

I, too, have a child, so I take your point about the moto-concho drivers. (The Dominican wife, on the other hand, is now an ex.) He's 11 now, so I suppose I can move back when he enters college here, which is just 7 or so years away ...