What's even more amazing to me is how fast the local put up the stages and scaffolding for these events.
One day it's all there, the next day it's gone.
They certainly have it down to an art.
This reminds me of my first ever trip to Santo Domingo. I arrived on a Sunday for convenience of travel and had booked the accomodations (RCI) from Monday to Monday so that 1st night I stayed at the Intercontinental. All the way in from the airport I saw little Dominican flag kites dotting the skies and there were trucks at a lot a few blocks east of the hotel. It was about 1pm and I didn't think much of it other than "boy, these folks are really patriotic".
After check in and dinner I walked along the malecon to get a feel for the place and happened by where the trucks had been and they were gone but the lot they were parked in front of had sprouted a huge stage and guys were busy hanging lights and stacking speakers, doing sound checks, etc. and I thought "boy, there must be an event or something...I'll stop by later".
After a pub crawl that lasted until about 2am I heard the thunderous revelry at that site as I exited the taxi in front of the hotel so naturally I investigated. There were about a dozen separate parties going on all along the route and when I got to the stage area there were literally tens of thousands of folks enjoying live music at what could have passed for the ampitheater at Central Park. So I joined in thinking "boy, these people sure know how to party" as we jumped up until dawn.
The next (later that) afternoon after I finished my 2 over easy with bloody mary breakfast I stepped outside the main lobby of the hotel and right into a sea of marching uniforms and military hardware display and thought "boy, could there be a safer place on the planet?".
After the parade was all over I checked out of the Intercontinental and headed to my resort for the start of my scheduled stay, 27 February for 7 days. After it was explained to me what had transpired I thought "boy, I'll never be able to get Dominican Independence Day out of my head". As I passed the lot where the big party was I noticed all the speakers and lights were gone and the trucks were back. The stage was broken down into sections and there was garbage everywhere. The next day all that was gone too. When I arrived home, before I even emptied my bags I thought "boy, I gotta book another trip to that place right now".
