Getting In The Car With Strangers In The Dominican Republic - Travel Tunes Tuesday

Have you ever gone to another country without having any idea as to what city you’re going to once you get there?

Well, that’s what happened when I went to the Dominican Republic (DR).

Luckily, on the plane, I sat next to a guy from the Dominican, and since I needed to practice my gringa Spanish anyway,
I asked him what places are cool to go to.

You know, normal things that I should have looked up and known BEFORE hopping on a plane to the DR.

Like, what city am I going to?

I honestly knew nothing about what to do there, besides going to the infamous Punta Cana (is it infamous? I hear people mention it a lot, anyway).

Just booked the trip because it was the cheapest plane ticket I found and I was antsy to go somewhere.

The trip ended up being amazing. Went with a friend and we ended up spending the majority of my time in a town called Bayahibe (which we didn’t knew existed when I boarded the plane).

Bayahibe was great for several reasons. One of them was that you could always find Spanish music playing on the streets (with tons of people outside dancing).

I can’t resist busting a really awkward move whenever I hear basically any kind of Spanish music...

...so this time was no exception.

These songs are all from Bayahibe.

In fact, these 2 were played on the street all the time:

I CAN’T hear this and not think of everyone just hanging out in the street talking, laughing, and dancing to this.

There was always good music coming from somewhere. One time, I was walking down the street when I heard someone blaring a good song out of their car. I immediately reacted by dancing right there in the middle of the street.

My reflexes just took over.

Next thing you know, the guys in the car slowed to a stop and told me about a “secret” dance place called Pit Stop. The reason it’s “secret" is because mainly only locals know about it.

Because I’m “smart" and listened carefully to the “don’t get in the car with strangers, thing” a full 47 seconds later, my friend and I jumped in the car full of random Dominican dudes.

Technically they weren’t strangers ‘cause we’d been friends for 47 seconds?

No?

Alright, that didn’t fly with my mom at all.

What were we thinking?

So, we were there in the car, hoping and praying that this situation wouldn’t turn sour quickly (we were outnumbered about 6 to 2… yes there were 8 of us in a 5 seat car).

Well, luckily, true to their word, they did just drop us off at the dance place and mostly left us alone all night except for a few fun dances.

So here’s a tribute to a song I heard at Pit Stop, a night where I could’ve gone missing or something stupid, but fortunately, ended up being a really fun night:

I have no idea how you dance to this kind of music, but I did it anyway. It makes you wanna move and say “bloop bloop bloop bloop bloop” a lot.

Sometimes I love it, and sometimes I can see how it could be annoying. But since I have happy memories associated with it, love wins every time.

These songs are totally different than some of the other Spanish songs I’ve shared, like from Costa Rica, for example, right?

Every country is fun because even different Spanish countries play different styles of Spanish music. Always something new.

Make sure to share some of your favorite #traveltunes with us! I LOVE hearing new music!

<3 @nomadicsoul

(Sorry, I'm still just so excited about this steem dress. I just didn't expect it to come out so steemy!)