The Dominican drinking session generally takes place on a street corner. Every street has its colmado, a small shop that sells all your daily needs, but which round here seem to make most money from the sale of alcohol. The more enterprising ones have invested in sets of plastic chairs, lights strung outside and a stereo, and people pass their evenings sitting outside, drinking, chatting and listening to music. One of my favourites is in a small plaza in the Colonial Zone, (Parque Duarte if you are ever in town) - the guys who run it have got a great reputation. At the moment, all the trees in the square are decorated with fairy lights, and in a bizarre touch they have strung up lots of empty beer bottles from the trees as substitute christmas baubles - surreal but pretty. They have a loud stereo but play only the best merengue and bachata hits, and have set up about 50 plastic chairs in addition to the park benches, and some nights you struggle to find somewhere to sit. Recently they have taken things to a new level by setting off fireworks at weekends at 9pm to announce the start of "happy hour". The crowd is great - arty types, always open to chat to a random stranger. The plaza also has a reputation for attracting the strange, I was informed today that until recently there was a man living up one of the trees. Every night there is a marathon playing of Conga drums with accompanying singing. This drumming and singing is associated with the santeria (Dominican Voodoo) festivals, and the African roots in the rythms and call-and-response singing is clear.

The standard drink is a Presidente, the local half-decent brew. The company also makes a second beer called Bohemia, which is also OK. The third beer available is Brahma, a brazilian beer that tastes like meado de gato. Otherwise groups go for a cuba libre servicio, which consists of a bunch of plastic cups, a bucket of ice, two cokes and a bottle of rum. Admittedly the high sugar content is about as intoxicating as the alcohol, but when in Rome.....

This weekend, we followed this up with a trip to one of the better colonial zone bars. There are a few too-cool-for-school yuppie bars, the type with water features in the window and aggressive air conditioning, who would rather serve rubbish imported Johnnie Walker than good local rum. However, next door to one of these is a great establishment called El Sarten, (in Hostos, if you are ever in town), which is a tiny bar that serves cold beer, but that plays amazing old style Son. Many people, because of Buena Vista Social Club, associate this Latin Swing with Cuba, but its origins are as Dominican as they Cuban. This tiny bar is always jam packed, but there are still plenty people dancing, young folk dancing with 80 year old men who still bust some great moves. The standard of the dancing is amazing, until I was forced to get up and give it a go. I tried my best, nobody cared that I didn't have the natural fluency and style of the Dominicans, and was told "Oh well, give it a bit of time and you'll get it eventually"

The Cuba libre servicio dampened the pain somewhat.