Music and Mayhem

Just trying to help out here, I fixed a couple of computers, a lock and the security video system in the morning. After a long walk I returned to Casa Verde and introduced myself to a very charming Dutch couple. We sat there and shot the shit for hours. It was drizzling and there was not much else to do.

It was music night at Casa Verde. The eight o'clock music started right on time, in Banana's country, shortly after nine. The Dutch returned with a bunch more of their traveling companions. The place filled up and everybody had a wonderful time. The police showed up, better to hang out here than walk the streets. I offered my chair to the police chief. Hester, a Dutch girl that is staying here joined in to the group. She said something in Dutch and then apologized profusely for not having spoken in English. I had to laugh.

Three guys tried to throw a fourth into the ocean. He had wrapped himself around a pole. I walked over and said quietly. “Don't do it, or you will be permanently banned from this place.” They looked at me like I was crazy. I said, “I mean it.” They let him go. Chester, the owner said, “Jim, nicely done. Great having you here.”

The show ended early and people left to go to Aqua Lounge. Walter had never been there. I decided to show him why he doesn't go there, but I was out of cash. The police took me to the bank in the back of a paddy wagon, but the ATM was drained as people had exhausted the supply of cash and it was Mother's Day. We went to a hotel and talked with the owner, an Italian friend of Walter's who speaks no English. The owner lent me a $100. Walter told me I was the only American ever allowed into the hotel; I don't think he was jerking my chain.

We walked down to the water taxi station and took a boat over to Aqua Lounge. Girls were swinging on swings, people were staggering about. Behind the bar, the baretender was standing, shirtless, his pants down to his crotch, his ass fully exposed as he was spanked by a barmaid. A girl was leaning against a stair rail, not a very happy person. Her purse had just been stolen. Never take anything to the lounge of the pirates.

People started to leave in droves, thirty people on a boat not fit for twenty. We took a later water taxi and returned Isla Colon. Walter, ever the more sane, left for home. I saw a guy sitting on his front stoop and stopped to ask him what was bothering him. Kid trouble. I listened for three hours. A few words about the fact that kids go through phases and reassurance that with love and attention it will pass and he was feeling much better.