Punta Cana, circa 1980
Submitted by Louise Crandall
In the early 80’s, tourism hadn’t yet arrived at Punta Cana, on the east coast of the Dominican Republic. I was spending a week at the only hotel on the 20 mile beach. One day I was I walking up the beach when it started to rain. I noticed a small bar on the edge of the sand under a thatched roof filled with locals drinking beer and chatting.In my basic Spanish I asked if I could join them and spent the next couple of hours talking to everyone, telling jokes and drinking beer, with various kids running around our feet. When the rain stopped, I started to leave and one of the women said that it had been nice to talk to me and invited me back for lunch the next day.
As I headed back the next morning, a hotel gardener asked where I was going. When I said "the bar up the beach", he said, "Lady, that’s not a bar, that’s the local whore house." Should have guessed since there was a hammock in the adjacent room and a lot of haggling over money. I walked up the beach but just waved at my new friends.
