Travel can be like an addiction, one needs fixes with the more exotic and less tried. After Rio on New Years Eve, India's Pushkar fair, Papua New Guinea's Highlands show, the oceanfront weekend street festival in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic has a “Parranda Navidea” every night from December 20 until New Years and is a spectacle totally pleasing to the senses. Unlike the Papua New Guinea Highlands show which is during the day, this festival starts shortly before midnight.

At the open-air amphitheatre with live and recorded music, people of all ages, shapes and dress mingle amicably. I've never seen so many diverse people having fun without spending any money except for refreshments or without getting intoxicated. There were grandparents dancing with little ones, parents with their babies on their back, couples dressed from very fashionably to the usual casual look. There were young, old, of all shapes, singles, couples, families. The people watching was fascinating eye candy. Sometimes it's almost hard not to gawk.  It's as if the words “shy” and “inhibited” are not in the lexicon of this environment. More than a few four and five year olds were dancing and swaying at this late hour, just a few people with bare midriff, and there were no baseball hats or low slung pants. Mostly it's wholesome inexpensive family and friends enjoying a festival with a sense of community. There’s also a Carnival and Meringue festival which I haven’t seen.

After an arduous day of sunning, swimming, and reading, one is fatigued and in need of caffeine and Visine to be up for the adventure.  But once the rhythm of the music and the spectacle of the dancing crowd takes over, one needs nothing else to enjoy life in the moment. Whatever hardships the people might have, they are buoyed by the music and dance. Lightheartedness reigns. (As clothing is major export for the Dominican Republic, I can imagine the "efficient" conditions the workers contend with.) These nights, for me, however, are a startling sight and makes me wonder what the nightclubs and party venues must be like. Only in Thailand and the Dominican Republic have I seen people enjoy the evening with so much verve.

The experience is IMAX - though most of the crowd is casually dressed, I saw men in sports coats, even wearing a tie, women in slinky, tapering dresses, a few in stiletto heels or full length silk gowns, grandparents, children on the shoulders of dancing parents, vendors sashaying through the crowd laden with balanced wares - couples in romance or out on the night with others, females dancing together, a line of young men gyrating, people freely changing dance partners, a unity with happiness ( no carb sweetness) to savor and celebrate.

At times there are tedious intervals with long dialogues teasing with the audience, while the band prepares for the live vs. the recorded component of the show.  But for a baby boomer this is what one must endure to see Motown animation revised and prepared with a dollop of meringue in tropical Santo Domingo.

Just steps from the hotel one is in an authentic environment without the business of tourism. One segment had an audience member joining the band on stage (my jaded mind wondering if this was planted) and a competition of hip shimmying, gyrating, swiveling delighted the senses of the crowd. Tahitian and Belly dancers would marvel at the possibilities of the body display here.

Had I romanticized this, I thought as I returned the next night? The acts were different, male vocalists with the Motown choreography again, with more audience participation in waving, and singing the refrains to the standard songs, such as "Te Amo" which even if one doesn't understand Spanish, one can understand the heart and rhythm behind the lyrics.  The plaza was packed with an audience of about five thousand. There may be other similar celebrations around the world or as close as a big city Salsa nightclub in the U.S. but here it is such wholesome fun to encounter this unexpected, sensory experience as an adjunct to a restful holiday.

Meanwhile, without fear, I safely return to the hotel at 1:30 am , take an appreciative peek at the ballroom of the hotel where a formal wedding reception continues - and yes, the dancing is animated and fun, though not nearly as entertaining as at the street fair. And while there was no sense of preying at the street fair, at the glamorous hotel casino this is not the case.  I am proud of myself, I didn't go to bed early, I ventured down the street to enjoy this marvel, and I occasionally took my hands out of my pockets! I bought some trinkets from vendors and twice they reminded me to take my hotel pen. I felt well and pleased this experience was well worth trip from across the continent.

Do I suggest others to travel to the Dominican Republic just to see these annual weekend street festivals around Christmastime? Perhaps not, but it would make a very happy end or beginning to one’s stay at other places in this country.