The Dominican Republic has bars and resorts aplenty, but the most authentic night out might include hot wax and a hand finishThe condensation rolls down the twinkling green of my bottle of Presidente beer as the strains of bachata music wallop the atmosphere. People are laughing and dancing a little, my foot is tapping, and I am having a great time. Where am I? A bar? A club? A gig? No, I am in the Dominican Republic and I am at the car wash. For Dominicans, the car wash is the place to party.This phenomenon was illustrated recently by the erstwhile "acquaintance" of Silvio Berlusconi, Marysthell Garc�a Polanco. If you've been keeping abreast of the sex and drug allegations surrounding the Italian prime minister, you may have read that Polanco, a model from the Dominican Republic, is famous in Italy for appearing in the "sexy car wash" segment of a reality show on one of Berlusconi's TV stations. This would cause few surprises in her homeland: in fact many would speculate she gave the idea to the producers in a moment of questionable art imitating life.The DR is as much a puzzle as its neighbour Haiti: the two are bound together on the island of Hispaniola with little more than geography in common. Traversing the island, you journey from a land of black, French-speaking football fans to one of Hispanic baseball nuts who speak heavily accented Spanish ? West Africa to Latin America in barely 200 miles.The differences transcend demographics and language ? and the culture is very different, too. Much more than their neighbours, Dominicans embrace loud music, drinking rum at all hours and dressing to impress. Crossing the country, you drive through miles and miles of featureless jungle scrub broken up every so often by beach hotel complexes and strip towns, their bodegas blasting merengue or bachata music at volumes that must be audible from space.These places fill up in the evenings. Dominicans definitely know how to enjoy themselves, and booze and music stitch themselves into the most unlikely of institutions. Attendants at petrol stations can be seen taking a tot of rum ? not in a belligerent or depressing way, it seems, but more as a statement: this is what we do. We saw a man on a motorbike, his wife sitting behind him, happily guzzling from a pint-sized bottle of Brugal rum, tipping us a simple cheers as we pulled up next to him. Fiesta, mi amigo is apparently the national mantra.And nowhere is this happy-go-lucky demeanour more prevalent than at a car wash. Your mind naturally turns to the 1976 film starring among others Richard Pryor and of course, the Rose Royce song. But here car washes have bars, and beer, and people, and music and dancing. They are the place to go of a weekend and they are a unique Dominican experience. And we are not talking 1970s-themed clubs, nor even car wash-themed bars, but actual car washes that will wash your car, and usually have live music and plenty of Dominicans partying hard into the night.Mega Wash in the seaside village of Cabarete, for example, has space for around eight or 10 cars on its forecourt, a great-looking bar and the friendliest staff around. Even if you get there earlier than party time (anything after 9pm) you still get to relax and sup a bottle or two of Presidente or fruit juice while your vehicle gets a first-class clean. It's worth getting your rental car washed, just for the experience.You'll find little mention of the car wash scene in guidebooks: it's very much a local rather than a tourist experience. Our information came from a Dominican friend of one of my fellow travellers, and was confirmed by several taxi drivers, waiting staff and a guide at the 27 Waterfalls, which we had climbed down earlier in the day. Posters usually feature a variation of shiny cars, women in bikinis and lots of soap suds and sunshine. The reality is usually a few wiry men washing the cars ? but plenty of men and women dressed to the nines for a night out. Only the Dominicans could take an experience so banal as getting the dust of your Chevy and turn it into a swirl of pleasure. A night at the car wash is cheap and fun, full of local colour and splendour. You'll see very few other tourists, but you won't feel out of place.Nightlife is very much part of the DR experience, whether it's dining on fresh fish or strolling around sampling the great street food ? roast pork on one stall, divine drum chicken (marinated and grilled over an old oil drum) on another. There are bars on the beaches and bodegas in just about every commercial strip of property in the nation; there are cigars so smooth they rival the mighty Cubans; and if your curiosity outruns your conscience you could even take in a cockfight.But from Sosua on the north coast to Barahona in the south, and the country's sprawling capital, Santo Domingo, the early hours will always be filled with the crashing sounds of Dominican music, and if you're smart and up for fun, you'll experience it at the car wash.? Double rooms at Hotel La Catalina in Cabrera cost from $76 a night, lacatalina.com. Netflights.com has return flights to Santo Domingo via Miami (with Virgin Atlantic and America Airlines) from �557Dominican RepublicCaribbeanCultural tripsSaptarshi Rayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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