New Year’s Eve

We dressed up and had our dinner and champagne on board, and took the dinghy to the town to participate in the famous celebrations. There was a band playing at the town square around the ferry docks, and hoards of people were standing around, sitting at corners or lugging coolers (full of booze I presumed) here and there. Zeynep thought that the coolers must be government issued, since all of them were identical. It was interesting that there were no peddlers for food or drinks, except the few small restaurants lining the area, which were packed. Rest of the people brought their own it seemed.

We walked about a bit, but I got tired and found a place to sit. From my vantage point I could see the stage and the people congregating to dance in front of it. The master of ceremonies/singer was taking turns of constantly talking or singing. So it was quite lively, all kinds of people; Puerto Ricans, European and American tourists, sailors, singing along and dancing Salsa. We watched people having fun, and especially the two middle-aged women competing to dance with an old man all night. Those two got awards at the end of the night.
(Videos courtesy of Deniz)
http://vimeo.com/34666507
http://vimeo.com/34666543

I must have had too much to drink, I did not feel like dancing, so we went back to the boat around 11:00 pm, and waited for midnight, watching the constant fireworks coming from three directions. It was a memorable night, very different from anything I had seen before.