Cock fight

Deep fried whole strawberry grouper.

Warning- there is a recounting  of animal cruelty in this blog. Do not read it if you do not want to hear it.

Yesterday a few of the crew from different boats decided to leave Casa De Campo for a day on the beach in the town of La Romana. Sometimes ya just gotta get off the boat. We went to a local beach in La Romana for some local flavor and culture. It was packed. The beach is not the nicest but there are lots of food shacks and cheap cold beer. We all bellied up to a table on the beach in front of one of the food shacks. The food was great. We all got to pick out our own fish. They served them whole and fried. It was outstanding. Appearently one of the mates thought it was so good that he ate the eyes out of his fish and a few others. (The fish eye eating is not the animal cruelty)  I was doing good till I was asked to try some cold, sweet, bean, slurry. It is served here as a desert. It was pureed beans with a ton of sugar and served cold. I swear the beans had been already eaten once before.  You are suppose to drink the vile mixture. I took a mouth full and thought I would puke. It was really disgusting. I will try anything once and sometimes even give it a second chance. But that vile stuff wont ever near my lips again.

Public beach at La Romana

 After a few hours and a few more beers, we had our local driver take us home. We did not get far from the beach when we spotted a group of men all gathered around and holding roosters in the village........................................................ For those of you that are card carrying  members of PETA or are chicken lovers, Stop reading here............................................... As for the rest of you that are still reading, I do not condone what I am about to write about. But I never miss a chance to get some local culture. Besides, it is legal and part of the culture here. Once again this place oozes with culture. We got out of the van and confirmed our suspicions. The men were readying to roosters for a cock fight. Our driver gave the older guy whom seemed to be in charge two pint bottles of rum and asked if we could all watch. The old man  said no problem. There was much posturing and antics as the roosters were prepared for the duel.  There was also lots of trash talk. One did not have to understand spanish to capture the jist of the conversations. This was not a big arena or even a court yard. It was just a bunch of local guys doing what they do each weekend in the Dominican republic. Again I do not condone cock fighting. But I damn sure had no power to stop it. So we watched. It was pretty brutal. The cocks are fitted with sharpened extra long spurs. They are waxed and taped on over the cocks existing spur on the inside of its leg. The prep takes a long time. Each side checks the others rooster to ensure that the match will not be unfair because the spurs were attached in a manner that would give one an advantage over the other. Much like two boxers have their managers check the bindings on the gloves of their opponent.  I really think that the time and posturing is more so that the group of men gathered to watch, can get more rum into them and possibly bet more pesos as time ticked on. The rosters are then  thrown into a 8x8 cinder block holding area and they go at it till only one is left standing.I WILL not go into the details.  The White one fought with lots of heart, but he ended up on a dinner plate somewhere. The brown rooster was carried off as a hero by its owners along with a pocket full of pesos.  I have seen these fights  before, but the rest of the guys had not. They all left there a bit more culturally enlightened. Like it or not it is the local tradition and culture.
 Below is a short video clip from before the actual cockfight. NO you sick freaks I did not post the video of the fight. I just clipped a segment from before the fight when they prepared the rosters.

Also below are a few shots from when I was back home. I took the kids out with my buddy Kurt diving and spearing Hogfish.

Me and Patrick

Nice hogfish

Not bad for an afternoon of spearing

patrick and Kurt

My mermaid Lauren