Axis strikes back

While we were in El Salvador we got a call from a company called AxisMobile. You may have heard of it. They asked whether we minded terribly going to a couple of meetings in the Domninican Republic, seeing as we were already in the area. We decided to go for it - after all, what could be bad about visiting another country?
On the flight to Santo Domingo I met a nice Mexican couple. They inquired whether I was there for "the baseball", to which I replied "what baseball?". They explained that there's an annual Carribean baseball tournament which was just about to begin. That was the first sign that this wasn't going to be just another business trip.
Our first order of business was to get some decent clothing for the meetings.
Once we got that out of the way we introduced ourselves to the lovely beds these five-star hotels have. After a month on the road this was a welcome change.
In the evening we went out to the colonial center of the capital Santo Domingo. We met some crazy french people, Igal had some trouble with one of the mirrors there, and all in all we had a great time there.


We met a lovely girl in the business lounge which was quite pleased to meet some non-business-men. She told us that at the end of the month there's this carnaval in the north of the Dominican Republic and that it's a shame we won't be able to visit it. The following day, as we were about to leave, she told us that the carnaval was going to start that very day.
We set out on our way to La Vega - the carnaval capital. As soon as we got there we went to the carnaval which resembles the carnaval in Brazil. The people there dress as demons and walk around in groups.


They do however have a very special thing going on there. The demons carry with them Vejigas, which are these leather balloons stuffed with something very hard. They then go about hitting people in the ass with these vejigas. That's why you see people hiding their asses in every possible way - huddling together back to back, sitting down, standing next to walls and trees - anything goes.
I can only say this - when they do get you it hurts like hell :)


From there it was a short trip to Santiago where the baseball tournament takes place. We went to the game between Mexico and Venezuela.


That was all the time we had for travelling so we then headed back to Santo Domingo to attend the meetings. It was bit strange - being a mochiler in a business meeting. Quite an experience.