The fair has come to town! Great excitement among the munchkin sized people who see it every morning on their way to Pre K.  Yes indeed the Fun Fair has arrived in Puerto Plata and taken root in the empty space, opposite Burger King and beside the Base Ball Stadium! We thought we would give it a whirl and take The Curly One who could barely contain his squealing delight as we drove down the hill to the fair!

Now as much as I love living here, Dominicans are not famed for their engineering skills so it was with great parental trepidation and much observing the baby rides before we went to the rusty red booth to buy a ticket for the tea cup ride! Only being a foot away from the ground and the tea cups being so tiny, it was given “the nod” so The Curly One ran ahead and claimed one for himself. After the other little cups were full of other little ones the ride was cranked up! A bit of a whirring sound ensued and after one full circle round, a bit of speed was obtained, not in Star Trek warp speed fashion but enough to have the other 3 or 4 year olds cling on to the turnie thing in the middle and let out belly fulls of laughter or judging by some of their little faces that could have been terror! There is something about a Fun Fair that evokes strong child hood memories, whether it is the smell of Candy Floss (yes we have that in the Dominican Republic) or the flashing lights, or seeing an old fashioned carousel (that was the next ride and it had to be a blue horse or else!) after visiting the Fun Fair in Puerto Plata, it appears that fair ground ride owners all seem to posses a universal slightly dodgy appearance! But the noise, the smells, the oil burning, the sweet toffee sugary scent in the air – it’s just pure nostalgia and I love it.

Whilst watching our little boy on the carousel, I felt a slight pull on my t.shirt and looked down to the source of the pulling and saw two little brothers.  They must have been only about 4 or 5 years of age and both pointed at the carousel and wanted to go on it.  “Por favor Donja” “Please lady”, I asked where their mum was and they pointed to a woman standing just to the right of us.  She apologized and called her boys back and shrugged her shoulders doing that Dominican wrinkly nose thing.  I gave her 2 extra tickets we had and their little eyes nearly popped out of their heads. I shared a smile with their mum as they waited for the ride to stop and run up themselves to choose their own horses. Yellow ones this time.

If you get time, take a walk to the fun fair, we went around 5.30ish before it got crowded and stayed for around an hour.  If you get time, go and buy a few extra tickets too from the rusty red booth.  If you get time share a smile with another mum which will last a lifetime.