Kurt Schindler at the Domino Club

Last night, as we do on the last Sunday of the month, we went to the Domino Club to see Kurt Schindler perform his wonderful flamenco-style music. The Domino Club is also known as the Montpellier Club and as the Home of the Beer Drinking Pigs. Locals usually just refer to it as going to Norma's.

This straw hut in the middle of the rain forest is an institution well loved by tourists and locals alike. Tourists come to see the massive 500 lb. pigs that will almost stand on two legs in their effort to reach out and snatch the can of non-alcoholic beer from your hand. They hold the can between their teeth and guzzle the beer in a couple of big gulps to the amazement of the crowd. At the bar area Norma is usually serving the locals her famous "mammawanna," an infusion of rum and herbs that is drunk as a shot or sipped slowly like a liqueur. I like to sip mine and chase it with a Corona.

When Kurt plays, the dance floor is packed with people of all races and all ages. It's great to sit back and watch everyone having so much fun, but I do little of that because I'm usually busy dancing with my pals Adele and Kim (our husbands join in occasionally). Last night there was one guy dancing his heart out. He was punching the air, twisting, crouching, howling and trying out his idea of sexy moves on all the girls on the floor who good-naturedly danced with him for a spell or two. The rest of us were smiling, knowing that his euphoria was one part Kurt, two parts mammawanna. Kim admitted this was her doing. She'd met him at the beach earlier that afternoon and told him he must come to see Kurt. I imagine that he is probably a very conservative lawyer in a high-stress job, and he was overdue for an opportunity to let it all hang out. But in truth, this is the power of Kurt's music. Mammawannas or not, the music is so infectious that we can't help but have a good time. It is why we go see him every chance we get.