Live the same

...but this "cop", even though he lost, still wouldn't let us go - he obviously really needed those 35 dollars. He didn't know what to say and kept repeating that I had to pay a fine, and I kept asking him to write me a receipt. This went on for some time. In the end, I decided to lie to him, saying that I didn't have any money, just to get it over with.

I have a wallet, but I hardly ever use it - I usually put my money in different pockets, in case I have to haggle and pretend that I don't have any more, or just to not lose it all at once, ha-ha-ha. So I took out my wallet, opened it and poured out a few pesos in change. Then I theatrically turned out my pockets and found a few more coins - less than a dollar in total)) And I said: "This is all I have, take it if you want." But this idiot saw a local bank card and told me to withdraw money... that's impudence.

Okay, I said I'd go, although of course I wasn't going to come back, haha. Then this "cop" told me to leave the bike - yeah, of course I would have done that. By that point I was too tired to smile, and the whole thing was wearing me out. I took out my phone, called our company lawyer, quickly explained the situation and handed the phone to this extortionist.

The conversation was short - this bastard was furious and shouted something in Spanish that I no longer understood. In the end, I said that I could call the lawyer again and say that I was being detained - besides, I had a GoPro camera on my helmet and everything was being filmed (in fact, nothing was being filmed - the battery died in the mountains))). But the argument worked. He swore, made a few gestures showing that he was watching me, and showed that next time he would put handcuffs on me - it was so funny that I couldn't stop laughing.

But the real "killing blow" was delivered by my friend, who had been silent the entire time and only occasionally asked what was going on. Just before leaving - the policeman had already moved about ten meters away - my friend called over the "translator" - a taxi driver on a motorcycle - and gave him 10 dollars for his help right in front of the policeman. If this were a rap battle, this would be the moment when the microphone is thrown on the floor, ha-ha-ha.

It turns out I didn't write a post yesterday, although I was sure I did - memory is a strange thing, or maybe I'm just getting old, haha. Never mind.

I've already mentioned a unique building several times - the Basilica of Our Lady of Altagracia in the city of Higuey. We visited there quite often and explored the whole city. To be honest, the city itself is only interesting in the center - mainly because of the basilica and a few other places that I personally found worth visiting: a park and ruins of houses built in the 19th century.

The rest of the city is pretty dirty. And it mainly consists of two-three-story concrete boxes, a bunch of wires and quite a lot of garbage if you move away from the center. Although garbage is a big problem for the whole Dominican Republic, which is sad.

But let's get back to the basilica - I could just look for information about it on the Internet, but it's boring. I think you can easily do it yourself if you are interested. The building is unusual, especially on the inside, and every time I looked at its massive stained glass window, I couldn't help but think of Star Trek.

The "Star Trek Church" has been parodied many times in popular shows like Futurama, Family Guy, Robot Chicken, and various parody movies and TV shows - and for some reason, what I saw in those parodies, I saw there too...

Please don't be offended if this comparison seems inappropriate to anyone - I'm speaking purely from an architectural and pop culture perspective.