In the Veracruz Zócalo there are lively cafés offering food and drink and entertainment. One form of entertainment new to us was “toques” – electric shocks. A guy walks around with a portable battery-operated zapper, with wires connecting to two metal bars. For a modest price, he will give you the bars and administer a current through them. This is a popular way for young men to demonstrate (after a few drinks) just how macho they are. But what we witnessed was different: an entire party of young people formed a chain (well, 5 out of 6 – the girl in the pink blouse demurred) with handclasps and the people at each end grasped the metal bars. There was a lot of chatter, laughter, and only minor screaming. No one seemed the worse for wear, although there was a certain tendency to shake out their hands, as though they had gone to sleep.

• 
• 
• 
•  

Around the Zócalo it seems that every night a Son Cubano group plays in Portales, Callejones, or Plazuelas. This excellent group had everyone dancing, including this abuelita (granny) -- who walked with a cane, but put it aside to dance. Here's an 18 second video of her dancing:

One option: watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4vHraQjbe0

Or... use this link to download the video and play it locally on your machine
Abuelita Dancing

Or... if you have a QuickTime plugin or other plugin that will play Mpeg4 movies, double click in the middle of this frame to play it right here in the browser:




Veracruz Beach