By WILL WEISSERT
 .c The Associated Press
 

 BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Leaving their husbands and boyfriends at home, 
 Bogota's women danced on tables and in the streets, sang their hearts out at 
 rock concerts and partied into the wee hours at the city's central park. 

 And on Saturday morning, happily exhausted after the city's ``Night Without 
 Men'' - in which Bogota's offbeat mayor encouraged women to dance until dawn 
 while the men stayed home watching the children - hundreds wondered: ``Why 
 can't we do this every night?'' 

 ``It was great. You had a large group of people dancing and having fun in the 
 streets and there was no violence like there would have been with men 
 around,'' said Janeth de Martin, 35. 

 The sex-specific curfew had a serious side: Cutting down on street crime and 
 domestic abuse, both rampant in the mountain-flanked Andean capital of 7 
 million, said Mayor Antanas Mockus. 

 Triumphant city officials reported Saturday that serious crime was down 25 
 percent compared to a typical Friday evening, with just six felony arrests. 

 Still, the mayor said he is planning to follow the ``Night Without Men'' with 
 an ``Evening of Rediscovery'' later this month, to encourage couples to go 
 out together. 

 The mayor - who once declared himself ``Super Citizen'' and strolled the city 
 in red and blue tights, and who also posted mimes at stoplights to taunt 
 reckless drivers - spent a quiet night at home reading to his 4-year-old 
 daughter. 

 Policemen took the night off, while 1,500 female officers patrolled the 
 streets' women also ran the city's fire trucks. Police Chief Jorge Enrique 
 Lenaris even resigned his position for the night to let Col. Gloria Cardilla 
 take the reins of Bogota's police force. 

 Dozens of bars and restaurants offered women free drinks and discounted food. 
 A strip club in a swanky north Bogota neighborhood hired men to strut their 
 stuff. 

 ``This is our night to be bad,'' said Monica Benavedez, a 19-year-old 
 architecture student at the National University of Colombia. 

 Men who were out on the streets were asked to carry a ``safe-conduct'' pass 
 listing their excuse for being out. The passes, which some men dubbed 
 ``passports for love,'' could be clipped from newspapers, printed off the 
 Internet or picked up at any police station. 

 But most men stayed out of sight: Those who ignored the rules were punished 
 with dirty looks. 

 ``I feel like a new person. I love my husband, but it's nice to be here 
 without him,'' said Sandra Lopez, 33, who was with her 1-year-old daughter, 
 Maria, and her 76-year-old mother, Silvia. They yelled ``Go Home!'' at 
 passing men at a crowded city park. 

 Not far away, women blocked traffic and pounded on the windows and hoods of 
 cars driven by men. 

 ``It's a good thing they only did this one night,'' said Conrado Gomez, who 
 braved the taunts of hundreds of women to have dinner with his wife, Irma
 Puentes. ``The city can only take one night of this.'' 

 AP-NY-03-10-01 1735EST