Baila en la calle...

If I had to choose only one thing from Colombia that I loved the most, that made me feel alive, that captured the passionate culture above all else, it was the dancing. So many memories revolve around dancing - carnavals, chivas, concerts, dancing in the streets, dancing around our apartment, dancing in restaurants...there was almost never a time that we weren't dancing.

I went to a salsa class tonight and it wasn't quite the same. NY salsa is different from Colombian salsa. I felt the beat of the music running through me as I always have, my feet naturally fell into step, my hips moving back and forth... and yet for the entire hour, I was off-step from our instructor, whose feet moved too much, and whose hips moved not enough. Just like I learned to speak on the coast and my Spanish is Costeno or nothing, I dance like a Colombian, with a little bit of cumbia and mapale influencing my salsa. I step on the two, not on the one. And I have no intention of trying to change that.

Here's to Barranquilla....