Sola Salsa...

A small, hole-in-the-wall place, dimly lit, very warm, and blaring salsa music. There are chairs and loveseats along with small tables lining the walls opposite of the bar. The walls are covered in drawings and random frases and names in Spanish. The dance floor is full of couples moving to the music and doing crazy intricate turns while other people stand and sit along the walls watching with envy and admiration.

I got to be one of those couples this weekend. I went out dancing with David, my Salsa instructor. I felt like I was finally dancing Salsa the way it was meant to be, in a small crowded discoteca along with other couples doing the same. It felt so good! It wasn't just like dance class, but so much more, and better. The atmosphere was so amazing, and the fact that I was dancing with someone who really knew what they were doing was incredible. We did all these crazy turns I can't even being to describe, and I was surprised I could follow! At one point, while David was dancing with another woman (because I had gotten caught up talking to someone), the woman's dance partner asked me how long David and I had been dancing together. Months? And I said, no, weeks! I had a really wonderful time, and even when we weren't dancing, and were just watching, it was really fun. We ended up staying out until 3:30am (and no, we didn't drink anything!) which made it all the more fun! And since he doesn't speak English, I got to practice a lot of Spanish and start to really get comfortable talking to him (which is really hard for me to do with people I don't know very well).

It was an incredible night, and I hope to repeat it this coming weekend, since I don't think I'm making any big trips outside of Quito, but possibly a day trip or two.

PS- For those of you without Facebook, I am working on uploading the photos to my Yahoo Photos page, but it is taking forever (the uploader is really slow, and I have a LOT of pictures). But I will update you with a link as soon as they're done!