Cali Summary

The last week has flown by and tonight we're off to Bogota on the bus which we bought tickets for earlier today. A few highlights worth mentioning (in no particular order!) from the last 10 days include our salsa lessons with the wonderful Jacqui Garcia from Hermandad Latina. Not only does she look incredibly young for her age but her energy and enthusiasm are matched only by her skills as a dancer...the woman is amazing!! We had lessons every other day and included mostly footwork in Cali style salsa (which starts on the opposite foot so really confused me lol) Boogaloo and Pachanga as well as a bit of choreography and lots and lots of practice!! Our last lesson yesterday was one of the best, going through everything we had learned so far and remembering much more than I could ever have imagined as well as learning a few final steps before the next class came in. A few guys came in and along with Andy learnt a 'descarga' routine, which translates as discharge but is basically when the music changes and goes a bit crazy and you can do all your fancy footwork shines. Anyway, it was a complex routine and the other men seemed particularly impressed with how quick Andy picked it up as well as his brilliant timing with the music, so much so that a couple of them stopped to film him dancing!! Jacqui was singing his praises as she looked over, glowing with pride in her 'best' student and I filmed as much as I could..maybe its a shine he can teach back in the UK one day?!! After this lesson finished it was time for her dance fitness class that we'd joined in after our 1st ever lesson with her. Andy sat down for a rest and I took part, finding the fast footwork and hip movement much easier than before (improvement is good!!) and even leading the show for a minute or two during a Boogaloo track doing some of the shines Jacqui had taught us over the last few weeks. When the class ended it was time to say good bye and after giving her a box of chocolates as thanks for all her patience and efforts with us we sadly said farewell...until we've finished travelling that is when she wants us to go back so she can train us for the Cali Salsa Festival Competition!! :-)

Other things we've done since being here include going to Tin Tin Deo again where my best dance was with an Irish guy who'd moved to Cali for the salsa and was so disappointed he started his own classes, and Andy finally getting asked to dance (well actually she asked me if she could dance with him!!) by a beautiful latino woman in an incredibly short dress who danced crossbody to some extent and was clearly a fabulous dancer, a highlight of the night! We also went to a club called Salsa with Jacqui and Rob, an English actor staying at our hostel, where we enjoyed a night's salsa dancing and a bottle of Rum between us. It was a cool venue where the dancefloor was rammed and you could even bring in your own instruments, we saw several cowbells and claves amidst the crowds but there was very little room to dance anything but the simplest stuff and at about 1.30 we caught a taxi back to the hostel. One day feeling like we hadnt really done much recently we went into San Antonio again for another look round and this time were pleasantly surprised at the number of people and market stalls that were adorning the streets compared to our last visit. We've met some lovely people whilst at the hostel, Fletcher and Nick are a couple of biker's taking some time out from their respective travels to work on their bikes and wait for parts to arrive, always a source of amusement. Rob, the actor from London who got addicted to salsa after one lesson and one night's dancing!! We filled him in on the salsa scene in the UK and maybe one day we'll see him on a dancefloor somewhere loving every minute as we do. Venette, a super talkative, bubbly girl from Washington who we chatted with for ages and is getting the bus with us to Bogota as well as a number of 'characters' like the slightly strange Austrian guy who walks round in his underpants everywhere and we're sure has some form of OCD, to the family of Argentinian's, dad and 2 girls, who spent all day and night making bracelets, to the sweet Colombian ladies who I guess are mother and daughter though probably 50 and 70, who bustle around the hostel always in their sunglasses....both day and night!! So all in all even though we've been fairly lazy other than our dancing we've had a pleasant stay here in Cali and will miss it, Jacqui most of all, when we leave for the rest of our travels.