Follow the Salsa

It’s May 14, 2017, I’m writing from the bus from Viñales to Havana. Viñales has treated me well. It’s a beautiful mountain town, much different than my Boulder mountain town, rich with life, food, culture, alcohol, and dancing. On the second night, my friend Jorge and I split off from the group and found a salsa bar a few blocks from where we were staying. I knew nothing, but Jorge grabbed my hand and told me to follow his lead, and we ended up on the dance floor well past two in the morning. This pretty much set the tone for the trip, and every night after that we looked for Salsa bars, no matter which city we were in. 

So after a long day of exploring yesterday, our group settled in for dinner and siestas at our casitas before going out for the night. A few of us started at the bars and eventually made our way to a party in the entrance of a cave in the middle of a forest. Jorge and I jumped immediately in as soon as we got to the cave. Absolutely, we were the life of the party. With enough liquid courage flowing through everyone's veins, the rest of the group joined us and tried copying what we were doing, taking my hand, spinning me around, and holding tightly onto my hips. We danced to salsa, reaggaton, merengue, and some random American music that was surely played just for us gringos. When we had had enough a bunch of us grabbed an old car (taxi) to bring us back home.

It was the perfect end to an incredible couple of days in Viñales. Yesterday, as exhausted as we were from traveling, we went on a hike to a tobacco farm where we watched fresh cigars being rolled. It’s early into our trip, but I can already tell how large of a roll tobacco has on Cuba. In the US, we warn against using it, we take health classes from elementary school all the way through high school to examine the effects of tobacco on the body, and we have created campaigns strategically produced to guilt us out of using the substance. Many states have even increased the price of tobacco to discourage its use. But in Cuba, stuck generations behind us, it is obvious that without tobacco, their economy would fail. Truthfully, after seeing how gracefully the man rolled the cigar, I wouldn’t want Cuba to change that part of their culture. In fact, I think the cigar culture adds a certain level of toughness to the people here. The effects of smoking as we know it make them look distressed and weathered, matching Cuba’s history anyway. Only Cubans could pull off this look.

Tired from coming off of exam season, traveling the day before, and then hiking all morning (you can already see we’re not as tough as native Cubans), we stopped on our way back for some coco locos, and I had some of the best coconut I’ve ever had. We gave ourselves a chance to catch our breath and take in a mountain town very different from the one we’re used to. I’m excited to see Havana and however this grand adventure continues. For now, I’m going to catch up on some sleep I definitely did not get last night so I can prepare myself for the day and for more dancing tonight. Lesson learned: when your Mexican friend takes your hand and says, "come on, I'm taking you dancing," it'll be nothing like dancing in the US and you're guaranteed a good time. Follow him.