Day 80 1/14/2022
Medellín, Colombia
Happy Birthday Mom!
I didn’t get much sleep again tonight. So much anxiety it feels like my hands are always shaking when I sit still. I got up and headed out to a Crossfit class at 10am. It was a pretty good class. I was beat at the end of it. I understood the coach from class talking to a few guys outside about motorcycles and crashing. I asked one of the guys that was in class what they were talking about. The convo shifted over to my bike since they saw it out front. We all hung out and chatted for a while. Well they spoke in Spanish and I had my translator but I started to understand quite a bit of what they were saying. I shot over to a restaurant near my hostel for a big big breakfast. I had 4 eggs, hash browns, pancakes, a ton of fruit, 2 cups of juice, and an avocado. I ate pretty quickly and then before I knew it I had two hours of salsa lessons coming up from 2-4. I went back to my hostel to shower and clean up. I was already starting to get sleepy and it was only 1pm. I worked on the blog for a bit at the hostel and worked on my computer for a bit.
I decided it was time for a cup of coffee which i’ve never ever done before to stay awake. I don’t like this. I should stop drinking coffee in the mornings. I want to go back to being all natural. I drank the coffee though since I had a long night coming up. I went down to the laundromat and got my clothes I dropped off the other day. I got right back on my bike and headed down to the salsa studio. I had two hours booked with my first instructor I learned with. I was excited to show her what I learned in the class yesterday.
We went over some warm up moves and she tried to help me loosen up my hips and upper body so I don’t look so white when I dance. We worked on all the small details of foot work and then letting my body flow through moves with momentum which is what salsa is supposed to look like. No stopping ever. We worked on the basic parts for a while and then she threw in two new moves for me, spinning her. I called it quits after 1:45 because my brain was hurting too much from all the knowledge. From now on we agreed that I can do two hours a day but it has to be split up. One hour in the morning and one in the afternoon. I’m pretty proud of myself for how well I’m doing and how fast I’m learning this stuff. On my way out the front door I booked some more time since I extended my hostel for another 4 days.
I rode back to the hostel and changed my clothes. I talked to the gypsy a few hours before and she wanted to come to a Crossfit class so I agreed to do a second one for the day. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to stay awake tonight with all of this physical work I’m doing all day with not much food. I grabbed her on the bike and we shot over to Crossfit. It was her first class. She crushed the workout and I did even more sets tonight then I did this morning. I couldn’t believe it. We went upstairs and did an Ab workout for about 20 minutes which was so nice to do. I dropped her off at her Airbnb and we made plans to get some dinner. I went home and took a quick shower and we met up at a restaurant she found.
Ehhhhhh the food wasn’t great. We have both been heading about this local dish with a lot of local meats. It was super heavy and salty. As soon as I finished eating it my stomach was rolling and it did not sit well with me. I’m glad I got that meal out of the way I for sure won’t be having it anymore. We decided to go check out a salsa club after dinner which was down the block from my hostel. I was sort of thinking about trying out some stuff I learned at the school but I was having second thoughts. We got in and had a seat. There were a few people dancing. I was nervous to get up there and try to dance with what i’ve been taught the last three days. Anastasia kept telling me to go up there and grab a girl and dance but I was too shy. We talked about everyone else and how god damn good they were. Everyone here was a pro. When we got there there was live music and only 2-3 people dancing but after about 30 minutes at 10:30pm the dance floor was packed. She mentioned she never danced salsa before so I offered to show her the steps and maybe we could go up there. I walked us to the back where no one was watching and boom my brain just blanked out and I couldn’t remember a single thing I learned the last three days.
I couldn’t even remember the most basic moves to start moving. I thought about it for a few minutes and figured it out. I showed her a few things. This girl learned in 5 minutes what I learned in three days. I showed her how I lead her into moves and she had it all down. Here we go, time to get up there with everyone else.
This was the first time in 35 years of my life that I ever walked up to a dance floor without someone dragging me and just trying to blend in like everyone else. I couldn’t believe I was about to actually do this. But here was the moment I did all the private classes for. I grabbed her hands, threw her left hand back which let her know which direction we were going and for the next three hours we would dance for about a song or two and then sit down for one. I couldn’t believe I was doing this and we were fucking killing it! This was such good practice for me too. I’m going to go back to class on Monday and it’s all going to be so much more fluid and natural for me. We met a few people there that night and one guy told us he’s been going to salsa bars for 4-5 years for about 4 hour a night. I’m just sitting there thinking holy shit this guy is good and it took that long?!!??
At one point Anastasia was telling me to go grab another girl and go dance with her. I held her hands and didnt let her go but she eventually sneaked her way over to 4 local girls and started chatting with them. I’m going to kill her. If anyone had ever done this to me before like they have in my past I would have just walked away because I would be too embarrassed and shy to dance. One of the girls turned to me and she grabbed my hands. She4 started telling me how to do basic moves and I told her to follow me. I started to lead her with everything I’ve been doing the last three days and with Anastasia all night and this girl was impressed. She said to me “What the hell is that girl talking about you know exactly what you’re doing and you’re good”! HAH! I fooled her!
This was my turning point. It’s all easy from here. We danced for a song and then that was that! I felt so good and had a lot of confidence now. Anastasia and I sat down and watched a bunch of people dancing for hours while we danced for the next three hours. The people had some incredible moves out there and I’m feening to learn more of them. I was actually getting a bit bored with the few moves I knew and I was thirsty to go back to class to learn more. We had such a blast I can’t wait to do this every night. I hope Anastasia doesn’t leave anytime soon since she’s my new salsa partner while I’m here. I still feel weird going into a salsa club and asking a random girl to dance but maybe that will come with time one I get a bit more comfortable. I told her how much of a turning point tonight was for me and if any of my ex girlfriends saw me with her or that other woman tonight they would be assassinated on the spot with how much grief dancing has caused me in my past relationships!
We ended up leaving at about 2am and called it a night. We made plans for tomorrow to get some breakfast which I count on waiting for since I was already starving after all that dancing. We also drank about 4 bottles of water each. This dancing is going to be one hell of a workout the rest of my trip!