Señora Robinson

So yesterday, I had my first salsa dance lesson. You all know how uncoordinated I am, but if you have a good teacher it´s easy and *so much fun!! We had class and our teacher (Francisco) convinced a bunch of us to go out to a salsateca last night afterwards. I had to buy a pair of shoes with heels first because... well, you really can´t dance salsa in flipflops or sneakers. Francisco came with me to the shoe store and he looked at the shoes I ended up buying and was like “are you sure you can walk in those shoes because the heels are so high?” I was like – please, I live in NY… these are nothing!

So, I went home and had dinner with the fam and then Francisco picked me up at my house around 10pm-- not a date, not really. Anyway, the family made me stay upstairs when he rang the doorbell. They met him and then came upstairs to "announce" that he had arrived and then I could go downstairs to go with him. So formal!

Francisco and I took a taxi to The Mesa, a salsateca that rocks on Wednesday nights. We got there around 10:15 and the place was dead empty - the only other people there were the other kids from my school. So, we got some drinks (interesting factoid: at a lot of bars\clubs here you get a drink card and they mark all of the drinks you have and then you pay at the end. Dan, I think this might be a good way for you to keep track! If you lose the card you pay like $20 which is a lot considering I had like four drinks and with the entry fee it was a total of $6)... and then we started dancing. By about 11pm, the place was wall to wall people... everyone dancing salsa like crazy. A few other people from school came and then we met some other guy - Isreal, from Cuenca - who was the best dancer I have ever seen (or danced with!). So much fun. I got home at 2am and am so tired today (y tengo un poquito chuchaqui), but it was worth it and I want to go back!

Anyway, in the course of last night I had about 10 people ask me how old I am. This has been an interesting topic of conversation for almost everyone I´ve met. I´m obviously not in college. So, how can this girl afford to travel like this… alone… and how old is she anyway… and so she has a real job, etc, etc?? It was the same in Canoa. So, I knew that the people from school were curious because I´d like to think that on a (very) good day I can maybe pass for one of them... maybe?... most of them are college kids… all definitely under 25… lots 'o jailbait, Als. At first I thought I wouldn´t tell anyone here how old I was but then I decided what the hell. So, last night all the guys (from school) were asking me how old I am and when I finally told them, they were like… oooooh, an older woman…. It was really really weird and totally made me feel like Mrs. Robinson. I guess it´s because I don´t have a lot of (any) friends at home who are in college … it´s just really strange. So, I´m the cougar! LOL.

When I woke up this morning after only a few hours of sleep, I so needed and missed my COFFEE. Instant coffee is not cutting it, I have to say. So, I told my teacher Martha about this and she said she would take me to a café with the best coffee in Cuenca for the second part of our class. I went and the place was soooo nice. Like a real café… with amazing coffees and espressos (all made in Ecuador) and a view over the river Tomebamba and it was so nice. I hate to use this word, but it´s so much more civilized here than it was on the beach. This is *definitely more my speed.

So, that´s all for now. Tomorrow, I´m going to eat cuy --- guinea pig, the national dish of Ecuador. Supposedly it tastes a bit like rabbit.

xoxo