Yo No Sé Mañana

  Last post I talked a little bit about songs that constantly float around in the air around here.  Aventura is big, but if you wanna talk really really big, you need to know about Luis Enrique.  He is a native son of Nicaragua who has made it to the world stage as  the prince of salsa.  This song is popular here in a way that I imagine Lady Gaga is in the States at the moment (who also by the way  enjoys a heavy rotation down here in Central America, where her name is hilariously close to the word for, well, poop), or this Justin Bieber person that I've just started hearing about.  In any case, the opening chords of this song will always take me back exactly to the barfront in Via Via, sharing  Flor de Caña rum with friends and singing along.  I will really miss Leon.


Yo No Sé Mañana

In which I lose my mind to the music

Confession: I am newly and wholly in love with latin dancing.  Having spent an entire 6 months in Costa Rica smilling and saying no every time I had the opportunity to dance explaining that I just was too embarrased to get out there, I finally gathered my courage in a tiny bar on the edge of Lake Nicaragua and danced bachata for the first time.  I was bad at it. My date was patient and let me step on his feet, trip over my flip flops, stop cold in the middle of a step, and generally behave as if my feet hips and knees had never been introduced. And then, I wasn´t so bad. And then, a few days later I was washing dishes in the hostel, and the way that the sponge slid quickly around the edge of the soapy dish reminded me of a quick turn I had learned. And I found that as I walked through each pool of music spilling onto the city streets, that I wanted to move.

At first, bachata was really the only flavor of music that I found myself comfortable with.  It has a sultry, slower beat and less fancy footwork and turns than other styles, so it´s a great place to start.  One of the things that always most intimidated me about latin dancing was the subtlety of it all - there always seemed to be a beat within the beat that everyone could hear but me.  With bachata, however, I was able to keep pace with the steps while slowly relaxing into the "extras." 

When it comes to bachata, a group called Aventura is the absolutely uncontested king of the style.  It amazes me the monopoly that they have over the dance scene.  Their music has become as much a  background to my time here much like the homemade fireworks that churches set off by the dozen every day.  So, I wanted to leave you guys with a few of my favorite songs.  Expect more news about dancing in the next few posts!

Disclaimer - general music video / latin music oversexiness applies here. Feel free to ignore the video and just listen.  [Grandmother, I warned you! :)]


un beso

lagrimas

And finally, one of the only songs I hear regularly that´s not Aventura: tu primera vez