Salsa lesson in Cuba

Poor girl, you could see it written all over her face - "Oh, no! Not another group of stiff uncoordinated Europeans!"  Here we were crammed into a tiny dance studio on the main street of Vinales for a salsa lesson. Our instructor's task was to teach our group of 12 three simple salsa steps in half an hour.  Easy, you might think?  Ha!  You should have seen us!  The instructor was right, we were stiff and unco but trying our best under the bemused and watchful eyes of our guide, Omar and bus driver, Eddie.  You could see them thinking "What the....!" 

Salsa lesson

 In the end Omar could stand our bumble feet no longer and disappeared.  We thought he had nipped off to play a game of dominoes, one of his favourite pastimes, but, no, he soon returned with two large bottles of rum and a plea for us to have a drink and maybe relax a bit.  Our young instructor  chewed gum throughout and spent quite a bit of time reaching under her tiny mini skirt to hitch her knickers up over her pregnant stomach. She took the lesson with an air of resignation and boredom and you could see her thinking "Why do I bother?" The whole front of the studio was open to the street giving passers by a great view of our feeble efforts.  Many stopped to enjoy the spectacle and, to be fair, some called out their encouragement. For a while we were the best show in town.  Eventually we learnt the 3 simple steps and then it was time to put them into practice.  Omar and Eddie joined in to dance with us, Omar pleading with everyone to "loosen up".   Ahh, but there is no competing with those Cubans who have music and dance flowing through their veins and dance with their whole heart and soul. As the saying goes "They dance as if no one is watching".

The band played, our guide, Omar, (centre)  sang with them and we danced in the street.  Fun times!

Later we crossed the street to have dinner at a nearby restaurant.  With live Cuban music there we suddenly got the urge to dance and  before long we were all dancing in the street, literally stopping the traffic and having the time of our lives.  Was it the lesson that filled us with confidence or was it the rum? I'll  never know, what I do know is that we were enjoying dancing  and after leaving the restaurant we continued dancing late into the night at the Salsa nightclub in the main square of Vinales.