The Quest

Trinidad is a charming colonial town. We had arranged for a room in a casa particular, which was about 10 short blocks from the town square. We arrived there in time to find the casa before dinner, and after dinner we took a short nap. Then we walked back to the town square, which they called "Casa de Musica". At first they were playing vague salsa music from disc and people were dancing, and we did too. Later they had a live band playing salsa and we danced. When the band stopped they started playing salsa from disc again. Most people were tourists, about 2/3rds, but locals were dancing also, some with each other and some with tourists.

I saw one guy dressed in all white dancing with two girls at once, and doing it well. Later, after we were tired and most people were done dancing, I went up to him and asked "hay algo personas aqui que bailar rueda?" (Are there any people here who dance rueda?).

This had been our major Quest for this trip. We had many minor quests: renting a moto (Yes), renting a motorcycle with sidecar (failed), eating the local food (Yes), talking with locals (Yes). But the major Quest for this trip was to find local salsa, and engage with locals in a salsa rueda.

To my query about rueda He said yes, but seemed a little confused by the question. The girl next to him said (I think) that I was asking if we could do a rueda. I said that my girlfriend and I liked to dance rueda, and he seemed surprised that we knew how. The girl got one other couple, and the six of us started dancing rueda. At first it was very simple, just dame and enchufa. Two other couples saw us dancing rueda and eagerly joined in, although one girl bowed out because she was tired.

Here is a video of the guy dancing with two girls at once. Try it: It's surprisingly hard!


(The rest of this journal entry is primarily only for people who dance salsa rueda. You probably won't understand what I'm saying unless you do. If you don't understand, then you need to learn to dance salsa rueda and then re-read this post.)

The guy in all white, who was from Trinidad I think, danced very well but had his own way to do all the moves. Or maybe those were the way they did it in Trinidad? One move was called vecino ("neighbor"?) which was patty-cake to the beat, alternating with the person on your right and the person on your left. He also called things repeatedly so you could hear better: "ahora-ahora-ahora! dame-dame-dame!". Also "uno con uno" (single dame with single clap), "dos con dos" (dame dos with two claps).

The Trinidaderos did pelota as a right-handed enchufa. They did setenta as a setenta miami with a enchufa-ronde-dame.

A couple from Vancouver that joined in danced things similar to us. (They are the tall couple on the right in the picture.)

A guy from Marseilles, France had joined, he wanted to dance everything on-two, which created difficulties. (He's the guy in red, on the back towards the left.) Tiina talked to him later. He said he's come to the Island many times for dancing, and Trinidad has the best salsa on the island.

A girl from Guadalupe island in the Caribbean joined too, she seemed to do it more our style. (She's the girl in the black shirt & jeans.)

There were relatively few moves that everyone knew, even the people from Trinidad. They didn't know Candado (people from Vancouver did), nor adios con su hermana.

The girl in the red dress was also from Trinidad. She was the one who gathered the six people to start the rueda, and was good at trying to get everyone from different backgrounds to work together.