Hours 4-7 - Martin's Cumple

We finally arrived at Martin's apartment. He lives on the top floor with a great outside rooftop. Gaston introduced me to everyone, and everyone gave me a kiss.

They were preparing fried potatoes, some steak, salsa, and bread for the party. We all sat around on pillows and chairs and gave a toast. Augustina made a sandwich of bread and steak and then passed it leftvto the person besides her, who passed it to the person besides them, until it reached the person to Augustina's right. It was a curious scenerio, but everyone was giving to the person next to them and not taking for themselves.

The food was great. My name was strange to them, "Es serio, Dallas?" They could not believe my name was Dallas. The way they speak here is strange to me. I thought I understood Spanish, but most of the time I am lost here. There are different words for everything, they dont finish the ends of words, and their pronunciation is totally foreign to me at times.

After we ate Alejandro grabbed the guitar. Everyone sang out loud as if they were reciting their own name. I mouthed what I thought they were singing. They passed out other instruments: hand drums, box drums, tambourines, shakers, and a cow bell. Everyone was adding to the music, laughing, yelling, singing, it was beyond beautiful.

Despues, after the music was finished and the food demolished, the cartons that acted as tables were moved and the dancing began. They taught me a folklore dance called the Chacarera. We all lined up in the small living room apartment and made flirtatious gestures, part of the dance of course, at one another. There was stomping, clapping, sweat dripping, laughing, and some dancing.

Alejandro and his girlfriend danced some Samba for us. We put on some techno afterwords and went crazy dancing our feet off.

I am not entirely sure what time we headed home, but the neighbors never came up and yelled at us even as the night went longer. It was a Thursday, and dancing all night was just the thing to do.

Check out the link here to see a youtube of what the Chacarera looks like in action.