Bailando

by Luiza Souza (Brazil)

I didn't expect to find Colombia

Colombia exhales music and rhythm, it is true. From my first time there I have always imagined that I would dance salsa with a local, a little cumbia on the street, and of course the popular reggaeton every single day there. That was not exactly how it happened, nor did any Colombian show me around or how to party. It is quite ironic that I had this caricature and cliché view of Colombia since I get extremely offended when people do this to my country, and how they do it. Being a Brazilian woman living in Rio de Janeiro, I have lost count of how many times they told me “teach me to dance” or asked me “don’t you like samba?” – I do ok, but that is not the point. The point is, the first time Carlo, a German with the most yellow and curly hair I have ever seen, who had been living in the hostel room in Medellin for over a month, heard my friend and I were from Brazil he said “you like to dance then”, eyes and huffed. Not again. Carlo insisted on taking us to know the Medellin night, after all, he had been there for over a month and seemed to know everything cool to do in the neighbourhood. I wasn’t excited, but Medellin was too unique, too iconic, and too Colombian to be wasted on a badly spent night. So, we went with him We stopped for dinner first. I don't like to dine with Europeans for one simple reason: currency. What for them is nothing, for me it is. Quite. So it's just uncomfortable. I ordered chips. To my friend and I. Carlo ordered a double hamburger, rustic potatoes and giant coca-cola. He told us that he had been away from Europe for months, that after Colombia he would live in Argentina for a while, but before that he needed to decide between going to Peru or Brazil for vacation. He asked me where I thought he should go and I was genuinely in doubt. Peru is possibly one of my favourite places in the world, but Brazil ... is no less incredible, and my home. I said that he should go to both, he told me that there would be no time, that he doesn’t like to run by a place because that way you don’t “feel the place”. I made a mental note. That must be a photographer thing, Carlo is a photographer, he had just told me that. After dinner, - ("dinner" for me). Carlo took us on almost a private pub crawl. We went to a bar where everyone danced very badly, and that made look like we are pros and that Carlo had a great rhythm - (for a German at least). We went to another bar with a giant ball pool. I mean, really giant and very full. So wonderfully confusing that made me feel like a child (if you ignore the fact that me and everyone else there had a beer in our hand, obviously). Then went to others of Carlo's favourite bars and clubs, we made friends in every single one of them and we got to know Medellin from his perspective. I was touched about how much he wanted us to see around and have a great time. I didn't dance salsa as I always imagined, but I made a friend I never imagined. We came back to the hostel on foot, dancing a choreography that he idealized himself, in the middle of the street, and it was one of the most ridiculously happy scenes of my life. "Go to Brazil." I said to him "Huh?" he answered “You asked me about Peru or Brazil. You are a very dancing soul and a very gentle one. You should go to Brazil first. ”