Yesterday I went to the tattoo studio and Eduardo put more ink in my tattoo, just so it looks absolutely perfect. I went through the torture again, however it lasted only (only??!) 20 minutes. I am so happy to have done this tattoo. Some say that you may regret having tattoo but I like it a lot and it also has a sentimental value for me. I really doubt I will regret having it. Plus, I forget about it - the tattoo is on my back and I only remember that I have it when people tell me how nice it is.
In the afternoon I went to two salsa conversation sessions, with salsa shows in between. The subjects of the conversations were: development of the Cali salsa style and Salsa in the 21st century.
My friend Ricardo (last year's winner of the championship) did a presentation about the difference of Cali salsa. For example the beat in the salsa here is 1-7, in other countries it is 1-3, 1-4 or 1-6 (where I learnt salsa in London it was 1-4).
Another guy was talking about salsa in the 80's. It all started from El Grupo Niche that began to earn a lot of money playing the salsa music at events. It was the beginning of expansion of professional salsa in Cali and Colombia. Money from drug dealers helped a lot to develop the music industry. In the 90's salsa CD's where a big hit and they had the highest sale rate. In 1997 there was a boom of the piracy trade.
Some people at the session confessed that salsa helped them to get out of drugs and crime. Well, it's either church or salsa... If you don't want to be a criminal, you get devouted to the first or the second - this is how it works in Cali. Well, anything is better than getting hold of a gun, robbing and killing people.
A group sang a very famous song from the Pacific region (in a kind of weird salsa version). I think it's the only song of the Pacific music I like:
San Antonio ya se va
In the Pacific music you use instrument called marimba:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimba
