You can’t fault the Gibson Brothers for getting the message across that Cuba is all about the salsa and they weren’t wrong.  The music is everywhere, blaring out of houses in the evening, in every bar and restaurant, and guys walking down the street with little speakers.  But we didn’t get to see much dancing.  Most of the restaurants we went to had a live band and the quality was amazing but no one dances because they are all full of tourists who are too inhibited.  So I did my jiggling table dancing while Tim looked embarrassed.

Then in Trinidad we stumbled into a bar and I was in heaven.  A crowded and sweaty mix of Cubans and tourists with great music and a buzzing dance floor.  There were about 5 Cuban guys leading a line dance kind of thing doing salsa and cha cha cha with a gang of European and American women dancing along while their bored-looking husbands sat clutching their drinks and looking on.  A solo singer came on and we all sat and listened.  When he sang “Che Guevara” the Cubans all sang along and some looked like they may cry.  A revolutionary love song.  We got chatting to a couple of locals and when they realised that Tim wasn’t up for dancing, one of them took me to the dance floor when the music livened up again.  The Cubans just have dance in their veins and it was brilliant dancing the salsa with someone who was such a natural.  I was walking on air.  After a couple of songs we went home as Tim was losing the will by that point but I’ve ticked one off the list.  Proper salsa in Cuba.

I wanted to go back the next night, but made a compromise and booked tickets for the Buena Vista Social Club show instead. They were great.  Very accomplished and a wide range of talent but because it was all tourists again and only about 30 of us in a huge club, the atmosphere was subdued.  In the end they got us all on stage dancing, even Tim, but it did feel more like a Latin Butilns show than anything.  Worth seeing though.