Dance Like Nobody's Watching

These Meridians certainly know how to have a good time. They always close the streets down in El Corazon de Merida (the heart of Merida) on the weekends. The restaurants bring out their tables and set them up in the street near a small band stand where bands and trios entertain with their music colliding with each other into a cacophony of noise.
Well tonight they have outdone themselves once again. In honor of the anniversary of Merida they had a Dance Marathon with four different band stands set up on all four corners of the central plaza. These were not small, they were the size of a tennis court with sound systems from the ground up several stories reverberating the air along with your ears and chest, overpowering your heart beat to conform with the rhythm. This was a party for the people of the city and the people were out to enjoy it. It was Santa Lucia times ten, a warm up for the Carnival coming in Feb.
I saw wrinkled old ladies who didn’t look like they could walk from the couch to the bedroom out there dancing alongside many middle aged couples who definitely had spent years dancing together. There were “wanna be” or “once were” casanova men with their dark hair slicked back wearing so much cologne that you could smell them from ten feet away and young macho men in muscle shirts showing off their new tattoos on their glistening dark skin. Sprinkled throughout were the little ladies dressed in their best Yucatecan white dresses with bright embroidery on the oversized square lace collar. Truly, a sea a humanity undulating like a restless ocean, filling the entire street from corner to corner and spilling out onto the sidewalks.
For half an hour they danced to the band on the south of the square then it was time for the band on the opposite side of the square to take their turn. The human sea then washed up and over the plaza to the other side, sweeping passersby into the current until the next band mounted their grandstand. This went on for hours, a marathon indeed for those with stamina and training. Much as I love to dance I was out of my league here. I was happy just watching while they danced like nobody was watching.