New York City

Shin and I decided to take a week off from work and head to the big apple. Most people go to New York for the shows, the sights, and the city. For us, NYC was to be a week of salsa training from the very best in the world. Mambo, or On2 salsa dancing was born in the streets of Spanish Harlem here many years ago. We were going to NYC to take classes from the King of the Mambo, Mr. Eddie Torres, along with many others.

We arrived in NYC several hours late due to "traffic delays" cause by the TSA's lovely new air travel restrictions. Got to love those shampoo bottles. After a crazy landing at Laguarda we hoped on a cab to my cousin's place in upper west Manhatten. I hadn't seen my cousin Amber in quite a while, so it was definitely good to catch up. Being that it was already 10pm we decided to call it a night and rest up for the weekend.

That weekend, and for most of the following week, Shin and I lived the good life. We slept in during the morning, did some sight seeing in the afternoon, took salsa lessons in the evening, and went out salsa dancing late at night. We repeated this pattern from that first Saturday till the Saturday the following week. Basically our schedule was something like

8:00 - Wake up and say hi to Amber
8:30 - Go back to bed
13:00 - Get out of bed
14:00 - Leave Amber's place, go sightseeing in NYC
18:00 - Start taking salsa classes
22:00 - Finish taking salsa class, head to salsa club
02:00 - Leave salsa club
03:00 - Go to bed

So what did we see (besides people dancing)? Some of the more memorible sights we saw in NYC were Central Park, the remains of the World Trade Center, China Town, SOHO, NOHO, Times Square, and Greenwich Village.

Now for the good stuff. Time to talk about salsa in New York.