“When you are dancing with your partner,

for that two and a half minutes

you are in love with each other.

You're corresponding with each other

by the moves that you make.

It's a love affair,

between you and your partner and the music.

You feel the music, you feel your partner,

she feels you and she feels the music.

So there the three of you are together.

You've got a triangle, you know.

Which one do you love best?”

- Frankie Manning (attributed to inventing the Lindy-hop)

“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.” 
― Rumi

In March I was lucky enough to have my travels take me to the middle of the world; Quito, Ecuador, and I found belly dancers there. 

Cristina Hidalgo, world traveler, international teacher, and all around great gal caught me as I was heading south and her perfect timing made it so I could share my love of ATS®.

ATS® isn't something you'll really find in Ecuador, but it is a growing scene and with someone as enthusiastic as Cristina is the future looks bright for my favorite dance form.

Even though Quito was a last minute stop the class was packed, the students eager, and by the end of the day ATS® had been achieved! Dancers interacting with each other, communicating in a improvised setting.

Here are my adorable students that came from all over Ecuador.

“All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.” 
― Martha Graham

I've been moving through my moments and doing my best to make them all important, my main deterrent is my body and the fact that I am not a machine, I need rest.

I was on the upswing of disappointment, my first big one being the fact I had to fly from Panama to Colombia since there were no boats to be sailed in the time frame I needed.
My consolation is that Cartagena was a colonial city that worked like balm on my eyes and my weary travel soul.

 I was once again infatuated with a city.

I went to the Galapagos, a photo essay with some commentary

I'm not sure why but the Galapagos Islands have always called my name. 

It's been at the top of my bucket list for years, and I knew I couldn't pass by it without going to it.

So I did what everyone out there does, I dreamed, I schemed and I tightened the belt so I could fork out the money. 

I ended up finding a last minute 8 day tour on a intimate boat called the Nemo2. The boat was a beautiful catamaran that made me decide, why yes indeed I could and would love to live on a boat. 

My days were spent waking up to the sunrise, a little rocky morning Yoga with the other ladies on the boat, 2 hikes a day and 2 snorkels in the water, then dinner and the stars.

Here's the captain of the boat Henry, he would come out on the dingy and snorkel with us.

I've been asked what was the most amazing thing that I saw.

Well I snorkeled above a nine foot hammer head shark, this as my only evidence.

Heaven on Earth

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig. Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me. When it comes to dying even. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic. No rhetoric, no tremolos, no self conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Little Nell. And of course, no theology, no metaphysics. Just the fact of dying and the fact of the clear light. So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling, on tiptoes and no luggage, not even a sponge bag, completely unencumbered.”
— Aldous Huxley, "Island"