Neither Suzana nor I spoke any Spanish beyond “hola” and “gracias” when we started our adventure. Shortly after arriving in La Paz, we discovered that a cruising family neighbor in our marina were all taking private Spanish lessons. Their teacher, Sergio, came to them for the lessons. That sounded great, so we decided to give it a try, and hired Sergio to teach us. We’d meet a few times a week in the marina, often on our boat.
A month or so later, we’re up to “me llamo Harry,” “desculpe,” and “aqui esta bien” (said mostly to Uber drivers). Limited but measurable progress. (Actually, as usual, Suzana is way ahead of me, having conversations with locals and making friends with everyone.)
As we’re getting ready to leave La Paz, we decided to take Sergio and his wife out to dinner, both as a thank you, and to get to know them better and discover more about Mexico and their life, etc. We already knew that he’d had a varied and interesting life, doing accounting, music, teaching, and more.
During dinner, as often happens around here, a small band of musicians approached the table to ask if we’d like them to play music (for a price). To our amazement, Sergio greeted them warmly — it turned out that he had sung with them during his musical career. And he offered to do a song with them there and then.
And the food was great too!
This serendipitous bit of art/music reminded me of our experience a couple weeks earlier: Suzana had been walking around town, going to the farmer’s market and such, and came across an announcement for an art opening, with three artists presenting sculptures of whales.
We appeared on the appointed night in the appointed place to find a group of people milling about in a very charming courtyard, drinking (free) beverages. No sculptures, but giving the impression of a pre-opening soiree (what’s Spanish for “soiree”?). So we drank and milled and waited.
After a while, some people made speeches. In Spanish, of course. Our new Sergio-powered Spanish understanding let us catch about a tenth of the meaning. But everyone applauded, so we did as well.
Then everyone went up the stairs to view the exhibit.
