a super good night

This Saturday night Alice bangs on my door asking me if I want to go to a fiesta at Hilarios families house. I asked where it was and they motioned that it was just up the road, so I said yeah, sure, and we all packed into two cars and went on our way. Just up the road ended up being waaaaayyy out in the hills of Guanacaste (the region of Costa Rica I'm staying in) down some really long, somewhat trecherous roads. Eventually we come to a hilltop and there's a single light on in the distance on a neighboring hill and Hilario tells me that that's where we're going. We arrived eventually to the house of Hilarios uncle and aunt who are dairy cow farmers. His uncle cares for the cows and his aunt makes cheese with the milk to sell in the local market. During the final length of the drive we're passing groups of people making their way by foot down the dark, dark road, on their way to the fiesta. Hilario would shout out a greeting or joke or whatever to each group, as he knew everyone and was related to most of the people we were passing. He later explained to me that his family has been living on this particular hill in this particular village for many many generations. We eventually arrived at a big old barn that was all lit up, where all the people were conviening. Inside the barn there were little tables with chairs lining the outside of the room and the middle was left empty for dancing. There was a guy in one of the corners playing salsa and merengue music (very loudly). The day before this, a guy who had been a student at the same school I'm now attending arrived for a visit to Samara and was staying with Alice and Hilario (they introduced him as their 'hijo', their son) and so I was one of two gringos (white people) at the party. There were probably 100 people crowded into the barn, and spilling out the back doors into a big field. We sat and socialized and drank beer and eventually some of the women made a huge feast for everyone (none of which I was able to try for the fact that pork was a main ingredient in everything) and it was just a really really good time. Brandon (the other gringo) and I were wondering when the dancing would start and continued to wonder this basically all night, as it never did start. However, Brandon is big on dancing and insisted that we go out to the field behind the barn and he would show me the basic steps for a few salsa dances, and he also showed me one country western dance that applied well to salsa music (he's from Texas and is a classic southern gentleman, very christian, very sweet, but at the same time, very foreign to me). He somehow convinced me to go back to the barn with him and dance the country western dance in the middle of the barn, with everyone watching! Anyhow, somehow I go for it, and at the end everyone applauded! It felt really really good to just seize the moment and do something completely out of my nature. Beyond good, really. A little later we went back to the field and befriended a big pack of kids who were playing there. They were very intreagued by us and thought we were loads of fun and they ended up following us everywhere, like the pied piper. We all danced around in a circle and seriously just had a blast.
Eventually Hilario told us it was time to go so we took the long ride back to Samara and stopped at a bar in town that was having a salsa night, this time with lots of dancing people. Brandon insisted that I try out the new moves he had taught me and so again I just went for it and had a ball doing so.
At the end of the night I fell asleep just feeling so lucky to get to see places like this and meet great people and do things like go to parties way out in the countryside of Costa Rica... To get glimpses of life in places so forign to my own New England world. It's just wonderful.
The night was just really inspiring and elating and I thought I should share it with you all. :-)