This is the first part of my new series of posts called Finns on Bicycles, encounters on the road by other Finnish long-distance cyclists. As I’m definitely not the only one who is continuously meeting wonderful and helpful strangers on the move, I’ve decided it’s high time to share the adventures of other cyclists and strengthen my claim that the whole world is filled with amazing people. So, I’ve asked a few of my countrymen (and women) to share with you five people related stories about what I would call the good-heartedness of the human species. Please, let me introduce to you my first guest writer: Kaisa Leka!

Nicolas Tapia and Antonela Chaya are Arrebato Caleño‘s teachers of bachata and salsa. They are a couple from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who came to Cali to learn Cali style salsa and stayed to live their dream to the fullest – travel and dance for the rest of their lives.

Paraguay is definitely not a country known for its gender equality. Quite on the contrary. It is speculated that due to historical happenings, it’s one of the most chauvinistic countries in whole South America. Why? Because during the War of Triple Alliance (1864–1870), most Paraguayan men were killed and the country was left with a nearly all-female population who would do anything to win over the hearts of the few remaining men.

First of all, this is not a date add and I DON’T accept random friend requests on Facebook, so spare your time. Secondly, I’M NOT looking for company, and even less so on the internet. Thirdly, I DON’T travel alone because I don’t have a man (this is a misconception I’ve encountered numerous times), but because I ENJOY traveling alone. Having said this, here’s something I want to remind you about: the risks of sexually transmitted diseases when traveling (or back home).

There are times in our lives when nothing just seems to make any sense. Moments when all of a sudden, you find yourself asking: what’s the point in all this? What am I doing here? Where do I go from here? Or I don’t know if there are such moments in everybody’s lives, but there sure are in mine. In fact, I’ve been quite down lately and the reason is simple: I want something I can’t have and the fact that I can’t have it makes me question life altogether.

D’Cache is one of the very few, all-female salsa groups in Colombia. Traditionally, salsa music is played by men, but these women defeat stereotypes by playing and singing melodies and rhythms that people are used to hearing only from men. In November 2017, D’Cache performed at Arrebato Caleño. Here’s a video featuring not only the group, but also dancers Antonela Chaya, Norbey “Kanelo” Gil, Andrés Molina and myself.

On the 25th of November 2017, there was the Gran Fiesta de Fin de Año of Arrebato Caleño, a dance school I volunteered at for 1,5 months in Cali, Colombia. Here’s a video of this party, organized by the owner of the school each year. The video is not the best quality ever, but it’s a nice memory of my first time of dancing for an audience after 20 years.

If someone can be called a master of Cali style salsa steps, it’s Andrés Molina (Andrés Felipe Molina Gomez). Looking at him, it seems as though his feet were moving on their own. And if you’d ever want to learn how to move your feet in Cali, here’s the person to turn to!