Salsa Splash Weekend – Mel C’s Blog
Steve and I had never been to a Salsa Splash weekend before, although from the various pictures and video clips you see on Facebook, we could tell that people had a lot of fun when they were there!
We were supposed to be moving house that weekend but it didn’t work out (don’t ask, it’s a sore subject!) so we thought ‘right then, lets go’!
Friday
We travelled down on the Friday lunchtime and made pretty good time, it took about 2.5 hours, getting there for about 3pm. Registration was very smooth, we had ours keys and a glass of Pims (thanks Jean) within minutes of arriving at reception!
We went to our chalet, unpacked and then headed off to Sainsbury’s, needed to get supplies, bumping into Julian aka The Duke whilst arguing over the seafood sticks I wanted to buy! I won, of course, and we headed back to the chalet, armed with Jack Daniels and an array of goodies from Sainsbury’s.
Dinner was at 7:30pm sharp, we’d been allocated seats earlier and were the first to arrive at our table. A few minutes later, we were joined by Miguel and Mayan and we met Pedro Gea and Neli from Asi Se Baila, Spain. We had a great time over dinner, Miguel and Mayana were charming as always and Pedro was a very friendly guy, we spent most of dinner talking about music, nothing new there!
There were no shows on the Friday night, which worked well I thought, Rohan introduced the night (best MC out there guys) and led a warm up, which the majority of the crowd joined in.
We nipped back to the chalet for a drink and to watch the BB eviction (sad I know) then we headed back out about an hour later. There was a good mix of music that night, provided by DJ Cruz and Cornelius. I danced quite a lot that night, drank a fair bit too!
Saturday
We got up for breakfast and then had a wander around the site, and then Steve wanted to do Miguel and Mayana’s improver’s class. He came back full of praise for the guys, they definitely have a fan there!
At lunchtime, we popped across to the café on site and Robert asked Steve to play some music in there while people were eating. He went down a storm, particularly with Tony from Mambata, who dragged me up, despite my protests of ‘I’m wearing sandals!’ and made me dance! As I am typing this, Steve has now been booked for Mambatas launch night of their new monthly collaboration with Red Hot Red Salsa, nice one Steve!
I had promised myself that I would do the Street Jazz class with Hakeem from Impact Dance that afternoon, so after lunch I went across to the Games Room where the class was being held. The room was full and Hakeem wasted no time getting us to do an energetic warm up before launching into the choreography he had planned for the class. It was amazing! I haven’t worked that hard or enjoyed a class so much, for such a long time and it was a feeling shared by all! Hakeem is holding a weekender in October this year, keep your eyes on Salsa Central for more info.
I then convinced Lorna and Andrea to do an Aqua Fit class with me, whilst Steve was roped into playing football. OMG what a laugh that class was! The instructor wasn’t very good but we had him in stitches with our (well my) interpretations of the moves we were supposed to be doing! This went on for about 40 minutes until we collapsed into the steam room to unwind.
After all that exercise, I was famished and as we were by the sea, I convinced Steve to drive us to a seafood restaurant (it was 5 minutes from the camp, we could’ve walked lol!) called Marina Jaks. The food was fabulous and after a walk on the beach, we went to a local amusement arcade and messed about on the machines before heading back to get changed for the night.
We gave dinner a miss, for obvious reasons, and then headed out to the venue. It was a black tie night and the majority of the guests had made a real effort, we felt a bit under dressed! There were five shows that night, from Asi Se Baila , U-Tribe, Mambata , Marchant and Davina and Almas Latinas . Hakeem led a Michael Jackson tribute , Steve managed to get them all on camera, you can see them on the site ☺
Sunday
We had planned to leave the next day but were bombarded by ‘no ways’ from several people who assured us Sunday was the best night. As we had already booked the Monday off (for moving, not!) we decided to stay. It was a good decision, it was another themed night, this time Hero’s and Villains and there were various costume ideas floating about! We decided not to take part (we weren’t prepared) instead we took great pleasure in watching people arrive in their costumes!
My favourite had to be The 3 Little Pigs (or in this case, about 20!) and the Big Bad Wolf, The MP’s Expenses Scandal and the T.W.A.T.S (Traffic Wardens Against Terrific Salsa)!!
The Mambo City Crew arrived to police sirens as they marched in in police uniform, reprimanding several criminal looking types along the way! Even I got hand cuffed at one point, by a dodgy looking pimp/police officer with blonde hair (you reading this Mr Al Sheikh?) still not sure what for though!
There were shows by Salsology, U-Tribe and Miguel and Mayana that night. Later on there was a dance off between the Hero’s and the Villains to a reggaeton track led by U-Tribe and Pedro whilst Jean and Yanet Fuentes decided on the winners of the fancy dress.
We partied on through the night until about 3am, tried to go back to the chalet and got dragged back into the RnB room by Robert White who bought us drinks and made us stay until 4am!
I had a fantastic weekend, special mention has to go to Tony Cook (Shelley’s Dad) he made our weekend extra special, keeping us entertained with anecdotes and body rolls!
I can’t wait until the next one, I would definitely recommend this weekend to everyone as it has something for everyone, it certainly took my mind off of not moving!
