u/oaklicious

Salsa may be my favorite music genre, but I feel modern salsa is stuck in the past, so many “new” songs just sound like the same stuff that was made in the 70s and 80s. I’ve recently discovered Chuwi from Puerto Rico who have this great salsa/electro fusion thing going on that I find both classically salsero and really new.

I feel like one of the reasons Bachata generally attracts a younger crowd is because the music continues to innovate and stay relevant. For instance the new Romeo/Prince Royce album, plays with lots of new rythm ideas, or Pinto Picasso who sounds so different from classic stuff like Monchy y Alexandra for instance.

For me Chuwi (also Rawayana) is a concept of how salsa could evolve.

I know it’s Miami and “cheap or free” isn’t really synonymous with this city. But curious if there are some places to go out, and what style is commonly danced there- im primarily a linear On1 dancer but can get by with some Caleña or Cuban.

Thanks in advance!

I don’t think about salsa in fitness terms nor would I personally cut down on my other fitness habits, but I do always notice I am super worn out and sweaty after dancing for several hours. Am I basically running a 5k? What’s the average salsa night out comparable to in commonly understood exercise terms?

I’m looking to buy my second boat for the San Francisco Bay Area and wanting some advice from this community on specific things to look out for when inspecting a potential boat for purchase. I lived aboard and sailed an Oday 272 for three years previously, and it was a pretty lousy boat for the bay. It was really light and had a wing keel that just didn’t point well or stand up to 30kt winds ripping across the slot.

I am an “ok” sailor, I can perform most of the basic physical maneuvers competently and know how to manage different tides and plan ahead for different weather conditions. I know the “right of way” rules and some basic stuff about setting sail trim, and I know how to do rudimentary navigation and read bathymetry charts etc. I never left the bay itself in the Oday as it just wasn’t the boat for that and I never felt confident in my seamanship or in my crew which were usually my drunk friends. I wouldn’t be confident planning anything longer than a day sail.

On this second round I will look for a sturdy boat in the 32-40ft range and take the ASA courses and start racing casually to literally learn the ropes. In the long run I’d like to hire a captain to take me through some of my first longer passages up to Point Reyes or down to Santa Cruz.

So I’m looking for ideally a single mast ship with a full or modified keel or a heavy fin keel and an inboard motor. Presently I have my eye on a ‘89 Cal 33.

Plan is to hire a marine surveyor to look at the boat (I know dealers usually just get an insurance survey) and help me do my own inspections. I’ll take a look at the condition of the running/standing rigging, deck, chain plates, winches, and bottom paint, although I admit I’m no expert in what to look for. Then of course the motor which again, I am not experienced inspecting. My Oday had a 15hp clip on Honda outboard that I never serviced.

I’m planning to set aside 20% of the value of the boat for repairs when I purchase it and assuming it’ll be another 10-20% for annual maintenance, which I plan to perform myself but again admit, I am not super knowledgeable of aside from monthly washing the hull and sails and changing the engine oil at whatever the manufacturer’s specified intervals are.

Any tips or details from you salty dogs would be much appreciated!

Title basically. I’m an intermediate bachatero and advanced salsero wanting to get involved in local events and maybe a school with group classes. I prefer to dance bachata moderna with a bit of sensual, and I dance salsa linear On1 as well as caleña. I wouldn’t mind learning Cuban salsa too.

I’m moving to downtown SF in the fall but happy to travel around the bay. I used to love dancing at the Baila! events at La Peña in Berkeley and Salsa on the Pier in Oakland.

I lived for a little while on a little sailboat and am a reasonably competent sailor with a lot to learn. I’m moving back to the Bay this fall and wanted to get involved in the sailing community here mostly as a social thing. I’m assuming joining beer can races or something casual is the best way to meet people and am wondering if you guys can point me to where such events are listed or how to reach out to captains looking for crew?

I’m not really interested in being competitive or approaching this hobby in any hardcore way. I just want to hang out with other people really. That doesn’t mean I’m not competent or trustworthy on a boat, but my interests are more social than competitive.

I’ve been dancing salsa/bachata intermediate for a few years now and spent a while in Buenos Aires which has a monster social dance scene. I am a shy fellow and really leaned on social dancing as the center of my social world, in a way that I’m not always sure was the most healthy. Due to life circumstances I’ve been in Brazil for a bit where I’ve been taking a break from salsa/bachata. Tonight I was back in BA so decided what the heck, I’ll go see some of my old spots.

It’s been long enough I felt disconnected from dancing and wasn’t sure I’d even go tonight.

Man, I ran into several old dance buddies and made some new ones. I had a lot of nice chats and one killer dance after another. It has honestly been a long time since I’ve felt so alive. The creativity, the welcoming environment, the beautiful women smiling ear to ear when dancing with you… Frankly, I feel like I just ripped a whole bag of cocaine. My pupils are all dilated!

Fuck I love salsa, and I wonder if it is tickling some of the same pathways that hardcore drug users feel (albeit hopefully in a healthier way).

I’m an amateur painter and in the past couple years really hit a stride where I get attention from others and feel confident in my work. I’m also coming back to the US after several years living abroad in Latin America and wanting to replicate the social experience of LatAm now that I’m home again.

I never made art before this and so am curious how others engage with their broader art community? I’d like to submit my stuff to some amateur galleries, make some friends by taking an interest in their art, and find some spaces to both passively make art in the company of others and maybe try more structured social artistic activities like “drink and draws” or maybe some classes, although I want to minimize the monetary aspect as well as turning art into a scheduled chore.

My RH switch cube got an internal short and melted to the point of requiring a replacement. I’m curious if there is any repogramming that would be required for the bike once the new switch is installed- anybody ever replaced this part before?

Can I just put on the new switch and the bike should fire right up?

I am wondering if there is a podcast that does a deep dive into the economic and social data behind commonly held political opinions, in a balanced way. It feels like there are a lot of political arguments I hear that I am craving more dispassionate information to form my own opinions.

As a random example, I heard someone recently discussing guaranteed maternity leave. He said “I’m against guaranteeing maternity leave because if it’s known that companies are going to have to provide maternity leave, they’ll be less likely to hire female candidates knowing they may have to pay for their maternity leave at some point”.

Regardless of my moral opinions about this topic I am craving to understand - is there data supporting or denying this?? To what extent do we actually know the cold hard facts?

Issues like raising taxes on billionaires, minimum wage, legalizing marijuana or other drugs, I want to know more of the facts whether they support my personal beliefs or not.

Does such a podcast exist?

**doesn’t have to be American issues but I am from the US so it’s most immediately relevant to me

The obvious ones would be teacher in your language or some kind of translation work, but I’m curious what other avenues there might be?

I am a native English speaker and C1 in both Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. I also have a mechanical engineering degree and professional license, are there fields where I could leverage my language abilities for income?

I’m just coming back from 2 months riding my motorcycle around Brazil and man, I just can’t get over how wonderful my experience was here. With one transformational factor: I learned to speak Portuguese fluently. I’m a Spanish speaker and did 6 months of daily Portuguese study before I came here.

Then I started my trip in Foz and rode around Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais, before settling for a couple weeks in Belo Horizonte. I didn’t see another foreigner or speak in English/Spanish for probably 5 weeks. It was really overwhelming at first but the mineiros in particular really adopted me into some local friend groups and I had such a social, lovely experience with the people in Belo Horizonte. I went out dancing forró a lot which I loved. And the food! I don’t know if I’d ever get sick of torresmo com quiabo with cachaça on the side.

Finally I went to Rio, which I was skeptical of. I didn’t want Rio to represent Brazil for me, and it’s so hyped up on social media I almost skipped it. Wow, that city really lived up to and beyond the hype for me.

Again because I could speak Portuguese fluently I found it pretty easy to get away from the (honestly kinda lame) hostel parties. The cariocas were so welcoming and easy to make friends with, and I fell in love with the beaches, nature, samba, late night chats over beer in Botafogo, just everything about this place blew me away. More than anything the lovely people!

I will note that I don’t think Rio is a good fit if you’re not ready for big, dangerous South American cities. I lived in Bogotá Colombia for years so I got used to the little habits to stay relatively safe in these places, but there were so many foreigners I met who got robbed or worse because they just didn’t pay attention that they aren’t in their little town in Belgium anymore.

For me as a visitor the good more than made up for the bad.

Thanks again to all of the lovely Brazilians I met I thought you guys were all so great, I will definitely be back!

I’m just coming back from 2 months riding my motorcycle around Brazil and I have to say for such a hyped up travel destination, my experience here far exceeded any expectations. However I think my experience was deeply affected by a factor I know isn’t accessible to all tourists- I learned to speak Portuguese fluently. Not just “obrigado” and “Tudo bem”, fully capable of deep extended conversations.

I was already a fluent Spanish speaker, have a lot of Brazilian friends to practice with, and started studying intensively 9 months before arriving in Brazil.

Because I wanted to know more than just Rio, I entered the country at Foz de Iguaçu and did a big loop through Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais staying a couple weeks in Belo Horizonte. It was super stressful to only speak Portuguese all day and never see any other tourists, but pushing myself to immerse I was able to really elevate my Portuguese.

Minas Gerais and Belo Horizonte in particular were just incredible highlights and I ended up getting adopted by a group of local people. Just awesome getting integrated into this vibrant city!

Then I went to the big daddy Rio. I am really skeptical of places that get this much hype but holy crap did Rio blow me away. The beaches and nature, the nightlife, and most of all- the people! I *loved* hanging out with the Cariocas and found them so welcoming and fun. Because of my Portuguese proficiency I found it super easy to make local friends who were really enthusiastic to show me around.

I can see how this city is not for everybody and would be a bad travel destination for newbie backpackers. It’s palpably dangerous and can require a strong personality to navigate. Also if you aren’t discerning there are a lot of lame tourist activities and hustles (one hostel was selling tickets to a “favela party” that cost 70 reales to enter and said in the ad “show up early to farm aura”- wtf?)

For me personally the positive parts of Brazil far outweigh the negatives and I’ll be back almost as soon as I have enough saved up for my next ticket.

I just watched a minute long reel with some Harvard economist claiming that Bolivia’s current economic dysfunction is a direct result of Evo Morales nationalizing the petroleum industry. This supposedly shut down foreign investment and hamstrung the petroleum industry from producing a tax base, which lead to inflation when the government printed money to cover its expenses.

Here is the reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaDb5sICqBm/?igsh=MjJ2ZGcycDZ6MzJ5

This struck me as a pointedly de-regulation and pro-business centered analysis of the Bolivian economy… basically saying the economic activity of foreign companies exploiting the nation’s resources was critical to the solvency of the state.

I’m just wanting a sober and fact based assessment of this claim, and if there are other points of view about the development of the current crisis in Bolivia. Would it have been possible to manage the nationalization in a way that didn’t stymie the economic development? Was Bolivia’s only option to allow foreign companies to mine its petroleum resources?

Went out with one of the most physically beautiful women I’ve ever been in the same room as last night, and it took about 5 minutes of chatting IRL to realize my role in the date was to pay for her drinks and nothing else.

When I first sat down I asked her what are her passions and interests and she said “I just like to get wasted and do cocaine with my friends” and I needed zero further discussion to know this was going to be a disaster. She said she made her money “streaming herself doing nothing on TikTok” and after paying for the first round of drinks I suggested she could cover the next and with a pouty face she said “baby I’m Latina. We don’t do that”. I don’t think she asked me a single thing about myself for the next hour of discussion before I told her I was ready to go and cabbed it out of there.

Honestly, had I more self-assurance I would have just gotten up and left after the cocaine line.

What’s the fastest you’ve left a first date?

I’ve spent the past three years slow traveling Latin America and a couple weeks ago was offered a (mostly) remote engineering position. I’d typically rotate 1-2 months in California and then 1-2 months abroad. I have felt the most attracted so far to Mexico and Brazil, and I am fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese.

My goal isn’t to be continuously traveling but instead to make a home base in one of these places where I split my time with California. In the long term I’d ideally move out of the US entirely.

If you’ve done similar- what was it like changing from regularly traveling to developing a settled life in a new place? Any unexpected issues you had to watch out for? What helped you develop your social life etc?

I’ve spent the past three years slow traveling Latin America and a couple weeks ago was offered a (mostly) remote engineering position. I’d typically rotate 1-2 months in California and then 1-2 months abroad. I have felt the most attracted so far to Mexico and Brazil, and I am fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese.

My goal isn’t to be continuously traveling but instead to make a home base in one of these places where I split my time with California. In the long term I’d ideally move out of the US entirely.

If you’ve done similar- what was it like changing from regularly traveling to developing a settled life in a new place? Any unexpected issues you had to watch out for? What ways did you develop your social life etc?

I’m currently interviewing for a primarily remote job in California. There would be occasional times I’ll need to do site visits in California and Oregon, perhaps a day per month but not regularly.

I am a fluent Spanish speaker and have spent a lot of time in Mexico and I loved CDMX, Guadalajara, and Puerto Escondido. I’m considering trying to do a couple months in California then a couple months in CDMX rotating throughout the year so looking for any feedback from people who have done similar.

In particular I would like to know about the requirements of the DN visa in Mexico. Can I get a DN visa there and work part of my year in Mexico and part of my year in California?

(There is a separate moral side to this decision which I acknowledge and is not the purpose of this particular post, but moving forward I would also like to strategize a way to live this way while minimizing my negative impact on local people in Mexico.)

I speak C1 Spanish and B2 Brazilian Portuguese after three years traveling in Latin America and I don’t want to lose my fluency in those languages now that I am returning to the USA. What do you guys do to keep things fresh without being immersed?

I made many Spanish and Portuguese speaking friends that I stay in touch with although it’s mostly texting and occasional voice notes. I’ll try my best to listen to podcasts and watch movies in my two target languages- although I must admit while Spanish is effortless for me, Portuguese still feels like “work” and sometimes I just need some decompression time to listen to a podcast I don’t have trouble understanding.

My fluency in both languages is really far beyond apps like Pimsleur and Duolingo.

Thanks in advance for sharing your tips and experiences!