Singing on the Santander

Late September is pretty quiet for tourism around Lake Atitlan. Then, sometime in October, it’s like a magic switch is flipped, and the restaurants and clubs get busy again. Today was the day the switch flipped.

Our restaurant gig was pretty sleepy the past couple weeks. Last week we only played one set per night because there weren’t enough customers–club owners can’t justify the cost, and it’s not much fun playing to an empty house anyway. We barely made enough in tips to buy a cup of coffee.

But tonight, with the streets and the restaurant full, I was reminded of why I do this. Tonight there was applause and diners singing along. Tonight people walking down the street stopped to listen.

At our break, a girl who looked to be about 8 years old came up and put a nice tip in our basket. She looked up at me and, in heavily accented English, said “You’re a really good singer.”

It’s nights like this that rekindle the joy of performing.

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