What a wonderful world

Sometimes life has its perfect moments. This past weekend, visiting Ohio friends and I joined some friendly Canadians from the neighborhood for the Full Moon Jazz Festival at Telchac Puerto. This annual event, sponsored by Telchac Education, raises money for the school expenses of fifty students from that village, including college tuition for eleven young people majoring in fields ranging from tourism to dentistry. Even if the event itself were a dud, what a great cause.

But the event was definitely worth attending for its own sake. Several hundred people of a variety of ages, ethnicities, and nationalities gathered at an elegant condominium resort for excellent food, drink, listening, dancing, and socializing. Nearly five hours of live music included a young woman totally owning songs first made popular by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald when the current performer's grandmother (or possibly great-grandmother) was a girl, followed by a big band with a handsome thirtyish singer whose repertoire ranged from Queen to Frank Sinatra. The group's rendition of Van Morrison's classic "Moondance" (which has long had my vote for one of the sexiest songs of all time) found a seventyish man at the next table playing a mean air guitar while his female companion (looking good in a little black dress) scatted accompaniment to the main vocalist. Dozens of couples, groups, and singles enjoyed themselves on a dance floor set up over part of the venue's enormous pool. A no-longer-young couple jitterbugged with the energy of people fifty years their juniors, while the dancing of one young man in a shirt of almost blinding whiteness evoked memories of romantic old movies. Only one person fell into the pool and had to be hauled out by friends. 

Exploring the venue, I discovered stairs leading to a second-floor terrace behind the bar, where a few other people had gone to escape the (friendly and perfectly safe) crush of the main level where tables and folding chairs filled the garden and clustered around the complex's pools and pathways. The overhead setting gave a view of the stage and the dancers, with the Gulf of Mexico and the evening sky shimmering in their twilight blues and pinks. Lights placed in the palms were softly illuminating the scene, while the performers' light set bathed the dancers in changing hues and sent tiny beams of white light into the sky. When the singer began "What a Wonderful World," it was impossible to disagree. 

An oceanside setting. Musicians, singers, chefs, bartenders, and volunteers giving it their all. Couples with babies, baby boomer norteamericanos, well-to-do Meridanos, gorgeous young women and handsome young men of a variety of complexions, elegant abuelas and dapper gentlemen, everyone enjoying themselves under a just-past-full moon. 

Sometimes magic happens.