Last night's concert was magical.

We took a taxi to the church where it was held.  (John insisted since it's outside of central Antigua.)  It's an outdoor venue in front of the church with seating for about 1500.  We went to the front of the line and Ryan explained that I am a friend of Pedro's.  They couldn't help.  But then Tim & Gayle saw a guy with an All Access Pass, so we talked to him.  When Ryan gave the same explanation and showed him Pedro's business card, he said, 'You're the ones from the airplane', and went and got our tickets.  Ben, Tim, Gayle, Ryan and I all went.

This is Pedro in front of the church for the sound check in daylight.

This is Jose from earlier in the day, at a music shop.

There was a beer tent, so of course we got Gallo while we waited.  The warmup band started at about 9 and then the main event started at 10.

Although Nicho is famous in the Latin America world, I had not heard of him.  All 5 of us have become fans.  Nicho plays acoustic guitar, and sings in Spanish.  His songs might fall into what we'd consider easy listening, though some are more uptempo.  He is an amazing guitarist, and Jose is great on the drums.  This alone would have made it an awesome concert.

Nicho is a great entertainer, also.  At this point, I understand about 50% of the Spanish that I hear, so I didn't quite catch all of the jokes.   Nicho came out into the crowd and performed there as well.

But there was more.  Right after Nicho and Jose started performing, Pedro came and found us in the crowd. He sat down and talked to us for about 5 minutes about the concert.  Jose had to run to the back twice to have the sound guys make adjustments.  On his way back the second time, I stepped out into the aisle and got another hug.  Then, during the performance, Nicho said that he had a friend in the audience from Michigan. Her name is Tina, but she goes by Lola on Facebook.  (For those of you who know Lola, she does not have an FB page, but this is close enough.)

It's the most personal concert experience I've ever had, and it was an honor to be there as their guests.

And for Tim, a fabulous birthday celebration.

I'll add more photos later, but for now, here's one that Gayle has posted.