James Rodriguez and Dancing: World Cup Dispatches From Colombia

Medellín—James Rodriguez scored his fourth and fifth goals of the tournament, including a cracking volley that put the whole world on notice, leading the Colombian team past Uruguay, and to a place this country has never been in its history—the World Cup quarterfinals.

Embrace the endless beauty:

It's nearly impossible to fully understand the weight of this quarterfinal appearance, because it's nearly impossible to understand the complicated emotional history of Colombia and its soccer team. But experiencing the win here, an epicenter of much of that complicated past—and the city where the newly crowned King James began his professional career eight years ago with nearby Envigado FC—we at least got to feel a few of those emotions.

Underneath the giant screen in the crowded square, in a tiny bar with pictures of Simon Bolivar and Jesus and Andres Escobar and Marilyn Monroe on the walls, and literally everywhere on the streets, we soaked in a blanket of spray foam while new friends poured aguardiente—Colombia's signature licorice-flavored fire water—into our mouths in-between singing and dancing, because, well, there is always dancing.

In that moment, fully understanding the emotional experience of the past wasn't a prerequisite to recognizing the overwhelming sense of triumph in the streets of Colombia's second largest city.

Friday, Los Cafeteros will play Brazil in what may very well be the single best game of this entire tournament, but no matter what happens later this week, Saturday will always be history.

Joseph Swide and Kade Krichko are traveling throughout Colombia during the World Cup. You can follow their travels even closer on Twitter here and here.