Que pasa

There's not a lot for me to report on the tango front. The week before last I tried a new milonga for me - the Tuesday afternoon El Arranque at Salón La Argentina. I got there shortly after it opened, at about 3:30pm and stayed for about 4 hours. There weren't many people there when I arrived but by 5pm there were about 100 people, with an excess of men. So rather more people than the Monday afternoon milonga at La Ideal. I was the only extranjero (foreigner) there and easily the youngest man in the room by at least 15 years. Some of the guys looked like they'd have difficulty walking without a zimmer frame, never mind dancing. A couple of the women were possibly in the same decade as me, the rest were at least a decade older. Despite those things, or maybe because of them, I danced all the tandas I wanted to.

The following night at Sueño Porteño I had something of an epiphany (in the feeling sense). It struck me that actually I don't need to tango every day. This came as quite a surprise and I haven't worked out all the ramifications yet. On the practical front it does mean I've only been out to dance 4 times since then including (another new one for me) the Nuevo Chiqué 1st anniversary milonga at Casa de Galicia. 3 of them were rather disappointing outings because my heart wasn't in it, but last night at los Consagrados was good as usual.

There's a photo from El Arranque and a few from Nuevo Chiqué in my Milongas set on Flickr.

I've had a few days out and about sightseeing. One was a wander around Plaza de Mayo and Puerto Madero. Plaza de Mayo houses many government buildings and the architecture is very grandiose and monumental. Puerto Madero is rather like London's Docklands - a rejuvenation of the docks area into a luxury flats and fine dining complex complete with a single pylon suspension/swing bridge, La Puente de la Mujer. According to the designer it represents a couple dancing tango but I can't really see it myself. Have a look at the photos in my Plaza de Mayo and Puerto Madero set and see if you can.

Another was a wander around Palermo and Recoleta, including the world famous Cementerio Recoleta. Having been before I didn't need to track down the tombs of the rich and famous in general, or Eva Peron in particular. But it was a good excuse to take a few photos.

The third was a visit to Palacio Barolo in Avenida de Mayo. When it was built it was the tallest building in Buenos Aires, at 100m, and the views across the city from the lighthouse at the top are quite impressive. At the time of writing this post, their website is broken but you can read a bit more about the building and it's history here and see some photos in my Palacio Barolo set at Flickr.

In a couple of weeks I will either have to go and sit in Migraciones all day and pay $300 (pesos not US dollars) to renew my visa, or take a boat trip across the Rio de la Plata to Uruguay. Spending the money on the boat trip sounds like the better option...

I'm making a bit of progress on the castellano front. Slow and not at all steady, but progress nonetheless.

Oh the anticipation

It's so close I can almost taste it. Sallycat's guidebook to dancing tango in Buenos Aires - Happy Tango - is on its way. You can't quite buy it yet, but you can pre-order at Amazon or register your interest here.

Getting a book published sounds like hard work. Writing the words is only the beginning. There have been a few challenges and setbacks between the final full stop and now. But maybe any delays were meant to be. Instead of arriving late in the 2009/2010 tourist season it's going to available before the start of the 2010/2011 tourist season. And it's going to be available before Mundial 2010, the tango festival and dance world cup in Buenos Aires in August 2010.

Congratulations, Sally, all the hard work, perseverance and determination is about to pay off :-)

When bloggers meet

I met up with a couple of fellow tango bloggers this week, Sally on Monday, and Bob on Tuesday.

The Monday afternoon milonga at La Ideal is usually a fairly quiet affair, with about 40-50 people and this week was no exception. I went mainly to meet up with Sally before she flew to England today for 3 months. We didn't get to dance this time or much time to chat so afterwards we went for a pizza. She introduced me to a pizza place on Av. Corrientes about a 15 minute walk from La Ideal. As we chatted on the way there I had ideas for a couple of new blog posts. I didn't make a note of the name of the place but the pizza was excellent and I'll go back for more some time. We talked about her plans for her trip back to England, how my adventure is progressing, some ideas for a few more touristy things for me to do, and tango of course.

A big part of her trip will be a promotional tour for her book “Happy Tango”, a guide to tango in Buenos Aires. If you're thinking of coming here to tango I can't recommend it highly enough. It should be available real soon now. She and her Argentine beau, Carlos, will be visiting lots of UK tango venues, classes and milongas. Leaders, if you get a chance to dance with Sally, don't try to impress her with your flashiest moves. Just dance your best, most connected dance possible and be rewarded with the gift. Followers, don't be shy to ask Carlos for a dance. It's not every day you get a chance to dance with a porteño so make the most of it.

On Tuesday afternoon I met Bob and his wife, Viv, in a bookshop/CD shop/café called Crack Up in Palermo Soho. I arrived a bit late because on the way there I found some street art/graffiti which caught my eye and was worth a photo or two. I thought mermaids were supposed to be pretty things. Not this one...

Timekeeping in social situations here is very lax and I think they forgave me. Bob and Viv have an apartment here and come as often as possible. It's funny, we were envious of each other's circumstances. I'd like to be able to come here more often, they'd like to be able to stay for longer when they come. Maybe when we all win the lottery or don't have to bother with that pesky work nonsense any more we'll be able to. We chatted for almost three hours about all things tango related and the time just flew by. Finally they had to leave to shop for a mirror for their apartment.

Afterwards I wandered around the cobbled streets of Palermo Soho in the late afternoon sunshine taking a few more photos. This afternoon I've messed about with selectively colouring a few of them, the results are in my Palermo Soho set on Flickr, along with the ones that made me late for our meeting.

Tango this week has been a bit disappointing, at least on the quantity front. El Beso on Tuesday was a waste of time and money. There were less than 40 people, an excess of leaders and not much dancing for me. I met another Brit there, David from Norwich, who is here for a couple of weeks. He's not been impressed with the quality or quantity of dances he's been getting. This really isn't a good time of year to come for a short stay, especially for leaders. I suggested he try Sueño Porteño on Wednesday night.

Happily for both of us Sueño Porteño was nearly full, although like everywhere else I've been recently with an excess of leaders. The locals were friendly as always and we both danced a reasonable number of tandas. Last night I went back to El Beso which was about three quarters full and again with an excess of leaders. It was another 3 tanda experience for me, partly due to a duff seat (my own fault, I should have arrived earlier) and the mostly porteña followers not wanting to take a chance on a gringo. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. David was there too and had a similar experience. I think for now I can scrub El Beso off the list of places to go any night except Sunday. We left about 11:30pm to try our luck elsewhere. It was a toss up between Salón Canning and Niño Bien. I've had mixed experiences at both on a Thursday night. David was disappointed at Niño Bien last week so we went to Canning. It was the quietest I've seen it, less than 40 people and some of them obviously just there to watch. It was nice to have so much more space to dance in than usual, but a shame there were so few followers available to utilise it.

Tonight I will try somewhere new for me, La Nacional.

How was your tango this week, and did you meet anyone interesting?

Random observations

Apparently I may be a soulless techie barbarian, at least in some respects. No one actually said as much but reading between the lines that was the gist. Never mind, here are a few random observations related to Argentina and Buenos Aires.

Inflation is something that the Argentinians are very familiar with. In 2009 Argentina had the third highest rate of inflation in the world. In 2010 it may overtake Congo and Venezuela and reach the top of the league table. I've noticed it myself in taxi fares, the cost of mints and breath fresheners and McNuggets. 8 weeks ago a McNuggets (go large) meal cost $24 (pesos, not US dollars). Now it costs $26. That's an 8.5% increase in 2 months. Some economic experts predict the annual rate could reach 40% in 2010. If McNuggets keep going up at the rate I've seen they'll cost me about $30 by the time I'm due to come home at the end of September.

The state of the pavements here in Buenos Aires is shocking. There are 2 problems: dog poo and “potholes”. It's obvious where the dog poo comes from and the porteños do nothing to clear up after their dogs. Utility companies (or whoever) dig holes in the pavements (sidewalks for the American readers) but seem to never make good the holes. They fill them in with dirt but forget to put back the tiles or slabs or whatever was there before they started. While walking around you need to keep at least one eye on the ground at all times to avoid stepping in something squishy and stinky, or breaking your ankle on the broken surface. There are a few photos of the pavements near my apartment over at Flickr. They were taken on Av. Santa Fe and Av. Scalabrini Ortiz and are typical of the pavements I've seen all over the city. I know, you'd have to be really bored to look at them, but you could check out the less boring pictures at the same time.

Argentina, or at least Buenos Aires, must be a good place to be a dentist. Porteños in particular, possibly Argentinians in general, collectively have a very sweet tooth. There are panaderias (bakeries) all over the city selling all manner of delicious, sweet, teeth rotting, calorie laden facturas (pastries). Virtually all the breakfast cereals are sugar coated crap of some form. The porteños love their dulce de leche (think caramel but made with milk and sugar), they put it on and/or in just about everything, including facturas. One tried to tell me it was healthy because it's made with milk. And a whole lot of sugar! I'm sure by the time they've spent hours cooking it, virtually all the milk has evaporated and what's left is basically caramelised sugar. So I imagine the dentists here do very well. Even without all the cosmetic work they do. The facturas are delicious though! Here are some I ate yesterday.

OK, 3 things there not helping the soulless techie barbarian image – a discussion of inflation, admitting to eating an occasional McDonalds meal (less than one a week, honest!) and photos of potholes in the pavements.

A good week

On Monday I proclaimed I was on a roll. Things were going well and could only keep getting better. I walked up Av. Scalabrini Ortiz on Monday night to Salón Canning feeling cocky and pretty damn pleased with myself.

Expecting that it might be busy because of the bicentenary holiday weekend I had telephoned and made a reservation. When I arrived the host gave me a front row seat, although it was in a corner so not as good as it could have been. By about 00:30 the place was full, the first time I've seen it that busy since I arrived in April. There were lots of porteños and long term visitors in, very few obvious tourists. For the first 2 hours or so I had a really good time, my cabeceos were accepted and I danced reasonably well. The floor was never less than very crowded. There was the obligatory demonstration dance followed by the singing of the national anthem.

And then it was like someone had dropped Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility over me. After a couple of hours with no dancing I gave up and left.

I didn't go out to dance on Tuesday, Thursday or Friday nights. On Wednesday I went to El Beso. It was a very quiet night, only about 50 people with a slight excess of leaders. It wasn't a good night for me. I danced one tanda and then most of the rest of the night became an exercise in frustration. I danced just 3 tandas in total.

My private lesson on Thursday with Maya went well. Lots more milonga and a little bit of tango.

On Saturday night I went to Los Consagrados again. I arrived just after 7pm and was given a second row seat half way down the leaders side of the floor. The guy in front of me left before 8pm so I effectively had a front row seat for most of the night. In contrast to Wednesday night I danced almost every tanda. In the 4 hours from 7pm until 11pm I think I sat out about 3 tandas, in each case through choice. I even danced a reasonable milonga tanda which included my favourite "la milonga que faltaba". A certain person will be delighted!

In other news, I had a little sight-seeing outing on Wednesday to Calle Lanin. In the Barracas barrio of Buenos Aires, Calle Lanin is a short street where the house fronts have been decorated with tile mosaics. They're quite colourful but not really in the same league as Caminito in Boca. Or maybe they're just in a different league. There are some pictures in my sightseeing and Calle Lanin sets at Flickr.

Most remarkable of all this week, I actually made a little bit of an effort on the castellano front. It's somewhat overdue since I'm nearly 2 months in and only have 4 months left here, but better late than never.

So overall, a good week. 

It's a bank holiday weekend in the UK and the start of half-term. True to form the weather there wasn't brilliant today. The forecasters predict better for Sunday and Monday, so for my friends back in the UK I hope they're right.

On a roll

I had a really good weekend of dancing; Saturday night at Los Consagrados, and Sunday at Sueño Portenõ and El Beso.

The bicentennial celebrations have been playing havoc with the traffic in downtown Buenos Aires. The bus ride to Los Consagrados took about twice as long as usual so I arrived later than normal. The hostess was about to park me in a corner seat at the far end of the dance floor. It wouldn't have been a good place to sit. Fortunately Ruben saw us on the way past and invited me to join him. It's always a pleasure to sit at Ruben y Cherie's table - good company and good dancing. My castellano still hasn't advanced to the point that I can have a conversation with Ruben, and Cherie was feeling a bit unwell and wasn't there on Saturday, but they always have guests at their table and this night was no exception. Those guests are usually extranjeros, often English speakers and always friendly.

My dancing got off to a bit of a slow start but picked up nicely. About an hour before the end, as the numbers started to thin out, I moved to a table with a free seat about half way along the pista for a better cabeceo position. I've seen the guy sat at the table several times and assumed he was a local. It turned out he's another Brit and has been living here for several years. He came for a holiday and "forgot" to go home.

The bus ride home was more twisty and turny than Blackadder's most devious twisty turny thing. Lots of roads were closed and I had the impression the driver was making it up as he went along. It took even longer than the journey to get there and would almost have been quicker to walk.

On Sunday I tried Sueño Porteño at Boedo Tango. I've only been there on a Wednesday before, when it is always very busy. I wasn't sure what the numbers would be like because of the bicentennial celebrations and because of the torrential rain that started at about 6pm. I don't know all the locations in the city where there are special celebration events so decided to use el Subte (subway) instead of los colectivos (buses), figuring the journey time would be unaffected by any road closures. When I arrived a bit before 7:30pm it was only about one quarter to one third full. My friend arrived a little while later and we actually got a front row table. I guess they reached about half capacity by the time we left at midnight. By then I'd danced lots, watched an enthusiastic amateur bicentennial celebration dance by some of the regulars and sampled the Boedo Tango pizza. There are a few photos from the evening in my  milongas set at Flickr (and also a couple from the chacarera tanda at los Consagrados on Saturday).

While waiting for the bus home I got an invite by text to El Beso. The night was still young, there was still 3 hours of dancing to be had at El Beso so I went. When I arrived it was standing room only. Standing at the bar gave me much better cabeceo options than I'd had from a seat on Thursday night and I danced lots.

My first dance was with a French girl, Octavia, who arrived just a couple of days ago and is here for 6 months. I commented recently on Mari's "Proper" tango shoes post that I don't care what shoes a follower is wearing so long as we have a good dance. We danced a good tanda and afterwards I noticed that she was wearing an eye-catching pair of silver and black 4" stilettos. No, I haven't a clue whether they were CIFs or Payless. I really, really don't care. The point is they caught my eye and I watched her dance part of the first tango of the next tanda. When I'm not dancing and not trying to cabeceo someone I spend a lot of time watching the dancers' feet. Dancers will know what I mean. She had the most beautiful feet I have ever seen. Ever. Period. Dancers will know what I mean.

Anyway I stayed until closing time and rode home on the number 12 colectivo, buzzing after 2 really good nights of dancing. It feels like I've turned a bit of a corner after being here nearly 7 weeks. It feels comfortable, the crisis of confidence I had a few weeks ago a distant memory. I'm ready to learn new stuff, to improve (and maybe it will rub off on my castellano efforts too). I'm on a roll.

Sightseeing

I had a touristy afternoon yesterday. It was overcast and a little hazy, so not the best day to be out taking photos but undeterred I went for a walk along Avenida de Mayo from the Subte linea A, estacion Peru, to Congreso Nacional and then along Callao to Subte linea D, estacion Callao.

The photos are at Flickr in the Sightseeing and monochrome sets.

I'm generally cooking for myself and eating in most nights. While in Salamanca last year I discovered I rather liked tortilla española. Last night for the first time (ever) I made it myself. My landlady, who is a bit precious about her kitchen was rather worried by the idea and assured me it wasn't easy. It was a bit time consuming but not difficult. There are loads of recipes on the web, I used the one here but halved the quantities to fit the frying pan I had available. A (much) larger frying pan would have been useful and would have cut the cooking time by 15 minutes - I had to cook the potatoes in 2 batches because they wouldn't all fit and cook in one go.

It was delicious. My landlady agreed.

Those who know me won't be surprised to hear that I had the same thing again tonight. I was going to add some mushrooms and ham to the mix but couldn't be bothered to go and buy them this afternoon. Next time... (which won't be tomorrow!)

As expected I did suffer a bit with DOMS on Sunday. My plan to go to the gym on Saturday was thwarted by it being the May Day holiday, and just about everywhere was closed. I went out for a walk instead which probably helped reduce the DOMS effect a bit. I was back in the gym yesterday morning and this afternoon. And the aches are all gone now.

There's still not much progress to report on my efforts to learn castellano. Mainly because I'm not making anywhere near enough effort. There is another reason which I might write a blog post about.

I've added a "subscribe by email" button over there on the right hand side of the screen for those who would like to receive an email notification whenever there are new posts here. Simply enter your email address, click subscribe and answer the anti-spam challenge in the pop up window. You'll get an email from Feedburner/me asking you to click on the embedded link to confirm your request. Click on the link or cut'n'paste it into the address bar of your browser and hit return. Honestly, it's easier to do than describe.

First night's dancing - done

I'd forgotten how intimidating the Buenos Aires milonga pisos (dancefloors) can be. But thanks to encouragement from some friendly tangueras I did dance a few tandas and a chacarera last night.

I arrived at Los Consagrados at about 6.30 after a short taxi ride. The taxi prices have gone up since I was last here. The meter started at $4.60 instead of $3.80. What I guestimated as a $12 peso ride actually came to few centavos over $14. The taxi driver didn't want a $100 note - they usually don't - but accepted a $10 and a $2 which were the only other notes I had. So that was me $2 up on the evening. Do that about another 100 times and I'll recoup my pickpocketed loss.

The floor wasn't too crowded when I arrived, but my friends weren't there yet. The hostess seated me at Ruben and Cherie's table as I asked. I had plenty of opportunities to cabeceo the ladies seated on the other side of the room. But I was content to watch those dancing and maybe pick a few out to cabeceo later. That might have just been an excuse to cover up feeling intimidated.

Ruben arrived some time later, without Cherie who had stayed home. Ruben speaks about as much English as I do Spanish so we managed "hello" and a couple of pleasantries and that was it. I started work on my Spanish today!

Some of Ruben and Cherie's students arrived, including Carol and Martin, Flo, and Cheryl. My friend and part inspiration for this crazy trip, Sally, also arrived. So I had some friendly faces to dance with but remained glued to my seat. I wasn't really enjoying the music - lots of valses, Biaggi and D'Arienzo type of stuff. I prefer the likes of Di Sarli but most of the milonga DJs don't. And the floor was more crowded and more intimidating. Carol was the first to persuade me out of my seat. We danced the last tango of a tanda and a litle while later I had part of a tanda with Sally.
After the lottery draw  (none of us at Ruben and Cherie's table won anything) came the chacarera. Sally had commented earlier in the evening that she liked the chacarera but rarely got asked to dance it. I like it too (it's an Argentinian folk dance which reminds me of a barn dance) although I'm not great on the steps. But that doesn't matter, it's just for fun. So we danced the chacarera and I think I only went wrong once. Later I danced a vals tanda with Cheryl and a Di Sarli tanda with Sally. The piso no longer seemed so intimidating and it was just the music keeping me in my seat. I'll have to work out where they play the music I prefer, or better still, adapt.

I'll be dancing outdoors in the bandstand at La Glorieta tonight. I hope it's not as windy as last time I was there. Knowing it might be I'll go prepared.

1 week in

That's an exaggeration, I've not been here a week yet. But I am one (work) week into my 6 month sabbatical. Here is Buenos Aires and I've come to dance and improve my tango and learn Spanish. I might do a few other things while I'm here but tango and Spanish are the only objectives right now.

This blog will start out as a diary. It will let anyone who cares or is remotely interested in what I'm doing know what I'm doing. And in 6 months, or 6 years, or even just a few days from now, remind me what I've been doing.

So here is the story so far...

Arrived in Buenos Aires on Tuesday morning. Less than 2 hours after landing at Ezezia International airport I was in my hotel on Avenida Cordoba in the microcentro district of Buenos Aires. My reservation here was for just 6 nights. In that time I intended to find somewhere to stay for the next 6 months.

After 3 days of scuttling around I have found a room in a flat on Av. Santa Fe, opposite Jardin Botanico. I hope it's going to be OK, but if not I can always find somewhere else. I looked at about a dozen places and it's amusing to compare the reality with the descriptions. In my book a "beautiful apartment" wouldn't have paint flaking off the walls, or electrical sockets hanging out the wall on the cable, or a white bath that was actually last white a decade or more ago. I could have looked at more places but really couldn't be bothered. It's surprising how much effort there is in arranging appointments to view places with people who don't share the same sense of urgency or purpose. Anyway it's sorted now and I'll move in on Monday morning.

The only glitch so far was being pickpocketed on Thursday afternoon. I'm almost certain it happened on the subway, on linea C between the 9 de Julio and Av. de Mayo stops. The carriage was jam packed full of people. Among those squeezing their way in at 9 de Julio were 2 local girls, probably in their mid-twenties (but I'm rubbish at estimating peoples' ages correctly). As the train lurched out of the station one of them fell against me. She wouldn't have fallen over, there was no room for that, but I caught her hand and she held on to mine until the next stop. Both girls got off at Av. de Mayo. About 2-3 hours later I found I had no wallet. Now I might have dropped it, or it might have been stolen somewhere else, but it was in a zipped pocket and I'm pretty sure the girl on the train pinched it. Next time I see someone falling over I'll leave them to it! I lost a tatty wallet, a debit card and a couple of hundred pesos cash, and (I thought) my UK SIM card. It turned out I didn't actually lose the SIM card but I didn't know that until after I'd spent an hour on the phone to O2 (thank goodness for Skype) trying to sort it out. I'm sure most pond life is more clued up than the "customer services" numpties I spoke to. At least stopping the debit card was a painless experience.I tried reporting the theft to Tourist Police. They said I'd have to report it to the subway police at Boedo station. Since I won't be making an insurance claim I think I'll pass on the aggravation of that one!

My reward for having sorted out some accommodation is to go and tango. I planned to go to La Ideal last night since it's only a 10 minute walk from my hotel, but after eating a ridiculously cheap pizza (pizza and soft drink for $17 (that's Argentinian pesos, not US dollars) - about 3 quid) I decided to leave it until tonight.

So I'm about to set off to Los Consagrados at Centro Region Leonesa. Hopefully I'll meet some friends from my previous visit to Buenos Aires, and dance some tandas and munch a few empanadas. It's an early milonga, finishing at 22:00 so I might go on somewhere else afterwards.