Dave & Claire´s Travels: Anyone for Tango?

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 20-24 & 28 January 2008
.
Arriving in Buenos Aires (B.A.) on a Sunday morning we caught the underground to Tanguera Hostel in the San Telmo district and immediately went about exploring the various streets, plaza´s, and markets of our neighbourhood. The cobblestone streets were flanked by beautiful colonial mansions, fruit & antique shops. There were tourists everywhere and there was a real buzz about the place. Having walked the length and breath of San Telmo we returned to the central square where we bumped into Ben and Hanna, fellow traveller friends we had first met in Ecuador. That evening we all went for a steak dinner and enjoyed sharing our stories of life on the road. We probably dined a little earlier than most Porteños (locals), who favour a 12 midnight sitting!
.

.
Over the next few days we explored the city center and the better known suburbs (barrios) of Palermo (designer shops & tasty ethnic restaraunts), Recoleto (resting place of Evita), and of course La Boca. We also took several walks along the newly rejuvenated dockland area of Puerto Madero.

.

La Boca was hilarious with its brightly coloured buildings and over eager street vendors. The most common were the tango dancers who would encourage you to have your photo taken with them for a mere 2 peso´s (50 cent). There was one character who fancied himself as a Diego Maradona look-alike so, needless to say, he was charging to "have your photo taken with Diego". He got very rattled when people took his photo without permission. The place felt more like a Disney set than a working class suburb of BA.

And of course you can´t come to the Argentine Capital and not take in a tango show. We decided to go for the full package: tango lesson, followed by dinner, followed by the show. We were a little nervous about the tango lesson but it turned out to be great fun and gave us a greater appreciation of the show later in the evening, which, by the way was amazing. Tango is clearly a way of life over here. Even the receptionist at our hostel told us she goes dancing every night till 6am. With that level of commitment from the locals what hope do us blow-ins have, I ask you?

BA reminded us very much of New York City with elegant leafy parks, grand architecture, metro system, wide avenues, selection of eateries, professional dog walkers, kerb crawling taxi drivers, people stepping on top of you, pollution, designer shops & funky city suburbs. The good weather (30oC) meant it was really pleasant for us to stroll around in shorts & t-shirt dodging the multitude of dubious drips that fall from buildings above the footpath (probably water from air con units).

The popular breakfast here is cortado (espresso with a dash of milk) & medialunas (croissants). A bottle of good wine in a fine restaraunt costs 25 pesos (6 Euro) - bargain!
.
Tango Dancers wall plaque