Adios Argentina

We are home safe and sound. It kind of feels like the day after Christmas when you wake up to an empty tree. All the anticipation is over. We got on the plane about 9:00 yesterday evening and got into Dulles about 7:00 this morning. A very long flight.

We spent the morning of our last day packing. We went out to lunch and decided to go back for one more pair of shoes. They already have our measurements so we only had to pick out the type of leather and color. They will be ready on the 10th of July and will be shipped to us. We met a nice couple from Boston who were in Buenos Aires on a 3 week shoe shopping holiday. They gave me a lead on another cobbler who made custom shoes.

I'm really glad that I kept up this blog as a remembrance of our first trip to Argentina. It only covers a portion of the things we did. We kept so busy that there wasn't time to cover more than the highlights. We really enjoyed staying at Lina's Tango Guesthouse. Lina made us feel at home. We've already decided that we'll be going back. We are looking forward to staying with Lina again.

New Shoes

We picked up our tango shoes yesterday. Doris had 4 pair made and I only had 2 pair. We tried them on and they fit well and looked great. After getting our shoes we got some lunch and went back downtown on the subway. There were some sites where we wanted to get more pictures. We came back to the hotel to say goodbye to Magda. She went back to Montreal yesterday.

We took the subway downtown to go to a tango practica or practice session later in the afternoon. This was our first experience with the subway during rush hour. Lots and lots of people use the subway here and they sure can pack them into the car. The real bad part was that we never did find the right address for the practica. When we got back Lina told us of another restaurant to try. We went to the Cafe San Juan and had the best meal of our stay. They do cook some good steaks here.

Another Tango Show

We had another Tai Chi lesson yesterday followed by tour last Tango lesson with Pablo. We really got a lot out of our lessons with Pablo working on the milonga style of Argentine Tango.

In the afternoon, we took the subway up to the Plaza San Martin and took a stroll along the Calle de Florida. We are happy to report that capitalism is alive and well in Argentina. There are many high end stores and, of course, 3 or 4 McDonalds.

Later in the evening we enjoyed another Tango show. This was the El Querandi restaurant that featured a tango show that goes through the development of tango from its beginnings in the brothels of La Boca to its modern form.

City Tour

We took a tour of the city Monday. Our guide was Regula the wife of Pablo, our tango instructor. It was great to take a tour with someone who was very knowledgeable of prominent sites and their history.

We began the tour by taking a city bus to Plaza de Mayo. The plaza is the historic core of the city and is the political heart of Argentina. It is bordered by government and public buildings including the Casa Rosada, the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Cabildo, which was the original seat of the city government. The Plaza de Mayo serves as a forum for demonstrations and protests. We saw parts of a demonstration last Wednesday. We were eating lunch in a local restaurant and saw crowds of people waving Argentinian flags and banging on drums as they marched toward Plaza de Mayo.

Following the Plaza de Mayo we went by taxi to the Cementario de la Recoleta. This is a unique cemetery that is like a city with small ornate houses and very quiet neighbors. There are about 4,800 vaults including those of many prominent figures of Argentine history such as Evita Peron.

After wandering Recoleta, we took another taxi around an area of the city known as Palermo Chico. There are many large mansions here that date from the end of the 19th century. Several of these are now foreign embassies.

We continued in the taxi to the Retiro Train Station. This station was built by British engineers at the end of the 19th century. It is quite impressive and still servers as a major commuter terminal coming into the city center.

We then went to Puerto Medero which is being developed into a commercial center. This was the major port for Buenos Aires until it proved too small to handle the large modern container ships. It was abandoned for several decades and is now enjoying a revival with many shops, hotels and office buildings being built.

We ended our tour at the La Boca district. La Boca was the main point of entry for immigrants at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Since there are no stones native to Buenos Aires immigrant houses were generally built of corrugated metal. Some of the original houses remain. Part of La Boca, El Caminito, has been developed into a tourist center with brightly colored shops along a pedestrian walkway.

Go To Market

It was “go to market“ day yesterday. We went back to the San Telmo Market first. We thought we had covered it pretty well last weekend. But, we discovered that we had missed a lot of it. We´d seen the covered part which is open every day of the week. It is like a flea market complete with butcher shop and fruit stands. Last Sunday we had also gone to Plaza Dorrega and surrounding streets. There were a lot of handcrafted items and antiques.

Yesterday we found that the Plaza Dorrega is only one end of the market. There is a street called Defensa that borders Plaza Dorrega. We followed Defensa for block after block of handcrafted items, antiques and specialty stores.

Lina had told us of another street fair to go to in the Plaza Lisandro de la Torre. This one is across town in the Matederos district and took us 20 minutes by taxi to get there. This area seemed to be less frequented by tourists and catered more to the local population. There were a lot of handcrafted items related to the Pampas and gauchos. There was also live music with traditional dancing. We spent quite a while there watching the dancing and wandering the market.

Tigre Delta

About 20 miles northeast of Buenos Aires is the Tigre River Delta. The delta is formed by the confluence of 5 rivers, where they flow from the Pampas to the Rio de la Plata. This marshy complex is full of silt and hundreds of tiny islands and is continuing to grow down the Rio de la Plata toward Buenos Aires. The Tigre Delta began development into a resort area in the 1870`s when the railroads were built.

Lina has a small house on one of the islands. She took us on a day trip for a picnic there yesterday. We took Lina`s car and a taxi to where she hires a boat to take her out to the island. We had to take the second vehicle as we had Magda and two new guests that had arrived yesterday. The new guests are friends and one lives in Brooklyn and the other on the Big Island of Hawaii. We stopped along the way to pick up a picnic lunch; a roast chicken, salad, and papas fritas (french fries).

We got on the boat and motored out to the island where Lina has her house. Many of the islands we passed had houses on them. We unloaded the boat and set up a table and chairs in the front yard. There were a couple of dogs who live on the island who joined us for lunch. They were pretty well mannered but eager to see what we brought to eat. We had a relaxing picnic with nice conversation and good food.

On the way back to Buenos Aires we stopped at a Panaderia that sold wonderful baked goods and coffee. The coffee here is very good. They serve it strong and very hot. We usually order cafe con leche (coffee with milk). This is about half coffee and half milk and tones the coffee down to what we are more used to. We got back to the hotel late in the afternoon. We had a few hours to rest before we went out dancing.

Club de Tango

Doris had her first belly dance lesson yesterday. She got to do this one on her own. I have a bad back and the wrong gender to make some of those moves. Right after her lesson we had our third tango lesson with Pablo. We are not learning new steps from Pablo. He is working on basics and style with us.

In the afternoon we went with another guest to lunch. Magda is a student from Montreal taking a break before returning to work on her Masters in Anthropology. While we were eating lunch she mentioned that Lina had told her of a good place to buy tango music. Music is one of the things we wanted to get while we are here, so we asked if we could come along.

We weren't sure what to expect, but this was definitely not a Sam Goody. We took the subway to the downtown district. There were a lot of shops and many of them music related. We assumed that this shop would be a store front on the street.

Club de Tango is located in an office building on the 5th floor. We rang the bell on the office door and the lady that runs Club de Tango let us into a small office suite with 2 rooms. They must publish a periodic magazine as there were bundles of magazines stacked on shelves in the first room. There were also a display rack of tango records. These included 45's, LPs, and even Victrola records. Any other available space was covered with reproductions of tango sheet music covers.

We went through to the second room where the walls were covered with racks of CDs. I had no idea that there were so many artists playing tango. There were also books in a variety of languages about tango and DVDs of instruction and shows. We were fortunate that we were with Magda. She had been making a list of artists and songs that she heard on the radio that she liked. We followed her recommendations and purchased several CDs of tango music.

Subway Travel

We had a rainy day yesterday. Generally, the weather has been fair and cool in the 50´s and 60´s. The first day of winter is tomorrow. We thought it was a good day to try the subway. There is a station just 2 blocks from the hotel. We took the subway down to a shopping mall. The Abesto Mall would be very familiar to anyone who has been to Springfield or Tysons Corners Mall. This mall is in the same area of town where we went to the tango show on Saturday. In the area around the mall are many shops that cater to the tango trade. Doris even got another pair of tango shoes.

The subway has 7 different lines, color coded like the Metro in DC. They radiate out from the government center. Tickets are purchased from a person not a machine as in DC. This is a definite improvement from the fare card machines we are subjected to. One other difference is that here you pay to get on the subway. On the Metro you pay to get off. The fare for both of us was under $3 pesos or under $1 US. We got a farecard that is fed into the turnstile like on the Metro. The car we were on looked more worn that the DC Metro. Lina told us that parts of the subway here date back from the early 1900´s. Some of those cars are still in use. We rode in one of those cars. It looked odd to have wooden paneling in a subway car. It´s like going back in time.

The cars were crowded, even midday on a Thursday. With the narrow one way streets and busy traffic in Buenos Aires, I can see that taking the subway is probably the best way to get around.

International Finance

We had our second tango lesson with Pablo yesterday. We went out to lunch and back to the bank again later. Going to the bank didn´t take as long this time. We practiced our dancing later and went to a milonga in the evening. Lina invited her guests to have dinner with family and friends after the milonga. We had an excellent meal, a lot of great wine and an evening of interesting conversation.

We´ve learned a little bit about international finance on this trip. Before leaving we made sure we knew the PIN for our credit card. It´s also a good idea to check what extra charges the credit card company will impose for the exchange rate and what network they are on. We also notified the credit card company that we would be traveling. It wouldn´t be nice to have a card turned off this far from home.

We bought a little amount of pesos before we left for Argentina. We wanted enough for the taxi from the airport and anything that might come up before we could get to a bank. We were glad that we didn´t get a lot because the exchange rate is more favorable here. Credit cards are commonly used but it is good to have some cash.

So, we had some dollars that we wanted to exchange for Argentine pesos. Monday was a national holiday here so we had to wait until Tuesday for the bank to open. We don´t have a car here so we are getting around by shoe leather. The first bank we went to didn´t exchange money. They sent us down the street to another bank. At this bank there were several lines. We couldn´t tell which one we needed to be in. I stood in line and Doris went to see if it was the correct line. It wasn´t. We moved to the right line and when our turn came around we talked to a nice young lady who didn´t speak English. Since our Spanish is very poor, this presented a little challenge. We found out that we needed our passports to exchange money. We had photocopies of our passports, but that wouldn´t do. We walked back to the hotel to collect our passports and returned to the bank. While I got back into line again Doris went to try the ATM. The first credit card she tried didn´t have any indication which network to use. There were several options. Some obviously wouldn´t work for us like one named Uruguay. The first network she chose didn´t work. The instructions were in Spanish and seemed to lead her around in a circle that either came back to the start or spit her card back out at her with no money. She pulled out her backup credit card. It did say which network to use, so that one worked.

While Doris was going through this, I got through the line to speak to the nice young lady again. She entered some information from my passport into her computer and sent me to an even longer line. Doris soon joined me after winning at least a partial victory in her skirmish with the ATM. We finally got through the line, got our pesos, and were able to go get some lunch. Things would go so much easier if we could remember some of the Conversational Spanish class that we took.

Buying Tango Shoes

Yesterday was a busy day. We had a Tai Chi lesson in the morning. Then we had to go to the bank to exchange some dollars for pesos. This took a lot longer than we expected. After a late lunch, we went shopping for shoes. In the evening we had a light dinner and went with Lina and Wendy from South Africa, to a club called Jazz&Pop. Lina�s boyfriend was playing Argentine folk music that night. We went with Lina, Raul, and Wendy for drinks afterward.

We figured that the perfect souvenir from our trip would be to get some tango shoes from Buenos Aires. Lina sent us to a place where the shoes are custom made. We have very little Spanish. The salesgirl had very little English. There was a wide selection of options for the design of the shoes. It will be interesting to see what our shoes actually look like when they are ready.

We went into the store. It was a small shop with a small display of some shoes and a selection of ready made shoes. There was also a desk for the salesgirl and a bench for the clientele. First we were shown a book with photographs of various styles of shoes. We discussed at length different kinds of heels for ladies shoes. Our discussions involved much pointing at samples and hoping.

I picked out 2 shoe styles. Then I had to choose the color and type of leather for the uppers that I wanted. There were too many choices but I finally narrowed it down. Then I had to let the salesgirl know what I had decided. This involved more pointing and hoping. Then I had 3 choices for the heel that I liked. Finally, I had 2 choices for the sole leather. The soles here are different from the suede that we find on ballroom dance shoes. One was a dark almost suede. A little thicker but with some texture. The other was light in color and harder. We think that this sole will be good for the milonga on Freedom Plaza in DC. Now that these decisions were made, the salesgirl measured my feet. She traced the outline of both feet on a piece of paper. Then she measured my foot 4 different ways with a tape. Finally, she recorded all of our choices on the tracings.

While I was doing this, Doris almost had enough time to come to her decisions. She ordered 3 pair of shoes. She then went through the same steps for her shoes. Our shoes will be ready for pickup on the 25th. Just in time for us to pack up when we leave the next day.

One of my pair is a smooth salmon with black patent leather. The other is a gray almost suede with black patent leather. One has a high tango heel. The other is a little lower. Doris� shoes include one pink pattern and solid fuchia. The next pair is silver with black patent leather. The 3rd pair has a red pattern with gold accents. Her heels are about 2 1/2 inches high.

Milongas

Sunday evening we went with Lina and Wendy from South Africa to a milonga. We had a little problem getting a taxi. The driver of the one we eventually got said that everyone was watching the futbol game. Seems like DC isn´t the only place where sporting events can screw up traffic.

The milonga was in a building with a restaurant on the ground floor and the milonga on the second floor. The ceilings were so tall that each floor looked to be 2 stories tall. It was a grand building with marble stairs and columns. The wooden features were dark and richly carved. It had a faded opulance to it. There was even a lift like you see in old movies. Like a metal cage in the corner. The lift was roped off. This was probably a good thing; it looked scary.

There were tables set around the dance floor. Normally, the ladies sit on one side and the gentlemen on the opposite. The gentleman will ask the lady to dance by making eye contact (milonga eyes). If the lady declines she simply looks the other way.

Milongas are danced in sets with 3 different types of dances; tango, milongas and vals. There will generally be 3 tangos, a break when a completely different type of music is played like a hustle. Then 3 milongas are played. Then a break. Finally, a set of vals are played. Then it starts all over again.

A couple will dance all 3 dances in a set. If they stop in the middle of a set, something untoward has happened.

We danced a couple of sets together. When we finished our last dance, a cheer went up. For a split second I thought it was an indication of our dancing ability. However, it turned out that Argentina had made the winning goal against Columbia.

Lina´s Tango Guesthouse

The guesthouse where we are staying is rather small. There are 7 rooms with all but 2 having a private bath. The outside facade is from the 60´s and there is no indication from the street of what the building contains. It is on a cobblestone street on a block of 2 or 3 story rowhouses. The front door opens to an entryway with a staircase going up and a passage to the central courtyard. The courtyard is open to the sky. Lina has been cultivating a variety of plants around the edge and on the upstairs balconies to give the courtyard a more natural setting. There is a barbeque/fireplace in one corner and a wooden table with chairs for sitting and visiting. There is also plenty of space for tango. Lina lives upstairs and likes to take her guests to various milongas in the area. It is hard to imagine a larger hotel giving such personalized service.

Our room faces the courtyard on the ground floor. There are green painted shutters over the french doors to add more privacy and limit the light for those of us sleeping late. The room is about 14´ by 14´ with 12´ ceilings. There is a queen size bed with 2 nightstands and a desk with chair along with 2 cupboards to hang clothes. The cupboard has an extra shelf for tango shoes. The bath isn´t huge but has all the applicances you might need. The whole effect is neat and cozy.

Introduction to Carlos Gardel

Even though we were pretty tired from all the travel, I think we did well in diving into the culture of Buenos Aires yesterday. In the afternoon, we walked down the block to La Rosalida for a late lunch. The waitress was very nice and patient with our Spanish which ranges from very poor to non-existant. The food and wine were excellent.

Last night we went to a tango show, the ¨Esquina Carlos Gardel¨. The theater where the show takes place is about 20 minutes by taxi. So we had our first experience traveling by taxi in Buenos Aires. It went very well. I had a brochure with the address of the tango show and a card with the address of the guest house. So we didn´t have to rely on our Spanish speaking abilities. The tango show included dinner which we enjoyed very much. The dancers and orchestra put on quite a show. We sat next to a couple from Australia and 2 sisters. One of the sisters was from Connecticut and the other sister lives on a coffee plantation in Panama.

We are staying at Lina´s Tango Guesthouse. This guesthouse is in the San Telmo district. This is one of the city´s oldest neighborhoods, once the home of the very wealthy until the 1877 outbreak of yellow fever. We spent some time with Lina this morning. We talked a lot about tango. Lina describes herself as a ¨tango addict¨ which we understand very well. Lina said that she had guests staying here that are from Australia and South Africa. It really shows that the popularity of tango spans the globe. She helped us come up with an agenda for the next couple of days. Today we are going to an antiques market at the Plaza Dorrego. We will meet later with Lina and she is taking us to one of her favorite milongas. Monday we will have a tango lesson in the afternoon and go to another milonga in the evening. On Tuesday we are going to see about having some tango dance shoes made.

Finally Made It

We made sure to get to the airport really early this time. We left home right after lunch and arrived at Dulles around one o´clock.

 

Checking in was easier as our bags were already at the airport. The TSA lines were longer, but they had more gates open, so it was actually quicker. If we could have gotten through the process as efficiently the day before, we would have made the flight.

 

We got to the gate and hung out all afternoon. We had a nice dinner and hung out some more. The flight was scheduled to board at 9:00 PM and leave at 9:45. At 8:50 the gate agent announced that there was a mechanical problem with the plane and the flight would be delayed. We were finally able to board a few minutes after midnight.

 

On the bright side, at least we were not getting on the plane on Friday the 13th.

 

It was a long day and a long flight (10 and half hours). We are finally in Buenos Aires and are going to our first tango show this evening.

Off To a Flying Start - Not

You know how the airlines and TSA tell you to get to the airport 2 hours early? 

Don't you believe it! Our flight for Buenos Aires left at 9:45 last night without us on it.

I took Wednesday and Thursday off from work to make sure that we had plenty of time to get everything done before our trip. We left for Dulles on Thursday right after dinner at 6:30 and got there an hour later. Traffic was good and we thought we had it made.

First, we waited in the International Departures Check-in line. There was a couple with several suitcases at the desk when we got in the line. They were opening all their bags and re-packing everything in front of the desk while the line kept getting longer and longer. I guess they were trying to evenly distribute the weight to avoid baggage fees.

Once we got our bags checked we hurried over to the TSA line. This is where a person can really demonstrate that patience is a virtue.  It didn’t look like a very long line.  I’ve seen the line longer when  trying to catch a flight out of Dulles on a Monday morning.  Just as we got into the line, TSA starting closing gates. Soon, we could only see 4 gates open and the line kept getting longer and longer. We finally got through the first line to get our boarding pass checked then moved over to the next line to strip down for the metal detector. We finally got through TSA with only 10 minutes to spare.

We rushed to the shuttle to go to the 'C' concourse. We actually got on a shuttle that was just leaving. We got to the concourse and sprinted for the gate. Of course, it couldn't be a gate close to the shuttle stop. We had to go to the end of the concourse. We got to the gate right after they closed up and they have some silly rule about not opening back up again. The gate agent said that they had been paging us and reminded us that we should arrive at the airport 2 hours early.  

So, we strolled over to get into another line at Customer Service. We weren't the only people to miss a flight last night. The nice lady there booked us on the same flight that leaves today at 9:45 PM. So, instead of arriving 2 hours early like we did last night, today we're going to leave right after lunch and eat dinner on the concourse.

Here We Go

Dancing has been light this past week. Friday we went to the local Dinner Theater to see "Showboat". Saturday we went to a picnic at a friend's house. Everyone there were dancers that we regularly see at different dance venues. This time was unusual because we weren't dancing. It seemed a little strange to see this particular group of people sitting still for an extended period.

Sunday, we went to the 2nd Sunday Dance at the local Recreation Center. The crowd was a little light; probably because of the hot weather. That just gave us more room to dance. Jody had called ahead to have the Rec Center turn the AC on early so it was nice and cool for the dance.

We actually made it to the Officer's Club on Ft Belvior last night. We missed two weeks ago because of sickness. Last week, the weather wasn't cooperating. We went but the storms last Wednesday had knocked out the power so everything was closed.

We've also been busy getting ready for our trip. More to come on that. I'm not taking a computer. Hopefully, I'll be able to find an Internet Cafe so I can keep RhumbaDervish up to date.