Last Days of Buenos Aires
December 1st, 2006
We headed down to the micro centre on Thursday after breakfast and walked down Florida which is a big shopping area. We walked around for a couple hours. Marilee bought a pair of boots, which were hard to find due to the fact that it was late Spring there. I picked up a couple of DVDs in Spanish for the class my mom is teaching, and a really cool print of Spinetta, an Argentinian musician, from an artist that felt very passionately about him. We then headed back to the casseron for our private lessons.
That night we headed to a Basque restaurant, Laurak Bat for Thanksgiving dinner. Apparently it was close to not a very good neighborhood, at least for a couple of Americans all dressed up, because that was the first night that we were warned about not walking around at night. When the taxi driver dropped us off, he pointed down the street and then to his watch shook his head and said “don’t walk”. We took that as a sign that it was too late to walk around. We had a great dinner and then headed out to my first milonga in Buenos Aires, Tango Soho. It is run by the teacher that we were taking classes from, so we knew some people there. It wasn’t too crowded. After watching for a little bit and having a drink we felt comfortable to dance. It was really fun.
The following day, Friday, we decided to head out to La Boca, one of the neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. It was mostly a tourist spot, but it was pretty nice. Picked up a couple of gifts there and a really nice painting from a sweet old man that was very excited to tell us about the different galleries in the states that his paintings are sold at
After that we headed back for our daily nap before heading out for the night. Our last dinner was at the place we called “The Garage” down the street from the caseron. We had a very nice dinner and then headed out to Salon Canning, a famous Friday night milonga.
It was a spectacle to behold. All the tables were reserved and we had to speak to the host in order to get a table. We were expecting to get a table in the back since we were nobodies, but we seated two tables from the dance floor. Where you sit at a milonga is very important. It sort of shows your status, and helps to get dances. In a milonga you don’t ask someone to dance by walking up to them and asking “do you want to dance?” There is a whole ritual involved. You scan the room for potential partners. When you find one you hope that they look in your direction so that you catch their eye. Once you catch their eye, you make a gesture towards the dance floor and wait for a response, which can be anything from a nod, a smile, or if you are unlucky a look away. Songs are played in groups called tandas. In between the tandas, a non-tango song is partially played to signify the end of the tanda. At this point the dance floor usually clears until the next tanda begins. Another interesting thing about tango is that you only say “thank you”, when you no longer want to dance with the current partner. You don’t say “thank you” if you want to continue dancing with them. In between songs you stand there and have a little conversation until after a few bars of the current song has played and then you start dancing again. It is very interesting to watch, especially how every stops dancing at the same exact moment when the song ends.
The place was very crowded and a little intimidating for us. So we just sat at our table, drank beer, watched people dance, and talked to some of the people that we knew there. At around quarter to three teachers from DNI, a tango school, put on an amazing performance. After the show we caught a taxi with Annette, a fellow traveler from Germany, back the caseron
The next morning was a little sad. It was our last day in Buenos Aires. We got up at 8:30, the earliest that week. Showered, packed, checked out and then went down for breakfast. Our plane was not taking off until 8:40 that night. So we headed out to get Marilee some new tango shoes at Come Il Faut. Which was the best way to shop. If shopping was like that I would go shopping all the time. When you get there, you ring the door bell. Someone opens the little window in the door and decides if they want to let you in or not. Once inside you sit down on a very comfortable couch and they just bring out shoes for you to try on until you find something you like. It was kind of fun.
We then walked around for a little while, and then headed back to the caseron to hang out and wait for the taxi to show up to take us to the airport.
I’ll write another entry with some random details and observations of the trip. So check back soon.
