Feelings

Back in Melbourne.

I feel so homesick (for BsAs)
I feel heartbroken
the next couple of weeks will be hard.

Final Weekly Roundup

The last week was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions. It started to hit home as we went from milonga to milonga every time realizing that tonight was going to be the last time we went there. It really started on Wednesday at El Beso, then Thursday at Cochabamba, Friday at Gordo’s, Saturday at Cachirulo, Sunday El Beso and then later at Porteño y Bailarin where we said goodbye to our English friends D. and A., then Monday night at Mi Refugio. For me personally it hit me on Saturday when I started to feel a little sad about leaving the place I had called home for the past 11 months.

We did make an effort to cross some of the must-do touristy things off our list. On Monday 20th we went on a guided tour of the Congreso building where I managed to impress our guide with my knowledge of Argentinean politics. Then on Tuesday we decided to go to the Leather district (calle Murillo) to purchase leather coats (Argentina has great leather products, and much more affordable than Australia). I managed to find a really nice one, but Niki wasn’t quite as impressed, and eventually purchased a beautiful purple leather coat later in the week from a shop on Defensa. Later on Tuesday we also had our final class with Natacha Poberaj before she headed off to Russia to do some workshops.

Friday night, after a quick visit to Ideal to see our friends Cherie and Ruben perform a playful little milonga, we were invited to an asado with our porteño friend F. and met a whole heap of his friends, forcing us to speak Spanish the majority of the night. One of his more outlandish friends had the unusual habit of announcing his presence at the door with fireworks rather than the conventional way of knocking or ringing the doorbell.

On Saturday the landlady put on one of her famous multicultural brunches. It was a lovely brunch with scrambled eggs, media lunas, facturas, and lots of conversation in Spanish. We also got a chance to say goodbye to our friend G.

On Sunday we decided to have some friends around for our own brunch of French toast and Chocolate Mouse, and Champage. It was partly an excuse to use up the last of our maple syrup, partly an attempt to see certain of these people one last time before we left.

It was excessively indulgent, and Niki’s caramelized walnut and banana topping was an instant hit, and R.’s Chocolate Mouse was delicious. Later that night we went to our English friends farewell at Porteño y Bailarin.

Monday we started packing, although Niki did manage to squeeze in a last minute trip to Greta Flora to buy 2 more pairs of tango shoes. Monday night, after Mi Refugio, we had our official going away party at an alternative milonga, Otros Buenos Aires, at Independencia 572.

We had about 30 close friends turn up throughout the night. I managed to get one final dance with almost all the women that turned up.

Tuesday we continued our packing, although Niki did manage to get in a last minute trip to Flabella’s to buy a final pair of tango shoes. Then it was finally time for our last supper. Our friends E., R., A. and U. joined us for a meal at one of our favourite parrilla’s “Gran Parrilla Del Plata”. By the time the meal was almost over, and two bottles of wine had almost been polished off, we started to get a little emotional as we realised the end was nigh. I must confess, it was me who started it. As I leaned over to give my friend E. a hug, suddenly I burst into tears. Not to be out done, Niki quickly followed suit and hugged her friend A. and R. After the meal was over, the group of us walked slowly down to our house to collect our luggage, still brushing away tears and hugging our friends.

As the taxi driver loaded our luggage, we said our final goodbyes to our friends, and set off. As the silence descended in the cab our hearts started to rip apart. The tears flowed like a river as we held each other’s hands and asked ourselves “what the hell were we doing leaving Buenos Aires”? The majority of the 45 minute cab ride was spent crying, and it wasn’t until we were forced to get out of the cab and start to think about catching our flight that the tears subsided.

I think it is safe to say we made some very close friends in Buenos Aires, and they will be missed very dearly… until the next time we return, or until they come to visit us in Melbourne.

Our flight took off at around 2am, and 24 hours later (20 hour flight, then 1 hour to get through customs, and a 3 hour train ride) we finally made it to my parents place here in Newcastle.

Honoured at Cachirulo

For those of you who read our blog even semi-regularly, you would know that Cachirulo is our favourite milonga. We have been there every Saturday night that we have been in Buenos Aires for the past 6 months. Last night was our last night at Cachirulo, and as a special honour we had been asked to do a farewell dance. We chose a fast milonga (Campo Afuera – Biagi), and even though Niki got a little nervous and froze up at one point, generally we managed to do pretty well when all is said and done.

We nearly had a proof of Murphy’s Law on our hands when our camcorder hard drive finally filled up 30 seconds after this had been filmed.

weekly roundup 19-Apr-2009

It is finally sinking in that we don't have that much time left here, so the mad rush to get everything done has begun.

Working with Pedro is going well. I am learning a lot (including how to be patient with Argentine Old Men). The students that we have been working with over the past couple of weeks have been fantastic.

On Tuesday night I went to the opening night of Melina Brufman and Claudio Gonzalez's new show 'Episodios, cifrados en tango' with A. and R. They are marvelous dancers, taking the audinence on a journey through a range of emotions. The show is on till the end of May, so if you're in town, give it a try.

Scott and I went to see Sexteto Milonguero one last time - he had gone to Practica 8 with E. and A. on Tuesday night, whereas I went to Canning with A. on Thursday. They have definitely been our favourite live orchesta during our stay here. I will definitely miss the voice (and looks) of 'he who hath been hewn from stone'.

On Friday we had a going away party to go to - OUR going away party. One of many, actually, The writers group that Scott heads every Wednesday wanted to have a goodbye get-together for us. I already knew a few people, but it was great to meet some of the rest of the group - to put faces to the names - that Scott has been working with throughout the year.

This Saturday we finally made it to MALBA - the museum of Latinamerican art. Some great art and innteresting installations on display. Highly recommended. In the evening we went to Milonga de los Consagrados to catch up with Cherie and Ruben. We used to go to this milonga every Saturday before we switched to Cachirulo. I must admit, even though I love the homey feel, the friendliness, the venue, and it was great to catch up , I do enjoy the dancing better at Cachirulo.

On Suday Scott and I went on a mission. Armed with our video camera and copious 2 peso notes, we tried to film every single busker along the San Telmo Market - lots of fun. Another 'last' on Sunday, as we had our final Food Group get-together. No cooking this time - just lots of empanadas, delivered to our door, and lots of wine.

The weather here is starting to change, and so is the feel of the milongas. The proteños seem to let the slightest change in weather affect them. So with the first sign of a drop of rain, they stay huddled up at home. Milongas are more quiet this week.

It’s official, I hate Buenos Aires

I don’t really, in fact there are many things I love about Buenos Aires. This was an SMS I sent to Niki after I was scammed today. I guess I am just sick and tired of being (or attempted to be) scammed. I feel like a lot of vendors here treat tourists like a money-filled piñata - you hit it hard enough, and money just spills out. Niki and I have generally been very aware of the scams around, and have even written about some of the more prevalent ones, but I am sure that we have, in the year we’ve been here, unwittingly fallen victim to a few scams. So why did this one infuriate me so much.

Let me detail the scam. One of the very first things we did when we arrived here in Buenos Aires was to purchase local pre-paid SIM cards for our phones from a local provider Claro. We would highly recommend doing this to any one who is planning to stay in Buenos Aires for more than a few weeks. We have been buying recharge cards at local kioskos and Claro stores all over Buenos Aires without any problems. Over the past month and a half I have purchase 3 recharge cards from a certain little news stand on Corrientes, and until today, I haven’t had any problems, and the news stand owner had always seemed jovial and friendly. Today I needed some more credit, and I was nearby, so I went and purchased a $20 peso card from him. I looked at it briefly, and then stuck it in my back pocket thinking I’d find a cafe where I could sit down and enjoy a sandwich and a coffee, and then scratch the number off and enter it into my phone. Two blocks later, I pulled it out of my pocket and had a closer look. it was then I noticed there was a problem with the scratch section.

The section that says “RASPE AQUI” (scratch here), looked a little odd, and I could see that there was something beneath it, which looked like an already scratched out number. I could also see that someone had very carefully slit the packet open so as not to damage it, and so as to fool someone into thinking they want that all was OK. As soon as I noticed it I went back to the news stand and tried in my broken Spanish to tell him that I wasn’t happy with being sold a used card, but he didn’t want to have anything to do with me. He was no longer the jovial, friendly fellow I had been used to dealing with, in fact he was quite dismissive, even a little aggressive. My lack of Spanish (especially when angry) made it easy for him to ignore me.

Of course this just proved to me that he was behind the scam himself, and it was after that, I sent the SMS to Niki. On closer inspection of the card I noticed that all the important identification numbers, and the bar code had even been scratched out to a point where they were not recognisable, so the numbers can’t be traced by Claro back to the person who actually did use it to charge their mobile phone (probably the news stand attendant or someone in his family). By the way for anyone interested in avoiding this scammer, it is the news stand on the corner of Corriented and Maipu, on the even side of the road in front of the “Open 25 hours” kiosk at 712 Corrientes. Better still if any of our readership has a decent command of Spanish, please find some time to go up to my jovial, friendly news stand owner and tell him that he shouldn’t be selling used Claro re-charge cards.

Niki has been trying to placate me by saying that this is a “buyer beware” kind of culture and we just aren’t used to that, but I think “buyer beware” is just not strong enough, it is more “buyer be really really skeptical”, or better still, “buyer keep your money in your pocket”. I have been missing Melbourne quite a lot, and it just brings home to me some of the reasons I love living in Melbourne.

It appears as though this style of re-charging your mobile phone is on the way out anyway, (maybe because of such scams). The new way, which is available at most Open 25 Hours kioskos, is to recharge virtually. You tell them your phone number, they type it into a machine that prints out a receipt with all the transaction details, pay them the money, and a few minutes later you get an SMS telling you that the new credit has been added to your SIM card. This way seems more fool proof, the only thing is you have to make sure you communicate your number clearly.

Weekly Roundup 12-April-2009

The past week started off with us going to R.'s birthday party. It was a great environment, and it was interesting to see how many of the invitees where long term ex-pat tango tourists like ourselves, as well as a fair few amazing local dancers, and one of Niki's favourite tango DJs. The party started in traditional Argentine fashion with a parilla, and some Mendocino wines. Then we all went downstairs where the baldosa (tiled) hallway entrance doubled as a dance floor for an informal milonga.

We had been planning a trip to Iguazu falls with some friends for a few months, and despite one of the party pulling out at the last minute through fear of dengue fever and yellow fever, three of us set off on Tuesday evening. We thought we’d be really organised and turn up to the bus terminal a good 40 minutes before the bus left, but alas, the best laid plans of mice and travellers…. We caught the taxi from San Telmo with plenty of time to spare, and found to our shock that the traffic was jammed all the way from here to the bus terminal. it took us over 45 minutes to get to the bus terminal, a trip that never takes more than 15 minutes in normal conditions. We arrived just in time to see the bus we were supposed to be on pulling out of the bay. DOH!

One of the bus terminal officials recommended a remis (private taxi) driver who was there waiting. Turns out this is quite a common thing. A coach chaser. People who arrive a few minutes late to the terminal can pay an exaggerated price for the remis driver who has conveniently parked just outside the bus terminal, to quickly pack everyone into the remis and drive to the next bus terminal faster than the coach can. we already knew that there were no seats on any other coaches that night, and so we accepted this offer.

We managed to catch up to and overtake our designated coach with a combination of fast and creative driving, and arrived at the next terminal 10 minutes ahead of the coach and 180 pesos poorer. Niki thought it was a bit of a scam. I tried to placate her by explaining that it was in fact a legitimate, although niche service, and as such justified the inflated cost. We arrived safely in Iguazu 17 hours later.

That afternoon we checked in to our hostel, and booked some tours for the next day. With nothing much else to do we jumped on a bus and headed into the township mainly for purposes of being caffeinated as the hostel had run out of coffee. After we had adequately dealt with the caffeine withdrawal symptoms, we wandered around town and purchased supplies for the next day.

That night at the hostel, being on the border of Argentina and Brazil, they decided to have a Brazilian themed night (I wonder if there was a hostel on the Brazilian side having an Argentine themed night?). So we had some food and a Brazilian cocktail, followed by an display of Brazilian Samba from a guy and two scantily clad female dancers. I thought it was interesting that the female dancers were wearing peacock feathers in their hair. With peacocks it’s the males with the fancy attire, with us humans the women are the ones that are expected to display their bodies off. I think it says something very interesting about human sexuality.

The next day we went to the falls. We had booked in for the “Gran Aventura” which included a 4 wheel truck drive through the rain forest, followed by a cruise up the river towards the falls, and then finally a dunking in the spray from the falls.

After the boat ride we caught a ferry out to an island (Isla de San Martin) in the middle of the river, and had a swim and some lunch. We then explored the island which had fantastic views of much of the falls.

We then walked around some of the other parts of the falls getting up close and personal to the awsome power of the rushing water.

Later that night we returned for a Full Moon Tour of the most spectacular part of the falls, Garganta Del Diablo (The Devils Throat). Firstly however, we had a very nice, all you can eat meal at the restaurant located at the falls. We then made our way solely by the light of the full moon to the Garganta Del Diablo. The sight we saw defies words. Just watching the sheer volume of water continuously plunging over the 80 meter drop, makes everything in your life seem so small and insignificant. Our cameras unfortunately were not up to the task of capturing this sight; however, there was a very enterprising man stationed at the falls who had a camera set up using a combination of flash and slow exposure who, for a minimal fee, would take your photo next to the falls and then give you an SD card with said photos. The only thing I regret is that we didn't get to see Garganta Del Diablo by day for comparison purposes.

For a complete set of our Iguazu Falls photos, check out our Iguazu flickr feed.

We returned from Iguazu on Saturday. From the bus terminal we caught a taxi and asked to be taken to San Telmo. I noticed very soon after he left the terminal that he hadn’t switched on the meter, and when we questioned him, he just said don’t worry, 20 pesos. All three of us shouted “No, stop the taxi”. This is a typical scam, and we knew that the fare should only be around 12 pesos. he stopped let us out, and we grabbed the next taxi who happily turned his meter on, and sure enough when we got to San Telmo, the fare was 12 pesos.

Sunday Niki decided to go with two friends R. and A. to Chacarita cemetery where many of the famous tango musicians are burried. Musicians such as Carlos Garde, Osvaldo Pugliesel, Carlos Di’Sarli, Anibal Troilo, etc….

While I on the other hand went for a walk with a friend E. around Puerto Madero Nature Reserve.

Fortnightly roundup ending 5-Apr-2009

OK, Its my turn to be slack this time, so here's the fortnightly roundup:

Week ending 29th March 2009
I think we are starting to hold back as far as social dancing goes, sticking to a few favourite milongas on specific nights of the week. We did manage to fit in one more of Gustavo Naveira's classes. On Wednesday I even managed to fit in a kids party before heading out for a night of dancing:) I also tried a new class this week, getting myself to one of Oscar Montenegro and Mia Jensen's classes(more details in a future post).

On Friday I had a fun day out with B. And A, Shoe shopping , CD shopping, browsing, and in general, making our financial contribution to the local economy :) . B. treated A. And I to an exceptionally indulgent late afternoon champagne lunch in the garden setting of the Park Hyatt.

Later that night we went to Tina's farewell party.

Tina was given a farewell by Cachirulo (her favourite milonga), being asked to dance by the organisers, Hector an Norma- a show of appreciation - especially given the fact that she is a foreigner makes it double the honor.


That very night, Pedro came and sat next to me in the milonga and started chatting . He wanted to know if I wanted to work with him - essentially taking over from T. How exciting!
Scott left Cachirulo early, as he had agreed to take A. and C. to Sunderland, but I stayed on at Cachirulo for a bit longer before heading home - I was too tired and excited to make it a long light.

On Sunday we woke up ridiculously early (10 ) in order to meet up with an old friend from S. and his partner. S. has been living in the UK for the past 3 years now, but is originally from Melbourne. It was great catching up and sharing info re our experiences. In the afternoon, we caught up with A. D. T, R A for a late lunch, which ended with coffee and a couple of two litre tubs of ice cream at our place.

Well it wouldn't be a normal Sunday, unless we ate all the way till bed time, so, even though there was no 'pot luck dinner group' meeting, we managed to stay true to from, going out to dinner at El Establo :) , and then finishing off the nigt with a bit of tango at La Capilla.

Week ending 5th April 2009
On Monday I went to the studio where Pedro and Tina teach, to observe/help while they taught a class. I am looking forward to working with Pedro till the end of our stay here. It will add an extra level of fun, intensity and learning to my BsAs experience.

Well, with our trip nearing its end, we thought we'd better do some of the things on our 'will have plenty of time for this later' list. So on Tuesday, we, together with S and C, spent the day at an Estancia in the provincia. Lots of food and folk music - a fun thing to do if you want to get out of the Big Smoke. This took up most of the day. On our return I went straight to the studio again, observing and helping. What a great sense of 'passing on the baton' :) . It was good to see Tina one last time before she headed off to Seattle. We reckon we'll all meet up with Tina again, together with M. and his wife, in Italy, in a couple of years. Can hardly wait!

On Thursday we were treated to a sneak peek of Jan Rae's Art exhibition. Jan is and artist and tango dancer from Byron Bay, Australia, and some of her work is currently on exhibition at the Borges Centre in Galeria Pacifico.

On Friday we went over to J.'s place for drinks and nibblies, Followed by a late night visit to Esquina Homero Manzi for Transnochando, Where Roxana Fontan would be singing, with a special appearance by Alberto Podestá. We walked into the venue - a place that we had never been to before - only to be swarmed by people we know coning up to greet us (another one of those 'you know you've been tangoing in BsAs too long' moments).

The weekend ended with out typical Saturday night at Cachirulo, and another pot luck dinner on Sunday where we were treated to L.'s deadly Chocolate Mouse :).