On the 30th of April, we were invited to attend a birthday party for Vitillo Abalo at the Café de Los Angelitos, another of the historic confiterias in Buenos Aires. The cafe dates from 1890 and has been completely restored. It is located very close to the Casa de Maria Tango, on Rivadavia. http://www.cafedelosangelitos.com/ Vitillo Abalos is one of the surviving brothers of the Hermanos Abalos, a music group that was an important force in bringing Argentine Folkloric Music and Dancing to international attention during the 20th century. http://users.erols.com/abalos/ http://www.oni.escuelas.edu.ar/2002/santiago_del_estero/madre-de-ciudades/habalos.htm At the birthday party, there were live performances from many musicians [View Full Entry]

---

---

May 2-4, Claudia, Sebastian (from France), and I went to El Tigre for the weekend. We rented a different house, Melodi - the house in front of Filomena. It’s an older house than Filomena, but was quite nice. A neighbor, Sergio fixed us dinner Friday night. Saturday, I went rowing with my friend Inés, then we had a long lunch at El Hornero. We walked around the island and visited the local feria artesenal. We ordered a pizza from another neighbor for dinner. Sunday, we got up and went for a long walk, then had an asado with Inés and Julian. [View Full Entry]

---

---

On May 14, I visited the Botanical Gardens with Jayne, a new guest from England (although she currently lives in France). It was a lovely day, very warm - it feels like summer again. Afterwards we came back to the house and had a baby shower for Daniela, the secretary. Her baby is due in July. Baby showers are not an Argentine custom, so Nancy and I had to give instructions to the girls on how a shower should be done. We had cake, played games and of course, Daniela opened her gifts - all pink! Hopefully, the ultrasound was [View Full Entry]

---

---

I’m back in Buenos Aires after a great weekend in and around Tilcara, Jujuy Province in Northwestern Argentina. Besides being overwhelmed with city life, I was more than bogged down with schoolwork and ready to get out of the city for a bit. Having never lived in a big city, I experience new things every day, without exception. Unfortunately, I have not been able to write them all down and will forget some. Sometimes they make my happy and sometimes they make me frustrated, angry, and loco. However, they always increase my understanding for Argentine culture and lifestyle. The small [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived in Buenos Aires just after midnight and headed for a hostal in the San Telmo area, recommended to us by four South African lads we met in Ushuaia. What was ideal for them did not turn out to be ideal for us. We failed to pick up on some subtle clues as we checked in. The hostal was above a bar and all the residents were having a jamming session with bongo drums in the hostal courtyard at 1am in the morning, all a bit worse for wear. We hit the sack and I laid there until 5am chewing [View Full Entry]

---

---

On Sunday, April 27, I went a tour to San Telmo with Julieta, Liz, Bill, Sebastian, & Ravi. We rode the city bus although it’s almost close enough to walk from the Tango House. San Telmo is the oldest neighborhood in the city. It was abandoned by the rich residents in the mid 19th century due to an outbreak of Yellow Fever. Many of the old buildings are still standing and have never been rebuilt. In the last few years, it has been getting a face lift with lots of new shops and restaurants. There is a famous flea market [View Full Entry]

---

---

Thursday Evening there was a tango lesson at the hostel, which was fun, although i´m no good at it. Afterwards...at 1am, which is fairly early for Buenos Aires we went out to a milonga (tango house) that the teacher recommended. It wasn´t at all touristy, in fact there wasn´t even a sign letting you know it was there. The group of us mostly tried to fade into the background and just watch, because it was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone, and i think they must have thought we wandered in lost. We all had to say, ¨sorry i [View Full Entry]

---

---

We decided to stay in Buenos Aires for a while to try and improve our Spanish, which we were much in need off! So we booked ourselves into a Spanish school for a couple of weeks to give it a go... We also rented an apartment near to the school, which was great as we could really enjoy a bit of "normality" again which was a nice for a while. Sometimes it is just nice to stop in a place for a while rather than travelling around all the time, and Buenos Aires is definitely a great city to stop in! [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hallo allemaal! Ja er is eventjes een radiostilte geweest, maar ik leef nog hoor! Ik speel al een dag of tien met de gedachte dat ik maar weer eens iets op het internet moet plaatsen en tada! vandaag is die dag. Net als iedereen die een weblog schrijft heb ook ik de laatste weken natuurlijk weer de meest unieke dingen meegemaakt, de mooiste plaatsen op aarde gezien, de leukste mensen ontmoet, en blablabla. Vandaag is mijn een na laatste dagje Buenos Aires en dan vlieg ik naar het koude en barre zuiden om enkele wonderen van moeder de natuur te gaan [View Full Entry]

---

---

This morning i went for breakfast - cafe con leche y medialunas (otherwise known as a latte and croissants) at a cute little cafe, and then I wandered around San Telemo (the area i´m staying in) for a while. It´s a cute neiboorhood with lots of art and antique shops - and at least one internet cafe on every block (which is useful for updating this). I got some empanadas to go for lunch and ate them in this really big park. They were caprese empanadas - which is useless information to most people other than my mom who i´m sure [View Full Entry]

---

---