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Published: August 7th 2007
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Well, I am about to leave Argentina finally after nearly 4 months. Its been fantastic, I´ve seen so many things although I have just recently started feeling the need to get out of here!
From Brasil we caught a coach straight down to Buenos Aires, after such a great time on the beach it took me a few days to work out what the city was all about so we wandered around for a few cold days and tried to see a few sights like La Boca (famous for football and colourful houses) and San Telmo but were not really “feeling it”. Then we got talking to an American guy called Derek in our dorm room who was over 50 and litterally living there so he could dance tango. He was teaching English over the net to earn money and dancing the rest of the time. So he mentioned a good tango orchestra that was playing that night and gave us the address.
It was an absolutely amazing evening - the Orquesta Tipica Imerial was made up of 3 accordion players, three violinists, one double bass, a chelist, and a pianist, ocasionally the bar man would come up and sing in
his leather trousers.
We were so impressed that from then on Derek became our guru and what ever he said, we did. Thanks to him we got to see all kinds of stuff that the tourists never find, and we danced in the hostel till 5 am plus we got the lowdown on the history of tango which I´m going to bore you with so that I dont forget it.
Supposedly Tango started in Argentina with the Gauchos and developed as small simple steps for the men because they were wearing leather chaps and cowboy boots. The French then took it and mixed in a bit of the Waltz and made it more elegant. It had its golden era in the previous century but the comunists came along and supressed it along with all other merry-making, then the kids all started learning Rock and roll anyway. In the last few decades it has had a revival and the youngsters of Argentina went to their Grandparents and asked them to teach them tango. So in the milonga dance halls in Buenos Aires it is all old couples, or twenty somethings and tourists. The lost generation of 40-50 yr olds are all
just starting to have lessons now. Now the young things have mixed it up with all sorts of stuff like salsa and hip hop and call it nuevo-tango. Anyone heard of the Gotan Project yet? Well my Dad was onto it a few years back and I got a copy of his CD but have only just realised that it is neuvo-tango from Argentina, its all over the place here, and its great!
So I´ve been learning to dance Tango for the last 2 weeks, I went a bit crazy and took private lessons plus bought myself 2 pairs of dance shoes because they were very cheap compared to back home. I can use them for Salsa too but I think I might take a few more tango lessons when I get back, its quite cool but all a lot more serious than salsa.
Managed to fit in a few more sights of Buenos Aires too like Recoleta Cemetary - a city for rich dead people, the Evita museum and saw the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. For those of you not up on your Argentinia history - during the dictatorship lots of people “disappeared” and were never found,
so the mothers of the dissapeared used to meet every week in the square outside the Casa Rosada (like The White House but pink) to protest. Anyway finaly the perpertrators were bought to justice and the mother stoped meeting. However when the disappeared were pregnant mothers, they were kept in prison till giving birth and then executed. The babies were brought up in military families (ie with their mothers killers) and now the Grandmothers meet in the square to campaign for those children to be reunited with their true families. Phew, theres so much to do and learn in BsAs I can see why everyone loves it and it would be easy to stay for months.
However I am pretty much Argentina-ed out and need a change. So I decided off to Bolivia it is.
I promised myself an Executive cama bus ride before I left Argentina - I had heard the seats go completely flat and you get champagne - I wasnt disapointed!
So now I am now back in Salta again and was going to cross from here into Bolivia but found out that they have closed the border. The Bolivians seem to be having a bit of
a gripe (possibly with the Argentinians but I´m not sure) over gas prices or something and there have been lots of road blocks, added to this they have also had lots of rain and floods which is also causing transport problems. Anyway have got a bus on Sunday into Chile then hoping to be able to do a 4x4 trip across the desert and salt flats into Bolivia thereby sneeking in the back door as it were. Cunning.
I feel like I am ready for a few Bolivian hardships as it has all been plain sailing so far. Lets see if I feel the same way after a few weeks of -25 degrees at night and altitude sickness!!
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