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Published: February 5th 2008
Buenos Aires Subway
The subways seem very old but they still work!Jan 31 - Spent the day getting oriented in Buenos Aires, one of the largest and most important cities in South America. About 1/3 of the country's 36 million people live in "gran Buenos Aires" that is the city and its surrounding area.
I went exploring with someone I met here named Lesley (from England). The nice thing about Maria Teresa's Tango House is that it's full of interesting people from all over the world, most of whom love to dance. Many languages are spoken, but we usually default to Spanish because it's the one language we all have in common.
Lesley and I decided to figure out the subway (El Subte), which began operation in 1913. It is still being expanded today as you can see on the official web page.
http://www.sbase.com.ar/inicio.asp
We caught the subway to go from the Balvanera neighborhood where we're staying to the center of the city.
We had a coffee at the famous, Café Tortoni on the Avenida de Mayo, a beautiful avenida that runs between La Plaza de Mayo and La Casa Rosada (where the president lives) and El Congreso (the congress). I'll write later about the Plaza
Buenos Aires Subway 2
Inside the subway with Lesley de Mayo when I have some pictures of it. For now, the Cafe Tortoni --
http://www.cafetortoni.com.ar/
The Cafe Tortoni is one of the oldest cafes in BA and it now houses many interesting artifacts from the history of tango. Tour groups almost always stop here -- so it's expensive and full of tourists, but interesting nonetheless. They have milongas and shows here as well as Jazz in the basement on the weekends.
We then went shopping in the Calle Florida, a pedestrian mall north of the Plaza de Mayo, where we found many bargains. I found some clothes for the hot weather - it’s in the 80s and pretty humid - but I’m told that it could be much worse. I realize that I need to change clothes several times a day because of the heat and humidity. There aren’t enough suitcases to bring all the clothes I need to stay here 3 months!
In the calle Florida, there were lots of outdoor musicians and dancing demonstrations - especially of folkloric dances.
In the evening, after our day of shopping, Lesley and I met Maria Teresa (la dueña de la casa), Lawrence and
Cafe Tortoni
The Cafe Tortoni is like a Tango museum. Mathilde (from Holland) at a local Spanish restaurant, El Otoxo (on Avenidea Belgrano).
It was a special night at the restaurant - in honor of a Celtic festival, they performed the ceremony of the Quemada, in which a mixture of liquor is made and set on fire, an incantation is chanted and then everyone drinks a shot of the potion.
There was lovely live music as well with tambourines and a bagpipe. The ceremonies and music come from an area of Spain called Galicia, (near the Basque country) with strong Celtic culture.
http://galicia.costasur.com/
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