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Published: June 29th 2006
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We had a great view of The Cafe Tortoni stage from our table We were sad to be leaving Ushuaia but not sad to be heading to Buenos Aires. We had heard so many positive reports about the place. The bonus was that we had a bit of money left and were quite happy to live the high life a little.
We arrived in BA at around midday and heaed to our prefered hostel, unfortunately it was full so I sent Tas on the hunt. She came back with great news there was a room in a hostel just down the road and it was cheaper. Normally we would have walked but as we were laden with bags we decided to cab it, living the high life had started! We dropped our bags and headed off for some bate because we were starving. There are 3 veggie restaurants in BA but our bellies were leading our legs so we just nipped to the local cafe where we had pizza, beer and red wine. By the time we had eaten and relaxed it was time for bed, an early night as we had plans for the following day. On our way home we bought a four and a half litre bottle of red wine
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Presidential palace where Eva Peron sang 'Don't cry for me Argentina' which was delicious and even more so at the bargain price of £4.
We were up early, consumed breakfast and on our tour of the city by nine. The tour took in many beautiful buildings, a road with 16 lanes (the widest in the world) and many parks. The parks had special sections for dogs where lots of dog sitters chatted with their collegues and did their best to prevent the many dogs they were looking after from fighting or mounting each other. The city was quite beautiful and very European, proving its and indeed the countrys multicultural history.
We passed the Plaza De Mayo which is overlooked by the Casa Rosada, a big pink palace from where Eva Perone and Juan Peron addressed the crowds below. The square is also frequented by protestors and as we sat admiring the pink house a group of protestors passed by, their gripe was the governments lack of interest in the northern territories.
While me and Tas are both fanastic at air guitar and student style dancing we are not au fait with more classic styles of dance. BA is famed for its enthusiasm for Tango, there are show halls
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Dog park everywhere and they all offer lessons so me and Tas seized the opportunity.
We arrived at the cafe come dance studio where we had a quick red wine and met our teacher. We were expecting an Argentinian lady but instead we got a Swedish girl. She was very nice and very good but it did take the edge off a little bit. We started our lesson and it was going very well until just after the warm up, when we discovered that I Tango like John Wayne walks and Tas refuses to be led. We eventually made progress and by the end of the lesson while we could not claim to be experts we could claim to have a basic understanding of the dance. We proceeded to the bar to celebrate our success and drank copious amounts of red wine before heading home on the Subte (metro). Unfortunately we were too busy talking and missed our stop, by the time we realised it was too late to get a metro back so we had to walk home. As a consequence of this we had to visit more bars/cafes and drink more red wine at bars on route.
We
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Our teacher was better at Tango than she was at taking Photographs woke the next morning with the world's worst (or is it best?) hangovers. Tas's hangover being the winner and mine being the runner up. it was almost midday before we could move and even then we could bearly open our eyes without pain. I nipped out for food to cure our hangovers while Tas slept a bit more. It was about 5ish before we were in a position to leave the room, and even then it was only a small trip out for more provisions and fresh air. The night was a very quite one, watching Lost and Dr House.
The next day we felt much better which is just as well as the day was going to be a long one. The people of BA are very fashionable and very smart. We had booked tickets for a tango show for that evening and all we had to wear was travellers clothes that had been thoroughly tested over the previous 6 months. The morning was spent shopping. Tas got a very girly skirt and top and some amazing red and black Tango shoes, hand-made locally.
We had a quick kip in the afternoon then headed to a lush
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This is the man who had his flies down for a whole act veggie restaurant for dinner. In six months in South America it was the best food we had eaten, only the middle Eastern Restaurant in Salvador came close. We went from there to Cafe Tortoni where we had tickets for the show. Being British we were on time so the first ones there, our reward was front row seats - cool. The show started and it was a story of love and romance with lots of singing and dancing and a little audience participation. The words were over mine and Tas's head, we have learned lots of Spanish over the last 6 months but not enough to be able to keep up with an opera. We marvelled at the dancing, the Tango is a very dramatic dance and in our educated opinion the performers made it look much easier than it is. We also had a little chuckle at the lead man in the second Act when Tas noticed he had left his fly undone. We had a fantastic night all washed down with a little red wine. It was just as well our night was a good one as it was to be our last in South America.
Our
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Tasmin and her Tango shoes flight was not until 9pm which meant we still had the day in BA. Being in Argentina we were made very aware it was the opening day of the world cup, Maradona is a National hero here, he still appears on every Argentina top along with the number 10. It must be a terrible thing to be in the current national team as it seems no one will ever live up to his reputation. We packed in the morning then visited Eva Perone's grave. We have visited a few cemeteries as a part of our time here. Tas is not keen and neither would I be if it was not for the fact that graves here are not just a whole in the ground and a headstone. The rich people have family tombs, the more money they have the more extravagent the tombs are. The afternoon was spent in a restaurant watching the Germany v Costa Rica match - obviously everyone including us were routing for Costa Rica.
Before we knew it it was 7pm and time for the next step of our journey. The Journey Home.
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Z-C
non-member comment
slurp, slurp
Well, your travels around South American certainly have been well-lubricated! Red wine, beer, pisco, it's almost like reading a commentary by Keith Floyd (TV chef, remember him?) but without the cooking. Need a bigger close up of the fabulous tango shoes please. Oh, and do they make you tango better? p.s. trust my sister to notice that the bloke's flies were undone. ROFL!