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Published: March 1st 2017
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Tomorrow is the last day of the first cruise and the first day of our second cruise. However tonight we had a great time going to a Tango Dinner Theater, but we were so late getting back to the ship we did not try to provide an update at that time. A short summary is that we had a lot of fun – the longer version is below.
We had a light dinner of cheese & crackers with a couple of rolls and shrimp/cold cuts. The purpose of our 5:00 snack was because dinner was included in the excursion but we didn’t expect it to be until fairly late (at least by our standards). So after freshening up we went down to the Explorer’s Lounge to wait for our tour. We were the first of 5 buses of people going to the Tango Dinner Show. It was only a 15-minute drive for us from the ship and we were at a Theater called Tango Porteno. It was a beautiful old building built in the 1920’s in the art deco style.
We waited in the lobby for a
few minutes and then they took us up one floor to a dance studio. They asked for volunteers to have a Tango Lesson. We both declined but there were about a dozen uncoordinated people who were silly enough to try (lucky that some of them weren’t trying to chew gum too). Anyway, this went on about 30 minutes and the other 4 buses of people never came to the studio. Finally they said the theater was ready so we went down to our table. This was a very large theater with tables that accommodated 20 people sitting side-by-side perpendicular to the stage (so no one had their back to the stage). Soon after that the other buses arrived and they sat at similar tables. Our 150 people almost filled the lowest level (closest to the stage). Later on people from other groups arrived and started being seated in the 2
nd tier. While this was going on, they took our dinner order and brought us glasses of wine to drink.
The meal was a 3-course dinner. We both started with the empanada appetizer, which was delicious but would have made a full meal if
we were eating at home. As this was not around 8:30, and we knew what we had ordered for the other courses, neither of us could finish the appetizers. Next we had a very delicious Argentine strip steak (probably about 12 ounces) with potatoes and vegetables. Finally we had a decadently rich double-chocolate mousse pie for dessert. All the while we were given wine or water to drink. The dinner phase was finished around 10:00 (it takes a while to cook/server steaks for probably 300 people).
After the dinner more people arrived and sat in the 3
rd tier, just to watch the show. It began about 10:30 and lasted until about 11:45. Everything seemed to be running late according to our tour itinerary but we didn’t have any control of that. We later found out that the other 4 buses had been diverted to drive slowly around town to kill an hour before arriving (apparently the cruise line and the tango company had a mix-up in the start times). But being their first we had the best seats – we were in the dead center of the theater with Janet 2
nd from the
Bus Service
cruising the Tegre River stage and David beside her at 3
rd. It was a terrific place to see the show.
There was an 8-piece musical group raised above the stage providing live music for the dancing. There were also a couple of singers who would perform songs in Spanish between some of the dances – including “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”. But the obvious highlights of the show were the tango dancers. Sometime they performed just as a single pair on the whole stage and sometimes there were groups of dancers performing in a coordinated affair. One dance involved a lady and a chair while another involved her twirling overhead on a couple of fabric strips. It was a very impressive show and we were glad to have gone, even if it was late for us.
Our tickets had clearly said that we could not film or photograph the show using flash. They made some announcement in Spanish and David clearly heard them say the word “flash” so he did not take any that way. He was able to get a few using just the stage lights, but not too well and only when
they were generally holding still. Since there is a lot of spinning, kicking, and twirling, that limited the opportunities. But he will attach a few of them from the show.
Speaking of photos, we were not able to attach photos to Part-1 of the blog, so we will try to have a lot of pictures attached to this posting (look for extras below the text portion).
We got back on the bus and were returned pretty quickly to the port. Again we had to walk through the terminal and board another bus to take us to the ship. Since this was now around midnight, we were pretty tired. But there were no problems and we got back to the cabin. We found envelops with instructions for our Transit excursion and what to do with our belongings. So we just had to finish packing todays things in the suitcase and then get to bed for a short night’s sleep before Wednesday’s excursion. That wraps up Part-2 of Day-1 in Buenos Aires.
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