2188  Buenos Aires Mythology

Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 01:49:09 -0600
From: Michael Figart II <michaelfigart@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Buenos Aires Mythology

Hello to all,



I've just returned from a glorious sixteen day trip to beautiful Buenos
Aires, and would like to share some thoughts and observations. Hopefully
this posting will provide some useful information to any of you that
have not been there, but are thinking about taking the plunge, and
immersing yourself in the birthplace of Argentine Tango. My girlfriend
Sarah and I went there as part of a group trip put together by Robert
Hauk and Alejandro Tosi from Portland, and many thanks go out to them
for their hard work in orchestrating a wonderful experience. The package
was perfect; a few lessons, a few dinners, and milongas every night,
with optional activities such as trips to buy dance shoes, sight-seeing,
visits to restaurants, and afternoon milongas. The package was for ten
days at a super reasonable price, and Sarah and I stayed for another
five days on our own.



If you've been wanting to go to Buenos Aires, don't wait too long. The
prices there are incredibly low. Steak dinners for $2.00 (less drinks).
Custom-made dance shoes for $65.00. Accommodations for less than $20.00
a night. Entry to milongas is less than $2.00. The most expensive taxi
ride was less than $4.00. T-shirts are about $5.00, sometimes including
a shoe bag (Nino Bien). One of the most expensive items on the trip was
coffee (about $1.30 w/no refills), but the best coffee I've ever had!,
and water. Water is not served in restaurants unless you buy it in
bottles (con gas or sin gas), even though the tap water is perfectly
drinkable. Vegetarians can eat quite well (contrary to previous
reports). All of their canalone is without meat. Good vegetable ravioli.
Great salads. Just tell them what you want, even if it's not on the
menu, per se. For some reason it's hard to find green beans there! And
the seasoning is a little bland. If you order a steak, that's what you
get; nothing else. The menus are practically the same everywhere. We
really liked Alameda on Avenida de Mayo; ask for Irrito!



What a beautiful city! Buenos Aires has the most incredible architecture
I've ever seen (but I've never been to Europe). The streets are swept
daily, there are no potholes, everyone is friendly and helpful, the food
is really good, the taxi drivers drive like they are on a race track,
and you can get by on very little Spanish (with a beautiful Italian
accent!). Make sure you see the cemetery in Recoleta, the artisan
district of La Boca, the tourist area in San Telmo, and the shopping
street of Florida, between Avenida de Mayo, and Corrientes. Buy shoes,
clothing and leather goods at unbelievably low prices.



We stayed at a hotel near Avenida de Mayo and Avenida de Nuevo de Julio
(reportedly the widest street in the world), in the downtown (Zona
Centro) district; a great location close to most of the major milongas.
The hotel is not fancy, but has air conditioning and a computer with
internet access, and was about $18.00 a night. We sometimes had to ask
them to turn the A/C back on, as they turned it off frequently when they
knew we were gone. We had been warned that it would be very hot in
January, but aside from a couple of warm days, we had great weather;
very comfortable, and Sarah was sorry she had not brought a warmer
jacket at times. Most of the good milongas are air-conditioned to an
extent, but can still get warm with all the people there.



Dress? Same as here. Some of the men, mostly the older crowd, wore ties
and jackets, but business casual is by far the most popular. Slacks or
Dockers-style pants and short sleeve shirts are predominant, and very
little black. They dress like we do (I probably stuck out a bit in all
my black outfits). For the women, probably a little more dressy than the
men (just like here), but plenty of pants instead of dresses, even at
the nicest milongas.



Shoes? Somebody a few months ago on this list wrote disparagingly of my
habit of dancing in my boots, saying that it was traditional and
customary to change into dance shoes at the milonga. I saw very, very
little of this among the men in Buenos Aires. Almost all of them danced
in the shoes that they wore to the milonga. A lot of the women changed
shoes, but less there than here in the US. Dance floors? Mostly tile,
with a few exceptions. Canning is wood, El Beso is wood, Gricel is bad
wood.



Smoke? A very scary subject after reading Rick's postings on how sick he
got! The smoke is no worse there than in night clubs here. Even though I
smoke, I hate being immersed in it, and it really wasn't unbearable at
all, and Sarah, who doesn't smoke, agrees. Yes, there are a couple of
clubs where it gets a little thick, but nothing like what we'd been led
to believe. On the whole, unless you're allergic, don't give it a second
thought.



Cabaceo? Yes, very necessary for both men and women, but probably still
a little overblown. There are clubs where its impossible to see past the
next table, so to get any dances at all, men have to get up and walk
around, still using the cabaceo....but sometimes right in front of their
hoped-for partner. Many times it was near impossible to catch any
woman's eye without a little stroll around the room.



Dancing? We'd been warned that it would be damn near impossible for us
gringos to get any dances with Argentines. Poppycock! Sarah danced 80%
(or better) of the time we were at milongas. I had just a little more
trouble, mostly due to my reluctance to get up and walk around, or to
approach women directly, but I had more than my fill of dancing. The
quality of the dancers varies greatly (just like here!). Of course on
the whole, it's somewhat better, and I had some really fantastic dances
there, mostly because more of them know how to dance in small spaces.



Milongas? We went to most of the big ones.........La Nacional is too
narrow and gets really, really crowded. The floorcraft is below average.
It's a pretty space, and you have to go see it, but don't expect too
much. La Calesita, open air, great space, gotta go! Porteno y Bailarin,
wood floors, two floors, gotta see it. Club Gricel, bad wood floor, very
crowded, average floorcraft. Salon Canning has a good wood floor, but
really lousy floorcraft, damn near dangerous getting shoved and kicked
around the place. Viejo Correo is good. El Arranque is good. Torquato
Tasso is good. La Ideal is good, and not to be missed due to it's
history. In general, the afternoon milongas are good, and the late-night
milongas get crazy....Two exceptions are El Beso and Lo de Celia; both
are very traditional, very milonguero. I had my best experiences at
these two milongas.



In the end; Buenos Aires is not much different than anywhere here in the
US, except for so many more dancers and venues. And the use of the
cabaceo. It was an incredible experience and I hated to leave!



I'll be glad to provide anyone with advice, or more specific
information.



Michael Figart II

michaelfigart@yahoo.com