1903  Report from Argentina.

Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 18:52:02 -0400
From: A Coleman <gurps_npc@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Report from Argentina.

Just got back from World Tango Festival II. Here is my report.

1) It was a great trip and a great festival.

2) However, do to the current money situation in Argentina, a money concious
person might do a LOT better to go with a group of 4-12 people. Taxis cost
about 7 pesos per trip, usually, milongas or a groupl class cost about 5
pesos. But if you do not speak spanish extremely well, expect to pay around
$100 U.S. money for a private lesson. Also, if you do not go as part of a
festival, you get to dance with more than a couple argentinians instead of
europeans, North Americans and Asians. But remember, while more
argentinians dance, the festival will probably have better
followers/leaders, as the members will include some very good dancers.

3) If going, I suggest you plan a day or two break from tango. They have
some really nice falls, bigger than niagra, if you can spend two days to get
there and back.

4) If renting a car "gas" means natural gas, not gasoline. Gasoline is too
expensive, so their taxis use either diesel or natural gas. The taxi driver
told me some urban legends of fools blowing themselves up by putting the
obviously not normal natural gas hose into the gasoline tank. Probably just
cautionary fables, but heed the caution.

5) A LOT of places take american dollar bills at 3 for 1. (even when the
official exchange rate is 2.7 to 1.) Maybe tax (20% sales tax ) evasion,
maybe just people looking to make some money if the exchange rate gets
worse.

6) EXIT TAX of $18. (US).

7) Hotels often will not include the 20% tax when quotig you a price. Watch
out.

8) You can get great deals on shoes, but most leather stuff is really priced
about the same as in the US. While you might get a slight discount (5-10%)
the real benefit is that they will alter it to fit you for free - so shop
EARLY.

9) San Telmo area is very touristy, as are most of the tango shows. I would
not pay for them. However, the flea market at recoletta every weekend is
great. Good art, crafts, and souvenirs.

10) Remember, that to an argentinian, we are all rich. A soda costs about 1
peso their, just as it costs 1 us$ here, but with the exchange rate, that is
about 35 cents.

11) If you are a vegetarian you will starve their. Typical pizza is bread,
ham, tomatoe sauce, as much cheese as everything else, and some olives. But
if you are a carnivore, you can get Steakhouse quality meat for the us
equilevent of $10.

patented spam control and more. Get two months FREE!

Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 09:04:46 +0100
From: Jean-Baptiste De Gandt <jbdegandt@NORDNET.FR>
Subject: Re: Report from Argentina.

I was so surprised reading the report of A Coleman :
The report of World Tango Festival of Buenos Aires seems a very typical view
of what matters really for a US tourist in Buenos Aires : Money, what you can
buy with your money, how difficult it is to eat US food, and again money,
money...
No idea of how he felt with tango there, with places, with tango
partners,with argentinian way of life,...

Thanks God, people like Janis Kenyon, for instance, tell us about this boader
view

Jean-Baptiste De Gandt


---------- Message d'origine -----------
De : A Coleman <gurps_npc@HOTMAIL.COM>
A : TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Envoyé le : Thu, 16 Oct 2003 18:52:02 -0400
Sujet : [TANGO-L] Report from Argentina.

> Just got back from World Tango Festival II. Here is my report.
>
> 1) It was a great trip and a great festival.
>
> 2) However, do to the current money situation in Argentina, a money concious
> person might do a LOT better to go with a group of 4-12 people.
> Taxis cost about 7 pesos per trip, usually, milongas or a groupl
> class cost about 5 pesos. But if you do not speak spanish extremely
> well, expect to pay around $100 U.S. money for a private lesson.
> Also, if you do not go as part of a festival, you get to dance with
> more than a couple argentinians instead of europeans, North
> Americans and Asians. But remember, while more argentinians dance,
> the festival will probably have better followers/leaders, as the
> members will include some very good dancers.
>
> 3) If going, I suggest you plan a day or two break from tango. They
> have some really nice falls, bigger than niagra, if you can spend
> two days to get there and back.
>
> 4) If renting a car "gas" means natural gas, not gasoline. Gasoline
> is too expensive, so their taxis use either diesel or natural gas.
> The taxi driver told me some urban legends of fools blowing
> themselves up by putting the obviously not normal natural gas hose
> into the gasoline tank. Probably just cautionary fables, but heed
> the caution.
>
> 5) A LOT of places take american dollar bills at 3 for 1. (even
> when the official exchange rate is 2.7 to 1.) Maybe tax (20% sales
> tax ) evasion, maybe just people looking to make some money if the
> exchange rate gets worse.
>
> 6) EXIT TAX of $18. (US).
>
> 7) Hotels often will not include the 20% tax when quotig you a
> price. Watch out.
>
> 8) You can get great deals on shoes, but most leather stuff is
> really priced about the same as in the US. While you might get a
> slight discount (5-10%) the real benefit is that they will alter it
> to fit you for free - so shop EARLY.
>
> 9) San Telmo area is very touristy, as are most of the tango shows.
> I would not pay for them. However, the flea market at recoletta
> every weekend is great. Good art, crafts, and souvenirs.
>
> 10) Remember, that to an argentinian, we are all rich. A soda costs
> about 1 peso their, just as it costs 1 us$ here, but with the
> exchange rate, that is about 35 cents.
>
> 11) If you are a vegetarian you will starve their. Typical pizza
> is bread, ham, tomatoe sauce, as much cheese as everything else, and
> some olives. But if you are a carnivore, you can get Steakhouse
> quality meat for the us equilevent of $10.
>
> patented spam control and more. Get two months FREE!

------- Fin du message d'origine -------

Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 11:57:47 -0400
From: A Coleman <gurps_npc@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Report from Argentina.

jbdegandt@nordnet.fr's reply is incredibally prejudiced. Yes. All
americans are money focused scum with no soul. Let's rip out the blatantly
discriminating anti-american rhetoric, and consider your critic as a
personal critic on my writing instead of all americans.

I never said anything about how difficult it is to eat US food - I never
tried to do it. Instead I described the food they had and mentioned if you
were vegetarian, (which is not a US only thing) you might have a problem.

The stuff you wanted can NOT be simply put out out there in less than 10,000
words -way to much for this list. People like Janis Kenyon give long
speeches that are entirely subjective and the majority of people that go
will have an entirely different views of the same situation. How I felt
about tango there, which places, tango with argentinans are all things that
you should not care that much about. They are my personal feelings, not
yours - unless you are looking for someone to tell you how to feel.
Moreover they are incredibally dificult to describe accurately using words
and I apologize but I am NOT a world class travel writer easily able to
transcribe them. I have read Janis stuff and frankly I skip it now because
I do not consider her to be a good enough writer to do justice to the
wonderfull subject.

I gave solid information that would be helpfull to ANY tourist - the kinds
of things they need to know before they go.



----Original Message Follows----

From: "Jean-Baptiste De Gandt" <jbdegandt@nordnet.fr>
To: A Coleman <gurps_npc@HOTMAIL.COM>, TANGO-L@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [TANGO-L] Report from Argentina.