Tango Mania

As if I haven't posted enough times about tango, I will give you one more taste of the South American dancing craze that consumes Uruguay and Argentina.


While in Buenos Aires with Emily we saw tango at every turn. There wasn't a day with out it. In fact, there probably wasn't a 5 hour time period without some sort of tango flashing past our eyes. There were street performers, live music in restaurants, tango dancers posing for pictures with tourists, old couples dancing the evening away in the Confiteria Ideal, and more. Buenos Aires was a complete tango mania.


I captured a video of some very good tango dancers in the Recoleta neighborhood. Even though the picture is small (sorry, I shouldn't have turned my camera vertically and then rotated the video), you still have to watch! This video clip is much clearer than the last one I uploaded. You can't not love tango when it's this beautiful.

A Narrow Escape in La Boca

Last weekend when my dear friend, Emily, was visiting me from the states, we hit up all the toursity stuff in the Montevideo and even made time to head over to Buenos Aires for 2 days. I think our favorite part of the city was La Boca despite our little "incident" in this neighborhood.


The houses are brightly colored and tourist shops, restaurants, and tango bars warm and welcoming. You can feel the spirit of Buenos Aires in the air of this neighborhood. The Museo de Bellas Artes de la Boca "Benito Quinquela Martín", was a great fine arts museum showcasing some excellent artwork of emerging Latin American artists and and of course the works of Quinquela Martín, one of Argentina's most beloved painters. His works are especially vibrant and expressive. I love his representation of color and water. His style is regonizable almost immediately. The museum is where he actually lived and worked overlooking the port. A must visit in my opinion.


However, as we were attempting to catch the bus back to the the city center (in broad daylight mind you), two boys popped out of nowhere and demanded that we give them our cameras. We didn't understand what was happening at first so they repeated their request to which I responded, we don't have cameras. What did they think we would do? Say, sure, just a minute, let me get out my camera so I can give it to you? I can't imagine what would have happened to us, if I didn't know any Spanish. They then started grabbing our purses and reaching in our pockets, but we resisted and ran across the street to where other individuals were walking. Fortunately, we escaped unscathed and with all of our belongings.

I have to admit that I am a little paranoid of shady-looking teenage boys now. Almost getting mugged in the streets of Buenos Aires can do that to a person.

Don't Cry For Me Argentina

I forgot to mention the Recoleta Cemetery that we visited in Buenos Aires. It is perhaps the coolest place I've been where dead people are buried.


The Cemetery is situated in the fancy Recoleta neighborhood and is a large enclosure where hundreds of monuments are built to the honor the dead. The grounds were well-groomed yet still very creepy. Many visitors (and stray cats) milled about the grave sites.


The cemetery, or rather mausoleum, if we are being precise with our terms, boasts of the graves of many past Argentine presidents and of Eva Peron, the very person whom the play, Evita, is based upon. We had to do a little detective work to find her grave, which more or less involved us trailing two guys who were talking about finding her grave. I suppose that kind of made me feel like a spy...


I think the appeal of the cemetery lies in the fact that it is both somber yet commemorative, dark yet sunny, creepy yet beautiful, aging yet manicured, peaceful yet lively, old yet invigorating.

Argentine Art

Here's a quick review a few more things I did in Argentina art related:

Visited Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA). A good traditional and modern art museum combined. I spent too long on the lower level and not enough on the upper one, but a good way to spend an afternoon. Famous European Artists below and Latin American artists above.

Visited Museo de Arte Latinoamercano de Buenos Aires (MALBA). A GREAT modern art museum. Loved it. Lots of funky pieces. Lots of fun.

Saw 2 live theater performances at the Cultural de la Cooperación Floreal Gorini for more or less $10 each (35 Argentine pesos). One very good, one very confusing. One I could follow, the other hopeless. One a story arc, the other crazy people on stage ranting about...well, I don't even know. El Tiempo y los Conway and Los Siete Locos

Saw a movie. Although a German film with Spanish subtitles, still very good. And Along Came Tourists

In review, if you plan on going to Buenos Aires you have to partake in the local art scene. Definitely go to a live performance and definitely pick a few of the art museums and visit the ones you think you'd like the most.

Argentine Tango

My favorite thing we did in Buenos Aires was probably go to the Catedral de Tango where real Argentineans go to dance. It was no touristy tango spectacle, just a big, dimly lit, warehouse-like space with table on one side a dance floor on the other. There were different sorts of modern "art" on the walls and a big picture of Carlos Gardel, one of the most famous tango dancers ever (who by the way both Argentina and Uruguay claim as their own).

We got there at about 11:30 PM and the locals didn't start arriving until more like 1:30-2 AM. The dinner off the menu of the day was delicious--some sort of baked squash with cheese. I enjoyed sitting there listening to the beautiful tango music and occasionally sneaking peaks at the couples on the dance floor. We didn't end up leaving the catedral until about 4 in the morning, and apparently that was an early evening for most South Americans.

Back from Buenos Aires

I just got back to Salto after a long week spent in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, the 3rd largest city in South America. I will spend a few posts telling you about my time in this wonderful place. It reminded me of a mixture between DC and NYC, (largely for its political and cultural significance), only with everything in Spanish. Ha ha.

This is a picture of the "Casa Rosada" or "Pink House" or more formally, the Casa de Gobierno where President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner works but does not live. It is situated right on the Edge of Plaza Mayor.


Buenos Aires also has an obelisk (which looks just like the Washington Monument if you ask me, but hey, who is?) located in the city center along Avenida Corrienties on which our $15 a night hostel was planted. The hostel, Rancho Urbano, was not bad at all, actually, quite nice as far as hostels go. Thank you hostelworld. I grew a bit attached to my free breakfast of medialunas (crossaints) and coffee. It just might have been nice if were farther up Corrientes so we didn't have to walk so far to get to the city center. There were also a few pretty little kitties running around that made me miss my last roommate's cats. Boooo.


The picture below is one of Puerto Madero, built up along the Rio de la Plata. It seemed to be located in a very nice area of the city where all the young working professionals go for lunch and relaxation.


Expect more posts to follow in the next few days about the City of Fair Winds.