We're still here
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Sorry we've been very flat out with a few things in the last few days like shopping, shoes, dancing, more tango classes and staying out of the rain. We're still here and I hope to post some more substantial articles tomorrow if possible.
We move out of our apartment tomorrow into the hotel before we start our tour of Iguazu, Paraty and then onto Rio de Janeiro. Should be good, but we have a bit of creative packing to do (how do you protect 11 pairs of shoes from getting squashed in your respective pieces of luggage?). I've just bought the local paper to stuff into them which should stop them getting squashed.
The rain has been phenomenal... there has been so much that a state of emergency has been declared up further north of Argentina in places like Santa Fe and Cordoba (not where we are heading) where it is flooding quite badly.
We finished off our fourth and last class with Fabrizio today and boy do I feel like we have a lot of work to do. He has made both of us think a lot more about how to make sure the basic movements are done just right. Only thing is that it will take a very long time to get them exactly so. They have been very enjoyable.
Went for a day trip out to Recoleta, San Telmo, Caminito in La Boca and Puerto Madero a new neighbourhood in BsAs on Wednesday. The day was grey and overcast but we were lucky to miss the rain. I should have a tonne of photos which I will post a link to eventually.
Posted byAndrew at 11:03 am 2 comments
It's raining, it's pouring....
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
It really bucketed down last night while we were eating dinner with Roger and Dru last night. The rain was so hard that it flooded the streets. After it calmed down enough (and the weather too) we left the restaurant (more here) to a bit of thunder and lightning and went for a coffee nearby. Not sure how it happened but Roger ended up carrying Kellie across the flooded streets getting his shoes and socks wet, while I jumped across safely and Dru took off her shoes and waded across. Funny stuff. We were all feeling pretty tired after our respective weeks so I managed to get through a cafe doble (mug of strong coffee) quite easily while everyone else had their drinks of choice. Roger was debating his third coffee when we decided to call it a night and get out of there. Roger obligingly carried Kellie across the road again (where was I? Laughing too much at the sight) and we said our goodbyes outside our apartment (which was very close). Roger and Dru will be leaving BsAs on Monday (don't forget that we are about 13.5 hours behind Adelaide time) so it was nice to see them off and celebrate Dru's birthday and my upcoming 30th birthday. Will definitely be doing something else on that night.
Posted byAndrew at 5:27 am 0 comments
Additional classes
Started some more classes now that we are staying in Palermo with Fabrizio Forti. He has a great teaching technique and certainly doesn't beat around the bush when explaining that he is teaching us things that will take a year or more to perfect. He also seems to have this wonderful source of boundless energy. When demonstrating how a woman dances in a turn without feeling a connection from the man he just went flying around the room (I simply cannot describe how it looked ... it was just really funny and very well done by Fabrizio to keep the tone of the class very low-key).
We both feel like it's back to beginners' classes. =) He watched us dance once and said we needed to cover the urgent issues and the important issues in our dancing. Obviously starting with the urgent. It was more about controlling our bodies, posture and movement. Very important stuff and hard to concentrate on everything at once. These classes are very enjoyable and are really challenging us to think about the way we lead and follow movements. He will be in New Zealand and also visiting Australia soon. If we get the chance we'll definitely be going back and getting some more classes.
Kellie also did a women's technique workshop with Imogen taught by an instructor by the name of Graciella Gonzalez which sounds like it covered a lot of ground. It was about 4 hours long so Kellie came home looking a bit shattered but it sounded worthwhile.
Posted byAndrew at 5:09 am 0 comments
San Telmo markets
Caught a taxi out to San Telmo to the Ferio de San Telmo, which is the regular Sunday market at Plaza Dorrego. The cobblestone streets here are really a sight and the stalls line both sides of the streets along the cross streets leading from the plaza. Tango is the theme everywhere here and many bars and galleries offer tango shows. The crowds really bustle about as they search for the perfect antique or souvenir to buy. There are street performances by bands (there were two tango orchestras there on Sunday) and both traditional and tango dancers. They are so colourful and a lot of the paintings were just beautiful... Of course there was also a lot of garbage for sale or 'bric-a-crap' as it shall now be called. The locally made produce looked really good and the leather goods and knives on display weren't too bad either.
Lots-of-tourists-with-cameras-everywhere! There was a guy with a beautiful new digital SLR camera who was taking pictures of tango performers in the outdoor arena of the plaza. He was holding it aloft while shooting over people's heads and I had to laugh as every shot I saw him take was a beautiful picture of the backs of people's heads.
We went to a bar called Pappa Deus for a drink and some tapas and were entertained by a two-piece group playing a mixture of music (tango and contemporary). They weren't too bad and it was a great day.
Posted byAndrew at 5:00 am
Milongas here
Haven't been to as many milongas as expected and so far have only been to La Viruta/La Estrella at the Armenian Club, Niño Bien on Humerto Primo, Porteño y Bailarin on Riobamba, and Salon Canning with a visit to a practica With Kellie and I feeling a bit run down after CITA it was nice to have a couple of nights to relax and sleep in a bit the next day. I haven't been overly impressed by the dancing at these events and can only attribute it to too many visitors who don't have the skills to dance in small spaces... I also think a lot of the locals are being more protective of 'their' venues and trying to muscle-out the newcomers a bit. The floors have all been very packed and also have been hard to find a table. My favourite night so far has been dancing at Porteño y Bailarin which is a strange 'L' shaped club with two dance floors (playing the same music though). We got to see El Flaco Dany perform again -- we had already seen him perform one tango and two milongas at La Estrella Sat 17th to do two encores -- to live music which consisted of two acoustic guitars and a great singer doing their thing. The floor was small and he packed a lot into that space.
Salon Canning on Friday night was a bit funny as there was a lot of jostling on the dance floor. I was keeping my movements as small and as basic as possible but still had to lead a quick turn everynow and then so that Kellie didn't get flattened by some big lummox on the floor. My back was very sore the next day. Oh yes.... El Flaco Dany was there that night too! He probably thinks we're stalking him - or maybe it is the other way around. Julio Balmaceda and Corina De La Rosa were also at the bar for a lot of the night too. The cortinas (music to signify the end of a group of songs or tanda) were old Beatles songs that had been redubbed in Spanish.
Posted byAndrew at 4:54 am 0 comments
More on Restaurants II
Last Thursday we went to a local (Palermo) restaurant on Av. Charcas called Restaurante Paté. The service was great and the fritas here (while not my priority for a good meal) were the best chips I have had yet in BsAs. The meals were really tasty too with my Bife de Chorizo and Kellie's Milanesa Napoletana both very hearty. The next night we tried a place across the road called Tabaré Parilla which has completely blown me away as far as the food is concerned. Kellie had the rack of lamb with mushroom sauce and I had a huge cut of lamb which was so succulent and tender. This is a must do, although be careful with how you order here as the service can be a bit lacking. Having said that we did get some complimentary glasses of chapagne to finish the night. Both places weren't as cheap as the others but with mains still in the $25-30peso range at the end of the meal you are still only paying a total of about AUD$25 each for awesome food and accompanying drinks. It was so good that we went back last night with friends Roger and Dru which was when the waiter stuffed up a couple of the orders. I still recommend this place. Try it.
Posted byAndrew at 4:38 am 0 comments
Travel notes & humour -- bits and pieces.
Here are some of the more peculiar and out of the ordinary things that have happened to us so far in Argentina...
- Stopping on the zebra crossing in the middle of Avenida Corrientes to take a photo of the Obelisk. I had to shoot and scoot as the intersection was for 5 different roads and drivers here don't pay much attention to the pedestrians here.
- Speaking of the roads and drivers, 9 de Julio as I posted about earlier is indeed a monster! It's a bit daunting crossing it in peak hour with taxi drivers, biker hoons and delivery drivers all revving their engines waiting to get the jump on the lights.
- Kellie and I have both come down with a cold which is unfortunate. It hasn't affected us too much but I slept for 14 hours the first night I became sick to help me recover (I guess going out the night before did me in too --- about 4am at La Viruta again).
- Visiting Recoleta cemetary with its avenues of mausoleum after mausoleum of old dignataries, doctors, politicians and celebrities. There were quite a few really spectacular structures that are higher than most people's houses. A few things though: there are cats everywhere here and they are very well looked after with water dishes placed out for them; an equally large population of mosquitoes so we were continually slapping each other's backs and waving arms everywhere; there are quite a few workers here doing restorations or generally cleaning the structures... one enterprising workman had turned one of the mausoleums into a storage shed for his ladders, buckets and cleaning tools; a rather disturbing site was the leaking mausoleum -- I am not kidding -- and the smell was horrible. Also managed to bump into Peter and Lisa who were just out for a stroll which seemed a bit peculiar in a city of over 12 million people.
- We've moved to our other accommodation in Palermo already (happened last weekend) and we had been searching for an internet cafe in the area. The closest we could find was about 2 blocks away... fair enough. A few days later, on servicing a chocolate craving Kellie discovered a Kiosk with an excellent suite of new computers with great internet connection hidden out the back. This place is right next door to where we are staying. Oh well. Live and learn.
- When we go out for a meal, Kellie has usually been going for water or soft drink while I've been working my way through the beer selection. Every time she orders a cola or lemonade (e.g. Coke or Sprite, Pepsi or 7up), she is always corrected by the waiter as they only stock the other brand. Without fail... happens almost every time.
- While out shoe shopping we ended up being held up a little at Tango Brujo by a busy store, but ended up trying on a lot of shoes. Ended up walking away with 3 pairs (1 for me, 2 for Kellie) of cool shoes and then walking the short distance to the next group of stores. I received a very warm reception at Flabella shoes by one of the owners/shoemakers who walked me through their selection and copied my attempts at Spanish which I'm not sure were affirmations of what I was saying, an attempt to hurry me up or just his wry sense of humour. Probably all of the above, but he spoke a bit of English anyway. Visited the store next door called Darcos Shoes where Kellie wanted to try on some clothes. I was stuck with all of the shopping which included our 3 pairs of shoes from Tango Brujo, with nice gold ¨Tango Brujo¨ lettering all over them and my much more conservative Fabio Shoes bag. The owner walked past me and asked if I danced and before I could answer he pointed to all of the bags and agreed that Yes, I could probably do a few moves. Anyway he continued studying the bags and noticed where they were from. He remarked with a casual ¨Eh, their shoes are okay... but mine are better! I know where my materials come from and make all of my shoes.¨ I guess he doesn't like them very much. Anyway... I don't think we bought anything there. Hehe.
Posted byAndrew at 4:10 am 0 comments