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
More on restaurants
Saturday, March 24, 2007
We have had some really nice dining experiences here, some of them more formal than others.
- Chiquilin on Montevideo and Sarmiento near where we were staying -- formal parilla restaurant... bit pricey compared with other experiences, but I think the bill was still only about $40pesos each for mains, sides and drinks.
- Pippo's on Montevideo and Sarmiento. Next door to Chiquillin... Cannot compare this parilla with Chiquillin... it wouldn't be fair, but it was still a nice experience. The food here was okay and the prices I think were definitely reasonable. I think we got away from this meal of pasta and Bife de Lomo for about AU$25.
- Campo dei Fiori on San Jose and Venezuela -- another more formal Argentine parilla place, with really really good pasta. Prices were similar to Chiquillin.
- Marini Gourmet -- buffet style with all Argentine and international food represented... very good and the parilla is awesome. BBQ Lamb leg was great. Total bill was about $29pesos for food, another $10 for drinks and $5 for the band.... yes we had to pay for the band that we didn´t know would be there. It was a fun night regardless.
Cafes have been okay too, but some are definitely not at the same level as the restaurants.
- Cervantes II -- the best and cheapest cafe. It was reliable and very close to where we were originally staying for CITA. Milanesa con Fritas (schnitzel with chips) for $6pesos is not one to miss.
- Scuzi... absolutely no resemblance to its Aussie namesake. It was okay but I reckon overpriced for what you are getting.
- La Opera... one we went to a few times but similar to Scuzi. Their service was good though.
Posted byAndrew at 9:11 am 0 comments
Shoes glorious shoes
Ok ... first thing first. This place is the place to be if you are a dance shoe nut! There are stores everywhere. Some are definitely better, where others may suit some dancers and not others. We have had a lot of luck over here, and have really needed to hold ourselves back a bit so that we can still fit things in our suit cases. The other option is that we buy another suitcase.... only problem is that we will be on a couple of local flights within Argentina and Brazil which may not look kindly on us with 4 suitcases.... hehe. Then again... it might be fine. Kellie has bought 5 pairs already: one from Neo Tango, one from Flabella, two from Tango Brujo and one from Comme Il Faut. I´ve been more restrained but still have a pair from Tango Leike, a pair of casual shoes from Fabio Shoes and another casual practice pair from Tango Brujo (this store is definitely one I'd go back to). There have also been a few hit and miss moments, but I need not mention those. I want to go back to Neo Tango again and see what they have in a leather soled formal shoe too.
Posted byAndrew at 9:04 am 0 comments
CITA classes - brief roundup
Monday, March 19, 2007
Wow. I'm posting this from the tail-end of our CITA workshop schedule and have had some great experiences. Quite easily the stand out teachers from our schedule have been Sebastian Arce & Mariana Montes & Chicho Frumboli and Lucia Mazer in relation to technique and ability to explain their idea of the passion behind particular movements. Adrian and Alejandra are just beautiful and I´m really sorry we didn´t do more workshops with them. Esteban and Claudia have explained things beautifully and also managed to personally attend to everyone while they were trying out the new steps and movements. Julio and Corina were very funny. I found that they didn't explain things as well as the other teachers but their classes were still fun... maybe too fun as noone really seemed to be concentrating. The noise levels for one of our Vals classes was so loud I couldnt hear the music enough to dance to it properly.
Sebastian and Mariana's as well as Chicho and Lucia's have been very well attended and have been quite hard to get space to do the steps (especially in one venue which was tiny, hot and had to accommodate more than 30 couples -- given that it was about soltadas and piernazos space was definitely at a premium). I have become more attuned to the space around me and making space if needed (in a non-violent way... although I have been kicked enough by other dancers to make me want to try a violent approach =) hehe).
The skill levels in the classes have varied greatly and has been frustrating at times where in one class a lot of the people we not getting the step so that Julio pulled the plug on the rest of the program. Even those of us who had understood the step had to concentrate on just the two or three that they´d showed us originally. Sebastian has been good but has been visibly frustrated at particular people's lack of knowledge of how to lead simple things like giros and backwards & forwards ochos. Esteban and Claudia have been very patient with people and their technique is great. Chicho's style of teaching is interesting in the sense that he is so quiet it makes you concentrate even more. In one of our musicality workshops with him and Lucia, he absolutely blew everyone away demonstrating the different ways you can dance to a rhythm with some simple steps. It was just amazing. Adrian and Alejandras class was great, but I think a few people were surprised at the level ... it was listed as Intermediate but more than likely that is what a real ¨Intermediate¨ level is like. It was challenging but the steps are beautiful.
All of the ones that we participated in has definitely given us some food for thought for dancing back in Adelaide.
We have just two CITA workshops to go now. It starts in just over an hour, so I´d better wind up and get some lunch. See you soon.
Posted byAndrew at 4:02 am 3 comments
Kellie's most used Spanish phrases
Sunday, March 18, 2007
… and everyone´s favourite
Posted byAndrew at 9:38 am 0 comments
Labels: humour, spanish, travel
Australian tanguerras
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Have met some great people over here who are from different tango organisations in Sydney and Canberra. We've been out to dinner a few times and it has been nice to go to the milongas here as part of a larger group. We certainly haven't had any shortage of fun.
Posted byAndrew at 3:39 am 0 comments
Bad coffee and ordinary pizzas
Friday, March 16, 2007
We were warned about the crappiness of both the coffee and the pizzas over here and I have to say I wasn't concerned at first, but yes.... they are rather bad. Coffees are extremely weak or so heavily roasted that they are very bitter and hard to get through. Pizzas are an interesting experience. The crust is a bit thicker than back at home and the sliced ingredients are layered with a lot of cheese. They love eggs on pizza too. Some aren't too bad, but definitely missing Amalfi and La Trattoria. Surprisingly our local grocer has some fairly fresh fruit and veg which was another thing we were warned about. I think we may have been lucky.
Apart from that the dining experiences have all been great. Bife de Chorizo, Bife de Lomo, Empanadas, Media lunes, etc etc have kept us going. My iron count should be off the scales.
Posted byAndrew at 9:32 am 2 comments
Blog entries
Monday, March 12, 2007
Just a quick note to let you know that a lot of these blog entries are post dated at the moment. It has been a bit hard to get away and get to an Internet cafe so I've been trying to keep notes and get to write them when I can. Most dates and times for the posts are stamped with the rough time they happened.
Speak soon.
Posted byAndrew at 6:30 am 2 comments
Our first milonga experience
Saturday, March 10, 2007
We had a slight delay with our first milonga experience as I wasn't feeling the best on our first night in Buenos Aires (however we had a great Spanish tapas meal at a place called ¨TanCat¨ that night), we finally went to a very popular club called ¨La Viruta¨which is at the Armenian Club in Buenos Aires. It was crazy there are two floors with about 5 areas they utilised on the night to teach beginners (these guys were definitely beginners) some basic steps. We were lucky to secure a table and when the beginners cleared we were treated to a demonstration of how some of the younger people here dance. The quality isn´t too bad, but I get the impression that a lot of them are doing set steps and not necessarily improvising on the spot. I only had two dances (one each with Kellie and Imogen) as I was trying to adjust to the floor which was so very busy (easily about 50+ couples in the space of the Eastwood community centre). Kellie and Imogen were getting a lot of cabaceo action though which is where people ask a potential partner to dance with a gesture from the eyebrow or a tilt of the head and they both were asked to dance about 5 or more times. I think they had some hits and some misses with the quality of the experience... but all up it was a great introduction.
Andrew.... out! =) Until next time.
Posted byAndrew at 11:30 pm 0 comments
Our first tango show.
We went to see a show called ¨Tanguerra¨ the other night which was a great stage play of the history of tango. It was highly dramatised (!!!) narrative through dance (am I boring you yet?) of the settlement of Buenos Aires and the introduction of migrant workers and influences. It was a pretty racey show, with the story of the prostitute population of Buenos Aires helping to develop the style of tango as it is, being demonstrated as accurately as a family show would allow... I think my eyebrows are still raised. =) The dancing was reasonable and the costumes excellent! We also had a reasonable coffee afterwards but it was a lot more expensive than the norm ($6 pesos compared with the usual $3 pesos for a black espresso).
Posted byAndrew at 10:00 pm 0 comments
Aaaargh Taxi!!!!!
In a way I think going to Thailand and riding the Tuk Tuks there has prepared us slightly, but in no way has anyone telling us about taxi rides in Buenos Aires exaggerated in the least!! There have been many experiences already but there have been two standouts already.
- Jump in a Radio taxi after a very good milonga at a hip hop and happening venue in Buenos Aires called ¨La Viruta.¨ There are a lot of buses in Buenos Aires and they don't give way to anything except possibly a Boeing 747. Our taxi driver had taken it upon himself to get us home as sprightly as possible and was trying to overtake the bus on the outside lane. Now not so bad, but this was a 2 lane, one-way street with cars parked on one side and the tyres of the taxi kissing the curb on the other. To make matters worse... the road shortly turned into a one-lane street and the taxi driver had to slam on the brakes to many cries of ¨Oy!¨ and ¨Mas lento, por favor¨ (loosely --and probably incorrectly-- slower please!).
- Taxi driver turning around to chat with us even though we'd pleaded our ignorance of not knowing Spanish as we were getting in the cab. This happening quite a lot and the drivers in Buenos Aires are pretty crazy.... They will turn a 4 lane road into 6 lanes quite easily. Anyway, just as we are approaching 9 de Julio one of the main roads of Buenos Aires do we find out (marginally earlier than our taxi driver as he was trying to tell us something... not quite sure, but it must have been important!) that the lane we were in was blocked off.... Someone had helpfully placed a road block in the middle of the road we were travelling along. With an apologetic ¨disculpe¨ our driver weaved around the obstacle (to the fury of many other drivers behind us) and continued along the road. I think it only took another two or three intersections before he was turning around again attempting to educate us on the ways of Buenos Aires.
I am in no way having a go at these people. I love it here. Like Buenos Aires ... the system they have for their roads just works. Take a driver from here and introduce them to an Australian road and there would be chaos and I think the same would happen in return. I am so so glad that we are not hiring a car over here.
Posted byAndrew at 9:26 am 0 comments
Sin gas, Con gas
One more funny story about our complete ineptitude in Spanish. Water with gas or without gas both looks awfully like normal bottle water at home (Mt Franklin etc). We went to the grocer while in Chile to get some bottled water to drink and brush teeth with etc and ended up with two big 2.25L bottles of water con gas (¨with gas¨) . Pretty much means we were brushing our teeth with carbonated water... yum. Now in Buenos Aires, being slightly older and wiser, we are making sure we order the right kind of water or at least read the labelling really well =)
Posted byAndrew at 8:00 am 0 comments
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Friday, March 09, 2007
We needed groceries.... Moving into an apartment is great but there are a few things that usually you need to stock up on to make it a comfortable stay.
We went around the corner of Av. Sarmiento to our local grocer which is owned by Chinese people to buy a few necesities.... Bread, Milk, Cheese (hmmm lots of that in meals here already), Ham (same again), Crackers, Coffee, Tea, Toilet Paper... you know the usual.
THE GOOD:
I was very happy with myself by learning the Spanish to purchase things from the deli counter so that I could order 200g of Cheese and 300g of Ham.... not too hard but for someone whose been learning for only 4-5 days I was very happy. Anyway it all went well for me except forgetting to add the word ¨of¨to my requests, but that was no disaster.
THE BAD:
We received a phone call (¨we¨meaning ¨me¨since I have charge of the apartment's phone, which happens to be a mobile affair) received a call from the land lord to let us know that she was coming around to drop off a new key. About 15minutes later and me passing the phone to Kellie in frustration I still had no idea that was what she was requesting. We ended up giving the number of another Australian who is staying her to the landlord as a translater however I don't think she used it.......
THE UGLY:
Our landlord did a surprise visit (well at least it was for us as we didn´t understand her original Spanish request) with her daughter in tow. They had come to change the locks to a more functional mechanism and (I think) check us out. A lot of gesturing and phone calls to our Spanish speaking Australian friend and we finally worked out that we had to exchange keys for the new lock.
Did I mention that Kellie was in bed having a rest? =) It was very hard.
* It was very frustrating not being able to understand basic Spanish.... I can request things reasonably well, but when I am trying to determine what someone is saying to me, is where it gets interesting. I think that while we are immersing ourselves in the culture, when we get back home, we'll start Spanish classes properly.
Posted byAndrew at 8:00 pm 0 comments
First day in Buenos Aires....
It hasn't hit me that we are in Buenos Aires yet....
On the way to the apartment from the airport, it is obvious there are a lot of disadvantaged people living here. The accommodation they live in is pretty sketchy and it doesn't look very stable... like the apartment blocks will topple like dominos in a stiff breeze.
The apartment is very secure and is turned out beautifully. We even received a gift from the owner when we arrived of some bottled water, soft drink and chocolates.
We met up with Lisa from Sydney and Imogen our travelling partner and went out to Neo Tango to check out some local tango shoes.... very impressed. Their prices are a bit dearer than a lot of the other stores here apparently, but still translate to about AUD$100 which is still muy bien! They had some bizarre looking men's shoes in purple bristle material... Strange. Will be coming back here as we didn't buy anything just yet... want to get a feel for what else is available.
Lunchtime was spent at a small local eatery around the corner from our accommodation where we shared ravioli, steak and salad for only about AUD$18 in total. The salads here are a bit strange but the pasta and steak were really good. The steak especially is of a really good quality and this one was quite large too (better get used to it I think). Bought some groceries from just around the other corner and I tried my very best to order our smallgoods from the counter in my best Spanish.... I think I did pretty well considering I've had no lessons. Understanding what people are saying to me is another story.
More on that later.....
Posted byAndrew at 3:30 pm 0 comments