Re: [TANGO-L] more tips for Buenos Aires, shopping, apts, classes

[Stella <smling @msn.com>]

Sorry this is appearing a bit late, but I had no time to edit it before the New Year's marathon at Nijmegen.



Buenos Aires Dec 2003

 

I had a week free that I hadn't counted on so jumped on a plane and took off for my favorite dancing city. 

 

This time instead of a hotel, I stayed at my friend Lalo's apartment.  His apartment is in Barrio Once, at Viamonte and Pueyrredon, an area that I had not had much chance to explore previously.  The apartment was clean, tastefully decorated, with microwave, juicer and huge wooden dance floor in the living room where I was able to take many of my private lessons.  This area has a large Jewish population so it was not unusual to see kosher butchers and bakers and orthodox  Jewish men walking around with large felt hats, but with the macho swagger of the Argentino (very cute).  Great "verdulerias" and "fruterias" for buying fresh produce.  In addition, his brother Ernesto still lives in BA full time and is very helpful in orienting you and offering interesting tips of non-tango things to do.   If you are interested in renting Lalo's apartment you can write to him at lzarch  @yahoo.com.

 

I discovered that the studio of  Mora Godoy, (Mora was the original star of "Tango por Dos" and partner of  Miguel Angel Zotto, and recently starred in and choreographed the hit show "Tanguerua") was located only 2 blocks from the apartment.  Classes there were only 9 pesos and I took several excellent classes.

 

I also discovered a new, very inexpensive shopping area located on Paso St., between Corrientes and Cordoba.  There were both outlet stores as well as boutiques mixed in together.  

 

My friend Jean had also given me a recommendation to go to her favorite shopping mall located on Al Corta St. in Palermo.  It was great!  I ended up going there three times in  one week.  They have many boutiques there which specialize in Argentine made clothing and designs.  The styles are cutting edge and great to wear at milongas.

Thank you  Jean also for telling me about a museum that I hadn't gone to before called MALBA.  It is also located on Al Corta  and specializes in contemporary Latin American art.  Beautiful museum with excellent curating.

 

I also spent more time in Recoleta than I had in previous trips.  This is a charming  residential area of town with many parks and trees, outdoor restaurants, well-maintained sidewalks.  I discovered a fantastic "tenedor libre" there named "Comer" on Guido St.  For only 12 pesos you can gorge  to your  heart's content on parrillada, pasta, salads, desserts and 5 huge tables of entrees. This was by far  the most attractive and classiest of all the "all-you-can-eat" type restaurants that I have seen so far.

 

In general in the past I have usually gone to the biggest most popular milongas at night.  This time I made it a goal to try a new milonga every night (meaning that I tried to go to two milongas per night, a new one and an old fave).  This really worked out well most times since the popular milongas ended up staying open a lot later than publicized.  For example on Thursday I went to Dr. Tango in Belgrano a milonga that my friend Shirley had raved about.  It was a small neighborhood milonga and I had so much fun there that I stayed until 3:30 a.m.  I almost decided not to go to Nino Bien because it was supposed to close at 4 a.m.  But I went anyway and it was still going at 5 a.m.  Another milonga with old time milongueros was El Pial or La Baldosa which is located quite far from the center of the city.  However they had live music and great demos.  I ended up staying until 2:30 a.m. on a Friday night before taking off for Canning.  It was a good decision since that particular night Canning's air conditioning had broken down and the smoke was especially dense.  On Saturdays the outdoor milonga Calesita has begun again.  It was packed and with lots of great dancers.  I met some nice tangueros that I had met previously at Dr. Tango and we hung out together. The air was lovely and fresh and the night very beautiful. On Tuesday I went to the new milonga "el Cachafaz" which is held in the same location as Nino Bien.  It was similarly packed with all the familiar tango faces.  Javier and Geraldine danced beautifully and there was also live music.

 

What a great week!  My only regret is that I had but one week to devote to tango.

 

Stella

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