Tango at La Confiteria Ideal

This is the last entry as I've hardly taken any pictures for the last two weeks while Linda and I have been going to milongas every day, sometimes twice a day with a siesta in between. Theft is a problem in Buenos Aires so I decided not to take my camera anymore - this is us dancing at the Confiteria Ideal, a beautiful old dance hall declared a historical monument in 2003.








On our last night in Argentina, we hit the dance floor at 9pm and hobbled home at 4am with throbbing feet, tired legs and a big smile on our face. We've embraced and danced with Portenos (natives of Buenos Aires) and men from all over the world who all share a love of tango music and thrill of dancing with a stranger.

Linda in La Boca

La Boca is very much a locals' neighbourhood and in the mid-19th century it was home to Spanish and Italian immigrants who settled along the Riachuelo river and worked in the many meat-packing plants and warehouses here, processing and shipping out much of Argentina's vital beef exports. After sprucing up the shipping barges, the port dwellers splashed leftover paint on the corrugated-metal sidings of their own houses, unwittingly giving La Boca what would become one of its claims to fame. 'Camenito' is the barrio's most famous street where you can browse a small crafts fair while watching tango dancers perform in the street.

Salt Shaker

Apparently 3.7 million people in Buenos Aires suffer from high blood pressure, a condition linked to excessive salt consumption. As the average Argentinian consumes 13 grams of salt a day (the WHO says 5g is the healthy limit), the government has ordered the removal of salt shakers from restaurant tables. Waiters are officially no longer authorised to pass the salt until after you've tasted your food. Seems a little Draconian - on closer inspection of a salt shaker in a fast-food restaurant, I think a better solution would be to reduce the size of the hole(s). There's also never any pepper on the tables here - you have to ask for it.

Time to Say Goodbye

We've spent our last weekend together here in Leo Fandango's lovely flat in San Cristobal, a central neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. Neets is back to England today and I stay another 2 weeks, joined by fellow tango addict Linda Redknap and together we shall be dancing the nights away 'til the wee hours - afternoon siestas will be part of the daily agenda as nothing much starts before 11pm. Napping won't be a problem, especially after a big scoop of their delicious icecream - thankfully there's an icecream parlour on the corner.

El Viejo Almacen

We discovered on our way home after the show that it's Carneval and a 4-day holiday which means that the streets are heaving with people partying and spraying each other with sticky foam from cannisters. We unwittingly got caught into crossfire and walked back dripping with white slime in a hot and humid Buenos Aires evening.

El Viejo Almacen

The passion, the precision, the costumes...it's difficult to describe (and that's saying something coming from Neets!) just how dynamic, beautiful and emotional this dancing was. Neets: "I was in tears, it was so moving...without doubt the most brilliant, powerful and intoxicating show I've ever seen".

El Viejo Almacen

Having done a fairly inferior (but nonetheless hugely entertaining) show the previous evening, tonight - Neets' last in Argentina - we went to one of the oldest and most traditional tango shows in Buenos Aires at El Viejo Almacen. We weren't disappointed - it was stupendous.