Tango

We have taken three tango lessons so far this week.  There is a small tango school right across the street from our apartment building, so we started there.  Our first class was in milonga style tango, a style that is faster-paced and meant to be danced on the crowded floors of the dance halls.  The class had about 10 people, all of whom had way more experience than we did!   Everyone was very nice and tolerated our beginner status, but it was really challenging.  We changed partners for the first part of the class, but then decided it would be better if we stopped inflicting ourselves on the others despite their high level of tolerance!

The next day we joined a salon style tango class and this was a much more similar style to what we had learned before.  There was another beginner student in this class, and the teacher, Claude Murga, went more slowly and focused on technique that applied to all levels.  Yesterday Claude was teaching at a different location, so we took a cab out and enjoyed her class again even though we felt mainly like we were learning the essence of Argentine tango rather than any new steps.  Several of the same students were there, so she clearly has a following.  We expect to follow her to the third location she teaches at on Friday.  We are still debating whether private lessons would help or not.  They are considerably more expensive than group lessons, but it might help us advance more quickly.

Weekends are when many milongas are held, often with lessons beforehand, so we are looking forward to even more tango this weekend.

Puerto Madero and La Boca

window washers

Jake is feeling much better so we have been out and about more.  We strolled along what is perhaps the most modern part of Buenos Aires, Puerto Madero, on Saturday.  Sitting at one of the cafes lining the canal sipping our fruit licuados we were captivated by watching the window washers working on one of the high rises.

Passion flower sculpture along Puerto Madero

lunch in La Boca

Today, Sunday, we walked down to La Boca, famous for its tango and colorful buildings sheathed in metal from shipping containers.  And for the Boca Juniors soccer stadium that dominates the center of the entire area.  So no, I did not hear a thing about the Raven's win until I looked at Facebook today despite reading one of the major Sunday papers here!  We had a nice salad for lunch at a little place in La Boca.  Salads here tend to be different in composition from salads in the U.S.  They usually have separate piles of chopped or shredded lettuce and arugula and then miscellaneous shredded toppings.  Today's salad had large sun dried tomatoes, anchovies, small toast slices, and shredded cheese on top.  Usually the only dressing provided are bottles of oil and vinegar. We caught a bus back to San Telmo.  Taking buses in Latin America tends to be somewhat of an adventure.  In this case we knew what bus number to catch and had no trouble finding a stop, but the bus only takes coins for the fare and the fare had doubled from what we had last read.  Coins are extremely hard to come by (the paper says that banks have run out of coins).  We did have enough for one fare in coins (3.25 pesos), and fortunately the bus drivers seldom seem to care if tourists don't quite have the right change.

1940s shoes at Museo de la Ciudad

We have visited two museums in San Telmo.  Museums here could really use some lessons in signage and accessibility.  The new and still under construction Modern Art Museum (MAMBA)  had a mix of art installations only one of which really caught my interest.  It was an exhibit of photographs by an Italian artist, Massimo Listri, of large indoor spaces that had a very three dimensional look.  The exhibitions are on three floors and the elevator wasn't working.  Fine for us, but not so good for the more elderly visitors to the museum.  The second museum we visited was the Museo de la Ciudad. We went here in 2009 too and enjoyed its rather quirky collection.  It took us three tries to find the entrance this time to the special exhibit on hats and accessories.  You go up a steep flight of steps and through a door that looks like it would lead to an unlighted office.  There there was a desk with a person selling admission tickets and behind him the entrance to the special exhibit.  I was particularly struck by the collection of 1940s shoes that are so similar to the modern trend in platform shoes!

Headline - Frigate Liberty returns home!

The headlines in the major Argentine newspapers the last few days have been about the welcome home of the Argentine frigate, Liberty.  The ship was carrying recent naval graduates to ports around the Atlantic when it was seized in Ghana because "vulture funds" that consider Argentina to have defaulted on debts the funds now hold considered it an Argentine asset.  The ship was held for 2 months as the case went to international court and was finally released to return home on Dec. 19. It arrived in Mar del Plata (where most Argentines are now on summer vacation) yesterday. The President of Argentina is taking private planes when she flies to other countries because her official plane also could be subject to seizure by the vulture funds.

Urban Eco-Reserve

A road through Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve

View of Rio la Plata

Jake has been feeling under the weather the last couple days, so this morning I headed over to the Ecological Reserve Costanera Sur, within walking distance of our apartment.  This park lies on the eastern edge of the city along Rio de la Plata.  The area has an interesting history.  There had long been a grand avenue along the edge of the river where people would go to stroll and swim.  But as the waters became polluted fewer people visited and in 1978 a grand construction project began to fill in land along the river using construction debris.  It looks like a lot of raised roads were built, but that not all of the sections were filled in.  The project was abandoned by 1984 and marshes colonized the low areas and trees and shrubs colonized the edges of the roadways.  It was declared an ecological reserve in 1989 and is now thought to be a very important site for native flora and fauna.  You can walk through the marshes along the raised roads to the edge of the river.  On maps the marshes are labeled as open lagoons, but they have since filled in with vegetation and are drying out. The original riverfront avenue has been somewhat restored , but has a view of the marshes now.  It is a popular place to hang out in the evenings and on weekends and is lined with Choripan stands (like an American hot dog stand).  I got to mind a choripan stand this morning for a few minutes as the owner desperately needed to go to a restroom and flagged me down.  She gave me a bottle of water which was very much appreciated by the end of my walk!

There were plenty of both native and invasive plants along my walk this morning, see some photos below.  Invasive plants included Arundo donax, Morus alba, Fraxinus pensylvanica (yup!), Acacia melanoxylon and Ailanthus altissima.

Arundo donax - invasive

Bauhinia - native

Solanum shrub

Lantana camara  - native

A Gentle Recovery from Our Flight

Yes, we seem to have discovered the secret to recovering from those overnight flights to Europe or South America.  Relaxing by the pool with a nice lunch after a soothing message is a great way to wait for one's hotel (or in this case apartment) to be ready.  Very civilized, indeed.  And something to look forward to on the 10 hour flight to Buenos Aires.  Wonderful.

Provisioning

Yesterday we settled in by getting our first withdrawal of pesos and grocery shopping.  Argentina's official exchange rate is about 5.5 pesos to the dollar, but the unofficial rate is about 6.7 pesos to the dollar.  If you withdraw money from an ATM or pay with credit cards you get the official rate.  If you bring dollars with you can apparently exchange them on the "blue market", but that requires finding a place or person who will offer a good rate.  We opted for the middle road of sending ourselves a weekly allowance through a company called Xoom that does money transfers around the world.  They currently have an exchange rate of 6.4 pesos to dollars and you pick up your money at a respectable looking office in the city center.  We brought dollars to pay for our apartment and some internal travel as you get a better deal that way.  Apparently with so many Argentines going on vacation this time of year to the U.S., it is particularly hard for the average citizen to find dollars right now.

With our new influx of pesos we went grocery shopping in our neighborhood.  First stop was the San Telmo Market, a market that covers most of a city block and has lots of food stalls as well as antique stalls, clothing stalls, etc.  We picked up the vegetables makings for ratatouille and a dozen eggs.  The eggs are wrapped up carefully in newspaper for transport!   We dropped those bags back at home and then went to the local Carrefour grocery store for the basics.  Their fruit and vegetable selection is rather limited and we noticed that eggs in the grocery cost twice as much as they did from the poultry market stall.  Carrefour everything else we needed though, except for peanut butter.  That may require a specialty shop or a really big grocery store!

We had gone to a local coffee shop, La Poesia, around 5pm for a "snack" of a lomo sandwich.  Expecting a small sandwich we were surprised when the waitress brought out a large tenderloin steak draped across a piece of bread.  Delicious!  We held off on making ratatouille until 10 pm too, so we are really feeling like we have gotten on the Argentine eating schedule now!

Argentine Arrival

We arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina at 7:30 am local time.  Jake had purchased Economy Plus seats on Delta, so instead of sardines we were sardines in an extra-long can for 10 hours.  We were in the middle row of 4 seats.  The other 2 seats were both occupied by people from Minnesota.  One is a corn and soybean farmer on vacation and the other was a young woman, recent grad school grad, who will start working for a seed company in March (one that the farmer buys from!).  First she is spending several weeks in Argentina and Mexico learning Spanish.

Arriving at B.A.'s international airport we stood in line for an hour to get to an immigration desk.  There we found out that we were supposed to purchase our visa first and that my visa for Chile does not have reciprocal status.  On to another line hidden behind the escalators that had just 4 self-service computers and printers where you go to a web site, fill in your personal info, pay $160 with a credit card, and print out your visa.  It took forever for people to figure out how to use the web site and how to type an @ symbol using an Argentine keyboard (its Alt 6,4 should you ever need to know!).  There was a whole lot of griping in that line! Next time we will know to get the visa online before leaving home! Skipped to the front of the immigration line this time, found our luggage which had been put in a pile since our flight had arrived so long ago, and waited in another line to go through customs.  Leaving the airport by 10 am.

Now things started looking up though!  We took a taxi to the Hotel Maison Vitraux, http://www.mansionvitraux.com/, in San Telmo where we got a tour of the spa facilities and had a one hour massage.  Soooo relaxing.....  Highly recommended post-10 hour flight.

Front of our apartment building in San Telmo

The dining room and doors to the balcony

View from the balcony on market day

Not quite stray dogs

Our landlady was waiting for us at the door to our apartment building, first photo, and it was just as it had been depicted - a lovely high-ceilinged, Paris-like apartment overlooking Avenida Defensa in San Telmo (photo 2 and 3).

Sunday is the big antiques and crafts market in San Telmo, so Av. Defensa is very busy on Sundays. We can watch the people go by from our little balcony.  We went out and had a cafe con crema and very good apple pastry at Cafe Poesia about a block away on Chile street then strolled around some (dog photo is from one of the larger streets, they seemed well cared for given the circumstances).  We will attempt to convert to the Argentine schedule of having a light dinner around 10 pm.  I know, you're thinking "good luck with that!".