ZEN AND THE ART OF TANGO
(Aventuras Argentinas
Part 2)
After a long flight from the USA,
we landed in Buenos Aires at about 9:00 AM on December 30th. First, we got some
cash at an airport ATM, then we took a taxi to a guesthouse that we thought
might be nice in Palermo Viejo, an upscale neighborhood in Buenos
Aires. Surprise, surprise, in person, it didn't look
as nice as the photos on the web. So after a few false starts and about 2 hours
of looking, we picked another place we had found on the web. It is a large room
with private bath in a 3 bedroom apartment with a kitchen, dining room, and
dance studio. The other two bedrooms are rented out to foreigners as well - one
a guy from France and the other a Serbian women who is now a US
citizen. For $120 per week, it's a pretty good deal.
After finding a place to stay, our
next major order of business was to figure out what we were going to do for New
Year's eve. That was the one problem
with arriving so close to New Year's - not enough time to get the lay of the
land and check out various clubs. We
ended up at a nice restaurant with beautiful presentation, but average food.
Every plate looked like a work of art, some lived up to their appearance,
others not as well. They had a Brazilian
drumming group - with the requisite scantily clad dancer and then a group of
Mariachis. At about 11:45 they
handed out noise makers and glasses of champagne and we all welcomed the New
Year. (Happy New Year to everyone!)
We got to the restaurant relatively
early - 9:30 PM and it was pretty
empty. By 11:00 it was close to full
and people kept coming. The average dinner time in BA seems to be around 10:00, but it was later on New Year's Eve. Many
restaurants don't open until 8:00. The
discos, night clubs, dance places don't even open up until 11:00 or midnight
and get crowded around 2:00 AM. So,
we've moved our schedule to be a pretty late one. We've never gone to bed
before 2:00 AM or gotten up earlier
than 10:00AM (Which suits Paul just
fine)!
So far, Buenos
Aires is unlike any other Latin American city we have
seen. It's much more like New York City. The area we are staying in is mixed
residential and light commercial - restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, butcher
shops, internet cafes, etc. The residential tends to be multi-story (6-10)
apartment buildings, but the place we are staying in is only two stories. Lois
compares it to the Upper East side of Manhattan
with shorter buildings.
There is clearly regular trash
removal and the streets are clean. There is lots of pedestrian traffic, but the
sidewalks are not crowded and the car & bus traffic appears to obey all
street signs and rules of the road.
Toilet paper, which seems to be such a valuable commodity in much of Latin
America can be found in almost every bathroom, along with paper
towels or automatic electric hand driers. We see many dogs and dog walkers
(trailing 6-10 dogs each!), but almost no strays. There is an excellent subway
system, clean, reliable and with frequent service - much better than in DC, but
not as good as NYC.
Given that immigrants from all over Europe
came to Buenos Aires, it's not
surprising to see that they come in all shapes and sizes. There is much less
indigenous (Indian) blood here than in Mexico,
Central America or Northern South America. Many fashionably dressed people and no more,
maybe less homeless and street people than in New York
or Washington. In fact, it seems
that economically, things have improved considerably from the crash. (When the
Argentine peso lost two thirds of its value).
There is a definite cafe culture
here. Everywhere we go, there are nice little cafes with tables and chairs on
the sidewalk where you can sit and watch the world go by while you sip your coffee. A number of the places have free wireless web
access, in case you brought your laptop with you.
We have found the Porteños to be very
friendly and helpful. Before any conversation begins, you get a "Hola, que
tal" or "Hola, Buenos Dias". Sometimes, it comes with a kiss on
the cheek. Double kisses for women or a man and a woman and single kisses for a
man and a man.
The things we have seen that were
just like the rest of Latin America were the cemetery
and the churches. We visited Recoleta cemetery which can best be compared to
Colon Cemetery in Havanna. It was mostly above ground tombs, some simple and
others ornately carved marble and granite. Many were fine works of art. We saw
mostly Spanish and Italian names with some French, German, English and Slavic
as well. We just walked around the
cemetery since we haven’t been able to make a guided tour which starts at the
ungodly hour of 11:00 AM. One unique
church was in the Belgrano neighborhood and was a circular dome with columns
all along the edge of the circle, similar to the Pantheon in Rome,
although not as large.
The weather has been hot with a high
around 90 degrees, but there is almost always a nice breeze (thus the name Buenos
Aires - Good Winds). It drizzled slightly one day, but
most days have been partly sunny. The evenings are perfect. Paul has been
wearing shorts and teva sandals every day which is all he really wants from
life!
On Monday, January 2nd, we took our
first Tango class from an instructor our apartment-mate Vera recommended. Well,
he might have been a great instructor, but the class was huge and we were sort
of lost in the crowd. The next day, we decided to take lessons with Ernesto
Carmona who was recommended by Ed Fizdale, a Tango dancer in DC that some of
you may know. The class only had 8
people in it, but Ernesto immediately saw that we were in dire need of serious
help. We went into another studio where someone else gave us what amounted to a
private 1 1/2 hour lesson with Ernesto checking in every 15 minutes or so to make
sure it was going well and add a few comments of his own. Ernesto and his
assistant were both great teachers who were not shy about correcting you until
you did it right.
We returned to Ernesto's for Tango
lessons every night since and have been finding it hard but enjoyable
work. Of course, one of the first things
they did was to contradict just about everything we had been taught in the US
where we had taken a set of 6 lessons. However, the dancers here are truly
phenomenal and the lessons far better than in the US.
So what, exactly, is an Ernesto Tango
lesson like? Well, they start at 6:00, but when you get there, first you greet
everyone who arrived before you with a "Buenas Tardes" and a kiss on
the cheek, then you hang out for a while and chat - he has a hammock and a
couple of cushioned chairs on the rooftop patio outside the dance studio.
Around 6:30 or so, when there is a
critical mass of 7 or 8 people, Ernesto says "Vamos" or
"Empezamos" (ie. let's start) and one of the students starts some music.
Everyone goes into the studio and starts dancing while Ernesto sits and watches
or eats some fruit or drinks mate. At the end of the song, he'll make some
comments about various students dancing, ask students questions or show someone
what they did wrong. We switch partners and it starts all over again.
We haven't seen Ernesto teach a
single move or pattern, just focus on people's form and the basics of the
dance. It's always fun loving, but he can pick on you pretty mercilessly. ie.
Paul, sit in this chair, show me, how do you drive? Do you use your eyes? Do
you use your hands? Do you use your feet? When Paul answered yes to all three,
he says, "Well why don't you use them to Tango as well!?".
Yesterday, we showed up for the 6:00 class and there were four women and Paul.
Not a pretty situation for those women who probably weren't sure if they would
rather dance with Paul or solo! It was a particularly hot afternoon and we
weren't particularly motivated, so we sat there and talked, and talked, until
people started showing up for the 8:00 lesson and then we started around 8:30.
Ernesto was still in a talking mood, because he went into a speech about what
is Tango. It was from the heart and very philosophical and amounted to Tango is
the heart and soul of Buenos Aires,
it’s the wind, the noise of the traffic, the people in the street, the food,
the culture. It is not just a dance. You have to feel all of this when you
dance Tango. Tango is a living, breathing entity; the music is nothing without
the people. We were waiting for him to use the term "grasshopper",
but since he doesn’t speak English, we never heard it!
The food in Buenos
Aires has been anywhere from good to amazing. As Paul
is a specialist in desserts, eating them whenever possible, we can say that we
have not been suffering here. One night,
Paul ordered the apple pie with ice cream. It seemed to take a while to come
and we wondered if they had forgotten our order, but just as Paul was about to
give up hope, out comes the waiter with a miniature (5¨ in diameter) apple pie
in a ceramic pie pan. It was piping hot, just out of the oven, so you could see
the steam rising off the pie. Over the
pie was a scoop of vanilla ice cream which was melting fast. It was so
delicious that Paul almost refused to share any with Lois!
We went to a Spanish seafood
restaurant recommended by one of the students at Ernesto's. Paul ordered "Besugo a la Vasca" -
baked sea bream with sweet red peppers, sliced potatoes, about 10 cloves of
sliced garlic and olive oil - A true culinary treat. The steak may be good in Argentina,
but that was the best entree we have had to date. Of course, we had to get
dessert so Paul ordered a chocolate soufflé with ice cream. It took a while,
but it was TO - DIE - FOR. It was a
little mini soufflé with a hard crust of chocolate on the outside and soft,
rich, gooey, warm chocolate on the inside. A perfect combination which the
hazelnut ice cream complemented very nicely.
We don't think we’re going to lose any weight on this trip...
This e-mail is dedicated to ED.
Thanks for all the good restaurant recommendations and recommending our new Zen
master, Ernesto!
Paul
& Lois
Buenos Aires, Argentina
January 8, 2006
All content is copyright © Paul
Schneider, 2006.
