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CHAPTER 20 A Taste of Buenos Aires.

(Or some things I wish someone had told me before I arrived!) Having just returned from a visit to Buenos Aires, I thought I would write a few words in the hope that it would assist tango lovers to plan their own trip. I wish to make it plain at the outset that this was a short visit, just before Christmas, and what I am about to say is one person's entirely subjective experience, gained over a very short period of time. Nonetheless, I wish I had known these things at the start of the trip. I am a man who probably enjoys doing the homework for a trip as much as the trip itself so I had thought I had covered all the bases. I was so wrong.

Many tangueros and tangueras feel the need to make a pilgrimage to the place in which tango was born and they are tempted all the more when they see fantastic Argentine dancers who tour our countries teaching. I don't quite know what I expected to see. I had delayed for a long time fearing that what I would discover was that the whole thing was a sham, a facade of tacky nonsense. I have to admit that I saw plenty of that but there was enough wholesome, solid dancing to be seen and done if you had good advice about where to look for it. One UK dancer with considerable experience of the tango scene in Buenos Aires, going back many years suggested to me that the ‘real, authentic tango’ had all but disappeared and made it plain that nostalgia was all that was left. I found this assessment most discouraging but I now believe it to be quite false. Tango continues to evolve wherever it is enjoyed.

The flight from the UK is long. To make it anything like economical you simply have to travel like cattle in economy class and that usually means hopping first to Frankfurt with Lufthansa, Rome with Alitalia or Paris with Air France. BA does a direct flight from Heathrow but it is more expensive and only sensible if you live near to London. For us in the Midlands it made more sense to start at Birmingham and fly to Frankfurt. However, as far as I can see, all the long haul flights stop to refuel at Sao Paulo. This means that after the quick flight to a European staging hub you suffer another 11 hours in the air, then an hour on the ground and then another 2-hour flight from Brazil before you arrive, shattered, in Bs As.

The best advice I was given, and took, was to avoid alcohol, wear flight socks and take a really good neck pillow, not one of the inflatable sort but something much more substantial. It worked for me.

Accommodation

Buenos Aires, as you might imagine, is full of hotels and several friends of ours have been quite comfortable, even in the most Spartan of these. We decided however that renting an apartment would work better for us and so it proved. We like to slob about without worrying about maids needing access. We like a decent bath and a sitting room separate from the bedroom in case one of us wants sleep and the other to watch TV. Hotels rarely provide this and besides, we wanted the ability to cook and wash and iron a few things so we could travel very light. When I talk about cooking, I want to make it plain that, particularly in a city with millions of great restaurants and amazingly cheap food 24 hours a day, what I mean is the nice thing of having a fridge stocked with breakfast goodies, bottled water and wine and fruit. It’s nice too to have somewhere to hang out a pair of knickers to dry without offending the management.

To start with, we had arranged a small flat through an Internet acquaintance but, when we told our closest friends in Buenos Aires exactly where it was, they were appalled. It seems that there are certain areas of the city where crime is rife, usually because of drugs. Our friends suggested some safer alternatives and we were glad they did. In the end, using a company called ByTargentina we rented a superb apartment in Puerto Madero. This is the area that used to be the docklands and is in the process of being converted from warehousing into hotels and apartments. It is the swankiest part of town with the biggest Hilton Hotel I have ever seen and we felt very safe there. Part of the reason for that was that being under the dock authority, it has its own distinct police force. In case you think I have over stated the security issue, let me tell you that every bridge entrance to this 'island' of Puerto Madero has a police car with two armed officers standing on guard 24 hours a day as well as beat officers seemingly at most street corners. That has to tell you something.

We were able to rent for as many days as we wished. It was an easy process to arrange this online and everything we had been promised was correct. We liked the fact that we had a 24 hour concierge and were given several emergency numbers to use in case of problems. I think the company earned their commission and it was good to feel that you could walk to shops and restaurants in safety. Otherwise, the general advice given to us by our local friends was never walk the streets after dark but always call a taxi.

This all made us feel both anxious about general security but reassured that we had a safe bolthole and we would recommend ByTargentina from that point of view. However - just to underline the fragile state of the local economy – you might like to consider this fact. Unlike any arrangement you might make in the UK, we were obliged to pay in cash in US dollars up front on arrival and pay an additional returnable one week's rent, also in US dollars. I assume that this was to ensure we did not smash the place up and skip with the furniture. The company were excellent and honoured the agreement to the letter. On the day of departure, at the crack of dawn, along came the owner's representative to check us out, ensure we had left the place clean and tidy as we had found it. We were obliged to clean it well though not deal with linen or towels provided.

Had we not stayed in Puerto Madero, we would have liked to have stayed in a flat in an area called Palermo where one of our friends lives. This too is a peaceful area with wonderful restaurants, parks and, best of all, some amazing dress shops. Walking around this area with our friends felt quite safe. ByTargentina had several pleasant looking flats to let there too.

END

Dear Reader,


I do hope that you have enjoyed the short extracts from the book, "A Passion for Tango" I hope you have been amused, intrigued or even stirred up by some of the things I have discovered in my journey through the Tango scene. I think I have gained some insight into how and why Tango works, thanks in great measure to the patience, kindness and knowledge that have been given me so generously by Mike Rose and Rodolfo 'el chino' Aguerrodi. These two friends are my mentors and my inspiration, when, as with anything in life we try, I get blue about my lack of skills and progress. I hope that this book can spread their philosophy of what makes Tango work and so raise the spirits of other tangueros and tangueras.

Now it is in the shops, buy a copy, why don't you?


ˇViva el Tango!


David Turner

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