The City of Buenos Aires

Day 1:  Saturday, March 17

Skylines and freeways

What a beautiful city! We were picked up at the airport along with about half of our group and taken to our hotel for a short rest and lunch before heading out with the entire group on a tour of the city’s major neighborhoods and attractions. Central Buenos Aires features a beautiful boulevard or parkway with one-way traffic on each side – four or five lanes going each way. The first impression is of a fresh, clean, vibrant city, quite European in flavor, with lovely old buildings with balconied windows.

One of the tall office buildings, the government department of social services  had two huge outline drawings of Eva Peron, one on each side. I was able to photograph one of them. She is very highly regarded. 

Evita's building

We stopped at the Main Square “Plaza d Mayo” which is surrounded by a number of historic buildings: the “Casa Rosada” or the  “Pink House”, which is the Presidential Headquarters Office, and the balcony from which Eva Peron made her famous speeches. Other beautiful structures included the “Cabildo”, the Colonial Town Hall, and the Cathedral. It was a gorgeous afternoon, and lots of people were out enjoying the sun and the sights.

Feeding the pigeons

Evita's 'Pink House'

The 'Calbildo' - the colonial town hall built by the Spaniards

An alcove in the church

Our new friend, George, jams with a Dixieland Band in Recoleta Park

We returned to the San Telmo area in the evening for tango lessons at El Viejo Almacen ,  known as the most traditional ‘tango palace’ of Buenos Aires. El Viejo Almacen (the old grocery store) was once the location of the British Hospital of Buenos Aires in the 1840s. It opened as a traditional Tango House in 1969. Our tango instructors were pair of dancers who performed later that night, and they were excellent. We learned the basic set of eight steps, a variation, and a finale, in which the woman places her knee on the outside thigh of her partner.  Lots of laughter, and a great way to start to get to the other members of our group of 24.

After our lesson, we went across the street for a lovely meal (the first of many!) and then returned to the ‘tango palace’ for a two hour show. Most of us thought we would never make it to midnight, but it was very engaging, and no one fell asleep. Four dance pairs performed variations of the tango, in single pairs or as larger groups. They were very talented and polished, and all of them were very sensuous in both their dress and their movements. The band consisted of a piano, two accordions, a violin and a bass, and they too performed with lots of passion. We loved the group of Indian musicians who sang and played traditional music – pan flute, flute, guitar, etc.  We were told how lucky we were to also hear an 85 year-old woman who was once an actress as well, I believe. She had a low, sensuous voice, and was really very good.

We were asked not to take photos of the performance. The tango dances covered several different time periods. All were excellent.This was the best video of the tango dancers at El Almacen that I could find on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO2emdst2Ls