We knew nothing about tango but we knew they were good. Show-stopping. Eye-catching. Some say the professional flashy tango is not the real tango, nothing more than a choreographed show for tourists. But their dance had a calmness at its core, a grace, and a subtlety mixed with the lifts, kicks and spins – the flash of an eye, the tilt of a finger, a … Continue reading The Faves.
We avoided La Boca for a long time. I love colour, but the idea of tacky, touristy El Caminito, the little street with painted houses, left me cold. But then I heard about Benito Quinquela Martin. Martin and La Boca are intertwined. In 1890 he was left, wrapped in a cloak, at the door of the Sisters of Charity. Written in pencil, on a silk … Continue reading La Boca.
Streets go on forever in Buenos Aries; at several kilometers long, we realised they must go through various incarnations before merging with another and becoming something else entirely. One day, just for fun, we set out to walk the length of Lavalle to spot it’s changes. These are our best days, meandering, pootling, – with no particular place to go. Who doesn’t love a good … Continue reading Lavalle.
I asked the magician next door if he tangoed. ‘Not really’ he replied, but he did say there was a practica* a few meters from our front door every Thursday evening. ‘Can anyone go?’, I asked, ‘just to watch?’ ‘Sure’, he nodded. So exactly a week after Marabu, we presented ourselves at the Club General Belgrano at Cochabamba 444. The door was wide open and … Continue reading Tango – an embrace.
Half way through our stay, we wanted to ditch the guidebook and do our own thing. The barrio of Barracas isn’t mentioned in the Lonely Planet – isn’t on the tourist radar at all, as far as I can tell, which seemed good enough reason to go for a walk there and to go with the flow. Once a wealthy barrio, Barracas was hit by … Continue reading Barracas.
Wondering Woman 