The whole idea to go to Buenos Aires while we are in Brazil came from a friend of ours in Hungary who has travelled all over the world (literally). When he told us that we must go there because it is a fantastic city we believed him because it is not very easy to impress him. Also, when we were in Rio in February and stayed at our friend’s, Riff’s house, he had a world atlas on the wall marking where he had been before. One day we asked each other about the five dream destinations we have – one of mine was Buenos Aires. So we decided to go. And it was the best decision!
We fell in love with Buenos Aires as soon as we got there. On the way from the airport our taxi driver – in the very funny English they all speak there – explained us his incredibly mixed origin and very proudly told us that in Buenos Aires there is no racism, everybody is equal. This was a very sympathetic start. We stayed in a hostel right in the centre of the city – a very convenient location and an absolutely OK room (it looked much nicer on pictures but nevertheless for the price we paid it was more than good). First of all – Buenos Aires is very cheap now. It is incredibly cheap compared to Brazil – everything costs at least half of what it costs here: taxis, accommodation, public transport, not to mention clothes, electronic goods and CDs. I don’t think I have to say that we came back again with about 30 CDs and DVDs – tango, what else?
We were walking a lot in the city, first we went to see Plaza de Mayo with the Government Palace. This is the famous square where the Madres de Mayo in their white scarves were protesting and demanding information about their disappeared sons, and from where Evita addressed her people. Walking on Avenida Mayo and the surrounding streets we felt at home – Budapest and Buenos Aires are strangely similar: the architecture, the streets, the condition of the houses, the cafes all reminded us of home. It feels that the two cities have a very similar past (but probably a very different future). When the film Evita was shot in Budapest, we had the fake palm trees around the central area of Pest – now we saw their original versions.
The scales are grand in BA – the squares are big, the avenues very wide. But of course there are barrios where you have small streets with very charming houses, like San Telmo. We spent the Sunday afternoon there to see the little cafés, antique and design shops, and the great antique market. During the market day there are many street performers in the streets – puppet shows, tango dancers, musicians, comedians. We had great fun and I bought a beautiful “filete de Buenos Aires” – this is the art of hand painted wood and metal boards in a kind of Art Nouveao style. (I think this will be a strong inspiration for the next Budapest Bar album cover…)
This area is very different from Porto Madero where we spent the morning – this is a rehabilitated area of old docks with fantastic modern buildings, a beautiful pedestrian bridge and very chic restaurants. The weather was beautiful and the whole area so pleasant, Robi and I decided that we want to live there one day.
On the way back to the hotel on Avenida Mayo there was a stage of free shows and we saw a really high quality orchestra tipica and some fantastic dancers. We talked to the musicians afterwards and by chance asked information from the producer himself and we were convinced to go to a tango show of theirs in the evening. In Buenos Aires one cannot avoid tango – not that we wanted to. There is tango everywhere – in the streets, in the shops, in the books, in the bars, in the cafes… There are special shops of tango shoes – the interesting development is that there are very cool looking clubbing shoes made for tango -, tango dresses, tango scores, tango instruments, tango memorabilia, everything. In the evening we went to see the show of Tango Porteno in an absolutely beautiful converted theatre. They took out the theatre chairs and changed them for tables – we just wished we had a place like this for Budapest Bar (Budapest Bar for those who don’t know is Robi’s band and music project reviving some great songs of the 30s and 40s of Budapest, including of course some tangos www.budapestbar.hu). We enjoyed the show so much (it started with a gypsy music inspired tango called Amor en Budapest) – it was really well done, very good musicians and dancers. Not at all something you would expect from a “tourist show”. It is worth checking out http://www.tangoporteno.com.ar/
The following day we decided to tango ourselves. It was not easy to drag ourselves out of the hotel room at 9pm because we were walking around the city all day to see some of the great sites including the colourful street in the barrio Boca called Caminito, the beautiful parks of Palermo and Retiro and the interesting Museum of Latin American Modern Art (MALBA). We also had a nice apple pie and icecream in the famous Café Tortoni.
We decided to go for an underground tango place for a milonga and class that was organised by the young orchestra Elafronte. It is good to see how young and very cool people also embrace this old tradition and dance tango amazingly well. First we took a class with a very nice young girl. It was very funny and not easy at all. By the end of it my feet and legs were in pain partly because of the tension all beginners experience I guess, partly because Robi was constantly kicking me. The idea is that the man leads and the woman has to feel what is happening and where to step. But it takes time to learn this. I guess, quite a lot of time. After the class people started to turn up, set down, changed their shoes and the milonga started. We saw some amazing dancers and we stayed for a while to listen to the band. We had a bottle of very good Argentinian wine, took a taxi and collapsed in our hotel room. Unfortunately we had to leave the following day and after a bit of shopping we went to the airport. Mi Buenos Aires Querida is one of the most famous songs of Carlos Gardel, the famous tango singer and personality. The people of BA love their city and we really join them in this sentiment.
This is a city where we want to go back for sure and spend more time – we had the impression that it was a really great time to visit now. The prices are low, it is a great time for tango (there were times when Portenos – this is what the people of Buenos Aires call themselves – were not very enthusiastic about tango), the food is excellent and the people are very cool. We were sad to leave but we were happy to come back to Brazil to meet our friends again.
I enjoyed reading your post and viewing your filming of my “adopted” city. In a few days you were able to experience the neighborhoods and see some of what this great city has to offer.
The tango duo are two of the finest–guitarist Anibal Arias and bandoneonista Osvaldo Montes. How unusual to see them in casual clothing on the street.
It was your good fortune to meet Juan Fabbri, the producer of Tango Porteno. Tickets are too high for the average porteno’s budget (from 240-600 pesos). The tango houses are performing outdoors for the first time, and you were there to see it.
It appears that you, like so many, fell in love with Buenos Aires and will return.
Janis
Chicagoan living ten years in BA
By: jantango on May 2, 2009
at 10:58 pm