There are certain things which only make sense in Buenos Aires. To anyone who has visited, this will make perfect sense: you’re tired from lack of sleep due to last night’s milonga, so you go for a nap in the evening and wake up around midnight ready for your next one. Repeat daily. Or on Fridays and Saturdays only, in my case!

That was Diego, in this case, but I entirely understood the sentiment. After four hours of sleep, I thankfully returned to sleep a little later and emerged around noon. But still went back to bed at around 7.30pm ready for a nap before we left at 9pm …

The afternoon had been quite busy. Tina had a reflexology appointment, while my own daytime activities comprised a huge amount of tea and coffee drinking.

One thing you quickly learn in tango generally, and in Buenos Aires in particular, is that milonga websites are not to be trusted. Hoy Milonga is not to be trusted. The single source of truth in the milonga world is Facebook.

Laura invited us to join her at La Milonga del Moran, where there would be a live orchestra. I looked it up to see which one it was. Their website denied there was a band. Hoy Milonga denied that there was a band. But their Facebook page confirmed that it would be Los Reyes Del Tango, a really fun band we first danced to at Marabu back in 2019.

Milonga 14: La Milonga del Moran

This was about as far out of the centre as the accidental glorieta, and is similarly a local one – though as it’s monthly, has a much better attendance!

The venue wins no points for atmosphere – it’s inside a cavernous baseball court with glaring white lights. The floor was also of variable quality, some parts sticky, some super-polished. Oh, and occasional dips.

But none of that mattered: the company couldn’t be bettered; the Malbec was better than drinkable; the empanadas were the real deal; and the band was just incredible! Even better than I remembered them. Oh, and Laura had secured the best table in the place, directly in front of the stage.

It was more of a social evening than a dancing one, but it was certainly quality over quantity. This included two or three tandas with Laura, which were absolutely delicious. In the final one, there was room to walk, which was just a dream after so many packed milongas!

In theory, we were going on at 2am to meet Diego in another milonga, but Tina needed to pack before her 7am departure. The plan was to drop me at the milonga, which was on the way home, but we had to get an Uber and he wasn’t allowed to accept intermediate destinations. Plan B was for me to come home with her, then grab a taxi to the milonga. But coming home proved fatal to my plans; I decided to make up for it with two milongas the next day.

Poor Tina was still packing when I went to bed at 4am, with the taxi due to collect her at 7am for her ride to the airport. My own plans were to stay in bed for rather longer.