Category Archives: Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, Milonga, Outdoors, Private lesson, Spanish, Tango

Accidentally achieving one of my goals by going to the wrong milonga

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I slept for about nine hours, though still felt that was about ten hours short of the required quota. However, we did nothing in the morning, so a bit of lazing was the perfect start to the day.

This was helped considerably by my foresight. I’d decided that a one-month stay was more like short-term living than long-term holidaying, so had brought with me some key home comforts – including my favourite tea, infusers, and pint mug …

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Buenos Aires, Socialising, Tango

Way too little sleep, way too much food – and doing some technique exercises

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Yes, that photo does look exceedingly tilted, which is an entirely accurate impression of how I felt after dragging myself out of bed. (For the avoidance of doubt, those are not my toes: Tina took the photo.)

I fully intended to sleep in until around noon. I instead slept from 4.30am to 7.27am. The mystery of why this might be was solved when I realised I’d been so tired last night (well, this morning) that I’d put the shutters up instead of down. That’s about the state of my brain right now …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Spanish, Tango

Milonga 1: Sans Souci at La Nacional, with Orquesta Típica Misteriosa Buenos Aires

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I’m again numbering the milongas to help me keep track of them, but don’t expect anything like my previous crazy pace! One reason for staying here a month is to take things easy – an absolute maximum of one milonga per day. Yes, really. Honestly. You’ll see.

Knowing my love of live orchestras, Terry had pointed me to Sans Souci. We’d first been treated to a live performance of Orquesta Típica Misteriosa Buenos Aires at La Viruta on our previous visit, and I loved them! Terry kindly made reservations for us, as well as him and Rita …

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Buenos Aires, Spanish, Tango

Being astonished at the effectiveness of my pidgin Spanish

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I recently wrote on my (very occasional) general blog about my past experiences with trying to learn languages.

I’m generally a fast learner, and have picked up a fair number of skills in my life, but language learning has been one area where I appear to have pretty much zero ability to learn […] A concerted multi-year attempt at German, with very limited results, persuaded me that languages really weren’t my thing …

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Buenos Aires, Private lesson, Tango

Day two, and time for a tune-up with Laura Heredia

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My post-Feast tango famine had left me feeling a little rusty, so I’d booked a private with Laura for the second day of my stay, to work on my technique before I hit the first milonga.

I’ve been incredibly lucky with my teachers. For me, a great teacher needs the ability to combine three very different qualities …

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Buenos Aires, Tango

Arriving home in Buenos Aires

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I’ve been here exactly once before, for all of a fortnight. But as absurd as it may sound, there really was a sense of returning to a second home. I suspect I’m not the only returning tanguero/a to experience this feeling.

Staying in an apartment rather than a hotel, and for a month rather than a fortnight, added to the sense of a being a very short-term resident rather than a holidaymaker. The tiny airport terminal, the traffic on the taxi ride into the city, our apartment on a familiar street just two blocks from the hotel at which I’d stayed last time – the sights and sounds of the city all had an easy familiarity to them …

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Buenos Aires, Coronavirus, Tango

How to travel to Buenos Aires during COVID, in 11 easy steps

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Yep, really. Once you’ve booked your flight and accommodation, there are 11 further steps before you are ready to leave – most of which need to be done in the final 48 hours before you fly.

This guide is for UK passport holders travelling from the UK, and assumes you’ve had all three shots (you can’t visit Argentina if that’s not the case) …

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Buenos Aires, Coronavirus, Tango

After the Feast, a Covid-induced famine – but it’s about to end …

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It’s been over two months since my last tango blog, partly because I’m no longer blogging everything, but mostly because there’s been very little tango to blog about. I caught COVID shortly after the Feast (though probably not there), and since then have made it to exactly five milongas and one private.

That’s because, after a week of flu-like illness, I had about six weeks of almost zero energy – literally going to bed at 6pm or 7pm most nights …

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