Don't Cry for Me Argentina

Well, I am home now for a few days.

I think I was not very fair to BA with all due respect.

When all is said and done, we had a hell of a time. First of all, Dante, our guide was wonderful. When I get a minute, I will post his photo. I will post many others too from India and Argentina. He picked us up at the airport, gave us Tango lessons, and took us all over the place day and night (all hours of the night). He made sure we were safe, sound and having a good time. What more could anyone ask for? Oh, did I say he danced with us at every milonga too, even if we stepped on his feet or forgot all the wonderful moves he taught us? He only lost it once as far as I could see.

On the last night, he actually told me that I was doing Tango well. I felt very rewarded.

He said I should mention the name of the hotel that tried to screw us out of three nights stay not to mention no pool - Hyde Park. It's not that it was a bad place. It's just that integrity was not it's middle name.

Also, I want to take this time to mention some other wonderful finds - Fernando at the day trip location Tigre is the person to find for all kinds of boat trips around the islands. And he takes tours to Patagonia as well, although we could not arrange to go there. Flights must be booked way in advance at this time of year. next time, we will get there.

And then our favorite spot to shop was by far Ashanti - Leather factory. Now this place was 'da bomb!' They sat us down, served coffee and tea took great care of us. Anything we ordered, they either made in one day or made alterations in 15 minutes. This is the kind of place we loved. Compard to the non-existent customer service in the rest of BA, Ashati was an oasis. The owners were thoughful and so were the staff members. We spent a lot of time there schmoozing with them.

Finally, if you should be making a trip to Argentina and stop in Buenos Aires, and seem to not be able to find a decent salad, fear not. Just go to the Palermo neighborhood, especially the Jewish section. Find Aroma, a small chain of coffee shops. They have the most delicious salads pre-packaged and ready to go. We stopped being crazy around the time we found that place. Our search for broccoli had ended.

By the way, I took a Tango class last night in Delray Beach. As far as I'm concerned, my time in BA was well spent. All the men in the class wanted to dance with me (never happened before) and the women were friendly too asking where I had learned to dance.

Don't Cry for me Aregentina. I never left you. Tango is really in me now. And off I dance into the sunset wherever I am on the planet. You remember: Women and Men dancing in Eternal Ecstasy on Earth Now!

Tango Tango Tango

This is my last day in Argentina.

After all is said and done, I will miss it here. I have grown fond of it. I finally met some very great people here and Cheryl and I have been having some great fun the last few days.

Funny, we moved into this apartment a few days ago in order to to use the pool and the gym and the dance practice room. Not! It has rained here for the last three days. Oh well. Before that, it was too hot to workout and to use a room to practice dancing with no AC.

BUT...we went to this beautiful place named Tigre where five rivers come together. It took 40 minutes to get there by train and was just lovely. In between the confluence of the rivers, there were precious little islands where people had cute little houses and could only access them by boat. As a matter of fact, the grocery store comes to them by boat. They own canoes, row boats, skulls and motor boats. It´s a cross between Venice and Fire Island. And at the main river delta, Rio de la Platta, you can see the skyline of Buenos Aires. Very beautiful.

And yesterday we finally found food we loved - sushi. Plus we ate Chinese for dinner. At last some decent veggies.

Last night we saw a live show like a broadway show all about Tango - what else? The music and dancing was spectacular. We even knew one of the dancers in the show and when they came for the lst curtain call, he spotted us in the 2nd row and waved to us. We were so honored.

For our last Milonga, we went to an art deco place most likely built in the 20´s. Finally there was a live orchestra to dance to. What a difference. And the crowd was great. We really enjoyed it.

I am coming home with many new distinctions in dance, the main one being that I now am in my body when I dance Tango. I am no longer in my head thinking about what I´m doing. This is a very good feeling. I´m sure you can relate.

Hope all is well with you. Speak to you and see some of you soon.

Love,
Laurie