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The time has come …

Today was the last day of A5, my 5th sojourn in Argentina. Hard to believe it’s almost half a year since I arrived, it has gone by so blindingly fast.

Last night I went with six of my best friends to our favourite restaurant, La Gran Parilla in San Telmo. That’s our traditional place for birthdays and despedidas — farewell parties. This time I had both! I have a milestone birthday coming up on May 13, so they made it a double event. It was lovely. Juicy Argentine beef and good friends — what more could you ask?

 

 

A few weeks ago I wrote about trying a new art form called acrylic pouring. Well, I had so much fun with it that I decided to make one for each of my friends. Here they are on my bookshelf before I gave them out. I think I’ll continue with this in Toronto as it was so much fun.

 

On Monday my friend Lola and I went to a milonga. It was great. We both danced lots, with really good dancers. Here’s a photo of one of my partners, Carlos. He was a great tanguero and I hope to dance with him again in A6.

After last night’s party, I spent most of today by myself. I did have breakfast with Venetia, and my last tango lesson of A5 with Alejandro, but after that I just chilled by myself. I had empanadas at El Sanjuanino (best in the city), and then went to La Biela, where I had their decadent apple crepe with a glass of white wine. Just to round things off, I went for a stroll around the area afterwards, and took a shot of the lovely Nuestra Señora del Pilar church. Then home to finish packing — oh joy!

So tomorrow Cecilia is picking me up at 8.30 am to go to the airport. I am having four days in Panama on my way back to Toronto. It might help, but honestly, every year it gets harder to leave my beautiful Buenos Aires. Has the time come for me to just move down here and become a real expat? Hmmm.

I will post again from Panama.

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Sinfonia Toronto

Last night we had a treat, when an orchestra from Canada performed at the concert venue we usually go to. Originally I thought  it was the Toronto Symphony (unlikely, as the concerts are free!) and it turned out to actually be called Sinfonia Toronto. They are a chamber orchestra, so all strings. There was also a solo clarinetists, and they played a good variety of music. When they came back for an encore they played music by a well loved, but controversial, tango composer, Astor Piazzola.

They did an interesting thing I never saw before. They were standing throughout the concert, and in one piece they all strolled across the stage while playing their violins and stopped on the other side. Then they did the opposite in the next movement. Very attractive.

Our group of five went out to eat something afterwards — it was about 10.30 pm, which is just about right for dinner here. But the concert hall is in the business district, so most of the restaurants were closed. We eventually found a Spanish restaurant open, and got a table. Just as we sat down, someone noticed that a bunch of the musicians were at another table!

I went over and introduced myself and congratulated them on the concert. They have been touring various places in South America, but loved Buenos Aires (of course, what’s not to love?) When we were leaving they were still there, so I introduced them to my Argentine friends, and one English, and they were delighted to be recognized. Audiences here are knowledgeable and appreciative, and I was happy that they got such thunderous applause for their work.

Sorry about the quality of the photo, but it was the best my phone could do in the dim light.

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One of the Highlights Every Year!

Every year as my time in Argentina is winding down, Alejandro and I do a video of one of my tango lessons. This time we did two — one standard speed and one more uptempo. And there’s an outtake too — Alejandro had been drinking maté before I got there and he was wired! This bit of silliness was the result! Hope you enjoy all three.


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A Goodbye Party for Me

My friend Cecilia is part of a social group called Ruta 40, because they originally met many years ago around their common passion for traveling Argentina along Ruta 40. They meet once a month at somebody’s home, and over the past couple of years they have welcomed me into their group. They are lovely people and I always enjoy the parties.

This one was at Cecilia’s house, and the main idea was a goodbye party for me, as I am leaving in less than two weeks (sigh!) When I arrived, Cecilia had written a message in soap on a big mirror, and over the course of the night everyone took up the soap and added their names. It was hard to take a photo because of the lighting, but here it is anyway.

The translated message reads, “Helen, bon voyage. We’ll see each other in A6”. As you may know, all my Argentina adventures are labelled with an “A” for Argentina. This one is A5, and in November I will start A6.

 

Instead of the usual asado, this time we had Peruvian food, courtesy of Cecilia and her niece Nicole, from Lima. The main dish was a delicious stew of meat and potatoes called carapulcra, and one of the desserts was a delicia de limón. There was also a tasty non-alcoholic drink called chicha morada, with a base of black corn — although with all the Malbec flowing around the table, it didn’t get much of a chance to shine! It was all yummy.

I made this little video just to give you a flavour for the party spirit. I hope you enjoy it.

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Two Very Different Tango Evenings

There are many people here in Buenos Aires who love tango music, but don’t dance. It’s such a complex and varied form of music that it’s possible to enjoy it on many levels. As you know from my posts here, my preference is to dance, but I also love being exposed to other forms. This past week brought two such opportunities.

La Hora del Tango

On Wednesday night Venetia and I went to the Kirchner Cultural Centre to see something called The Hour of Tango, and neither of us was quite sure what it was all about. It turned out that La Hora del Tango is the name of a television series that is currently being produced, and this was the final episode. So the show was being recorded for television, which of course made it a whole different experience. There were takes and retakes, and a great deal of “hurry up and wait”, which stretched the hour out beyond two hours! The process was a bit tedious, but the tango itself was lovely.

A full tango orchestra performed by itself first, and then provided accompaniment for a troupe of at least a dozen dancers. We saw the first dance number twice, as apparently there was a small technical problem at the end, which was fine for the audience but I’m not sure how the dancers felt about it!

We had a couple of tango songs from Chico Navarro, who is very old now but was apparently a very big deal in his day and the audience loved him.

I have no photos of this, because they wouldn’t let us take any because of the television people.

Lola Mora at Bar Celta

One of the Bares Notables I’ve visited for my research was Bar Celta, and I remember reading that they had live music downstairs. Lola recently discovered a whole series called Music at the Bares Notables, and last night we went to see the show downstairs at Bar Celta.

Lola Mora (no relation to my friend Lola!) is a duo of women, one pianist and one violinist, who play a wide range of music but with a specialty in tango. They were fabulous! What musicians they were!

Here’s a short video clip of just one of their songs. This is a famous song called Adios Nonino, by a famous and controversial Argentine tango musician of the fifties called Astor Piazzola. He wrote it after learning that his father had died while he was off on a tour — the title roughly translates as “Goodbye Daddy”. As you can tell from the comments by my friends, it’s a well loved popular favourite.

And just to round things off, tonight I’m off to the milonga to actually dance tango — still my favourite!

 

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Milonga Obelisco

This is the milonga I went to last night with my friends Lola and Viviana. We had such a great night!

It’s a friendly crowd, with what we call here buena onda — similar to good vibes in English. All three of us danced a lot, and I was delighted I was even able to dance a presentable milonga. The milonga is not only the place to dance tango, but it’s also a variation of tango. I love watching people dance it because it’s fast, and it’s such a happy dance, but I’ve been a bit intimidated by it in the past because of the fast footwork. But I had a lovely partner who led me beautifully into it, and I danced blissfully, eyes closed, around the floor.

Love tango. Love the milonga. Love Buenos Aires!!

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Swan Lake

Last night I went with a group of people from InterNations to see a beautiful production of Swan Lake, performed by the National Ballet of Russia at the Teatro Grand Rex. Earlier this year, we saw the ballet on the big outdoor screen beside the Teatro Colon, that one being the classic version choreographed by Rudolph Nureyev. I have to say I like last night’s version better, as it had more life and a lyrical quality I didn’t see in the other one. Of course, to be fair, a live performance is almost always better than a filmed version, even on a huge screen such as that one.

Argentines love culture, and there’s a great deal of it to be had in Buenos Aires, absolutely free — although that wasn’t the case last night. I must say I’ve never seen an audience’s appreciation of ballet expressed with the “hooting and hollering” I heard last night! They clapped, they cheered, sometimes even sort of screaming as they would at a rock star! It was altogether a very Buenos Aires sort of event, and of course we loved it.

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Special Milonga

On Sunday night I went with my friend Lola to the milonga at La Nacional, but this was a special charity milonga. There was no fixed price to get in, and you just donated whatever you wanted. I put just a bit more than I would normally pay, but some people must have been extremely generous because they raised 90,000 pesos, or almost $1,400. The money goes towards education in the rural areas of Argentina, so it was a good cause. They do this every month for a different charity — sadly I’ll have left by the time next month’s rolls around.

At one point during the evening there was a break from the dancing, and we were treated to two exhibitions. One was a couple dancing a very nice tango, and the second was this exhibition of a folkloric dance called the Chacarera. Its origins are in the mountains, and it’s a very lyrical, romantic dance of flirtation between the couple.

As I have just over three weeks left before I leave this time, I’ll be going to a lot of milongas between now and then!

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Birthday candles, Argentine style

Blowing out candles on a birthday cake is the same tradition down here as in Canada, but the candles are different! I’ve seen this several times, but this is the first time I remembered to catch it on video.

It was Cecilia’s son Joaquin’s birthday last weekend, and we had a lunch for him on Sunday at Cecilia’s house. So this is the birthday candle ceremony, Argentine style — although it’s not always with dogs!

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Catch-up Time

I knew I hadn’t been keeping up with my posts, but I was surprised to see it had been a couple of weeks since I’ve been here. Combination of work, lots of social dashing about and yet another summer cold!

I’ve continued to visit the bares notables with various friends. Here are a couple of shots from one of the most interesting, Los 36 Billares. There aren’t 36 billiard tables, but I think I counted about twenty, some in the main cafe area and a bunch downstairs.

 

These next three photos are of the oldest, and certainly among the best kept of the Notables, Cafe Tortoni. Definitely a tourist trap, often with a lineup to get in, but well worth it. I always enjoy soaking in the ambience in Tortoni with its pictures and its lovely art deco ceilings.

Cecilia and I, and her Peruvian friend’s daughter Nicole, went away for an overnighter on Good Friday to Chivilcoy, a provincial town a couple of hours away from Buenos Aires, to visit Cecilia’s daughter Macarena. Summer made a spectacular return — sunny and very hot the whole time we were there. This was a bonus, and allowed us to have a real mini-vacation. We sat in the plaza on Friday evening and drank mate, and then joined the Good Friday procession into the cathedral. Then we went home and retired to the backyard with malbec, where we played cards until two o’clock in the morning!

Now it seems it actually is fall, and we are getting a bit of rain. But it’s only a month till I go back to Canada, so I’m determined to make the most of every day and evening — rain or no rain!

I’ll try to keep up the blog better for the remaining weeks of A5. That’s “Argentina 5” if you haven’t read my book yet — and if you haven’t yet, you can get it at http://amzn.to/2oddkmF !