Buenos Aires Sat - Mon

City tour: we decided to take a tour of BA. A dodgy bus picked us up at the hotel and toured round half the city before the guide actually got on! The first point of interest was the "englishman´s tower" which unfortunately was covered in anti British graffiti relating to the Malvinas (Falkland Island´s). The guide made the fatal Basil Fawlty mistake and did indeed mention the war!

Tango Show: One even we signed up for a Tango Show. We did not really know what to expect but being driven out to a warehouse in the dodgy suburbs of BA was not it! We arrived at "Señor Tango´s" which basically consisted of a large shed but inside was decked out like an old music hall. We didn´t really have a clue what was going on but fortunately there were also some American Dominicans (I think that´s what you call people from Dom Rep) on our bus who spoke English and Spanish and they looked after us! The show started with some fighting and people on horses on the round revolving stage (real horses!) then progressed to some cracking tango dancing followed by and old crooner singing sentimental spanish songs! Of course whilst Sam had nipped off to the toilet I got spotted in the audience and the compere started gabbling at me in Spanish. I managed to grasp that he was asking where I was from but that was about it. Fortunately I was not dragged on to the stage as another poor chap was for a spot of Tango! The evening was rounded off with a cheesy rendition of "don´t cry for me argentina" and a large flag being unfurled from the roof. Photo of Señor Tango to follow!

Ben.

La Boca
The area called 'La Boca' is a brightly painted, tango-fest of a place. For the tourists really but fun all the same. We stopped there briefly on our City Tour and decided it was worth going back another day so we went along for lunch in one of the restaurants.



People are doing tango everywhere.. on streets and in restaurants around the tables despite the fact these are small restaurants with tables crammed in. The restaurant we chose was no exception and after a bottle of red wine with our lunch and having been asked several times if I would dance I caved in and agreed. (I cannot dance proper dances at all and he was expecting me to do the Tango!) Anyways I was tipsy by now and I reckon I did alright :-)
Ben chickened out of dancing but did have his photo taken with the lady tango dancer - he had to lift her up on his knee...v. funny.. will try uploading photo but it's v. dark and sideways.

Sam