Tuesday the 16th, Tom and I hit the road again. Before getting on the bus to Mar del Plata, we went to La Boca because I refused to leave Buenos Aires without seeing it. La Boca is a neighborhood, or barrio of Buenos Aires, with a "strong European flavor" since many of its early settlers were from the Italian city of Genoa. La Boca is known throughout the sporting world as the home of Boca Juniors, one of the world's top soccer clubs. The stadium looks crazy! It's a gigantic stadium that's yellow and blue and a ver different architectural style than any stadium I've seen. I really wanted to see the colorful houses and pedestrian street, the Caminito, where tangoa artists perform and tango-related memorabilia is sold. It was the perfect last thing to do in B.A.
At 2:30 pm, we boarded the bus and headed on our 4.5 hour journey to Mar del Plata, on the Atlantic Coast of Argentina. Stop #2 here we come. Bye, bye, Buenos Aires!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Whirlwind of Fun, part 3
Sunday was the perfect end to this FABULOUS weekend! We didn't get up till one pm and then we met up with Chris and Cassandra and headed to the San Telmo market. This market is one of those must-do things in B.A. It goes on and on for blocks and is just a huge open-air market. You can find just about anything and all your senses are accosted. I LOVED it! I'm a sucker for jewelry, and I found so much for sooooo cheap! It was great! I got 3 pairs of homemade earrings for 22 pesos ($6) total. Such a deal! haha and I also got a caricature done of me. It's really funny! Of course my cheeks are GIGANTIC!! I expected that one. The artist totally channeled me though and made me a tango dancer on stage :D It's convenient that Jocelyn is flying back to the States cause I can give her the stuff I bought that I don't want to lug around S. America with me.
After the market and a great lunch, that evening we went to a salsa club in Belgrano...died and went to heaven :D I've decided that when I get back to Chapel Hill in the Fall I really want to find a cool salsa place. Tango can't even touch how much fun salsa is. We danced for 2 hours. The first hour and a half was lessons, and the instructor was great. She was so energetic and full of life and excitement, it just rubbed off on you. Tomtom made me smile and laugh so much. It's amusing (in a good way) to watch him salsa :D He's got all the steps down, but he just looks so robotic. I'm trying to get him to flow. Trying to get him to feel the salsa style, but we both just end up laughing cause he doesn't seem to believe he has hips to use. I have faith in Tomtom though. According to Jocelyn, it's super comedic to watch us as I try and teach him to "flow"- I don't doubt her.
After the market and a great lunch, that evening we went to a salsa club in Belgrano...died and went to heaven :D I've decided that when I get back to Chapel Hill in the Fall I really want to find a cool salsa place. Tango can't even touch how much fun salsa is. We danced for 2 hours. The first hour and a half was lessons, and the instructor was great. She was so energetic and full of life and excitement, it just rubbed off on you. Tomtom made me smile and laugh so much. It's amusing (in a good way) to watch him salsa :D He's got all the steps down, but he just looks so robotic. I'm trying to get him to flow. Trying to get him to feel the salsa style, but we both just end up laughing cause he doesn't seem to believe he has hips to use. I have faith in Tomtom though. According to Jocelyn, it's super comedic to watch us as I try and teach him to "flow"- I don't doubt her.
Whirlwind of Fun, part 2
When we got back from Colonia, we showered and got dressed and then headed out to La Faina, which is supposedly one of the nicest hotels in all of South America- definitely the nicest one in Argentina. Tom's uncle is friends with the owner, so we got VIP access and treatment at the hotel. The owner was out of town, so we were shown around and set up by the right-hand-man, Juan. The best way to describe Juan is that he was the equivalent of a George Clooney in Buenos Aires. Juan allowed us to pick which of the really nice hotel restaurants we wanted, so we picked the lounge-bar/restaurant that had a younger crowd and a live band setting up. I've never felt so VIP before! Juan made an older wealthy couple move from their table (the best in the place), so that we could sit there. We got a REALLY nice bottle of champagne given to us compliments of the owner. When our waiter took some time to take our dinner order (not that it'd really been that long) Juan reprimanded the waiter and instructed him to wait on us at the ready. While our food was being cooked, Juan gave us a tour of the hotel and showed us the THREE-STORY apartments the SUPER wealthy people who live in the hotel stay in. I can't even conceive having the amount of money that would require. To stay in the cheapest room for one night is $700 and there were $2000 bottles of wine on the menu. REALLY!!
Dinner was AMAZING, to say the least, and the band was unbelievable. Literally. The lead singer of the band was a girl with an Amy Winehouse-esque voice in a bandeau top, short black skirt, beehive-style red turban, and yellow sunglasses. As she sang, she jumped on the couches and tables and danced everywhere. It was definitely an engaging performance. She got everyone up and dancing. The whole evening, I felt like I was living a Gossip Girls episode. It was very clear that everyone in the room was the uppercrust of B.A.- the socialites- and that everything the other women in the room were wearing were designer and bought from an expensive boutique. Can we say I felt underdressed?! It was a blast though cause everyone knew we were catered by Juan, so they thought we MUST be important people, and the place was just hands-down fun. Going back in after the hotel tour, Juan ushered us through the line of people waiting to get in. We just cut through and had the red velvet rope lifted up for us :D Can I also mention that there was a 500 peso cover (= $150) to get it. Yeah, we didn't pay anything. Surreal night! Guess I know now more what it's like to live the life of the rich and famous.
Little did we know, Juan is super legit. The next day, Maggie informed us that Juan is the big man of B.A. Everyone knows him and he runs the nightlife; kind of like a Paris Hilton, but without all the negatives. A mix of Paris and George Clooney. He comes from old money and is in his 30's and attractive, so he's always being photographed by the tabloids. She said she wouldn't have been surprised if there had been a picture of Juan and us on the cover of some magazine that day. haha now THAT would have been funny!
Dinner was AMAZING, to say the least, and the band was unbelievable. Literally. The lead singer of the band was a girl with an Amy Winehouse-esque voice in a bandeau top, short black skirt, beehive-style red turban, and yellow sunglasses. As she sang, she jumped on the couches and tables and danced everywhere. It was definitely an engaging performance. She got everyone up and dancing. The whole evening, I felt like I was living a Gossip Girls episode. It was very clear that everyone in the room was the uppercrust of B.A.- the socialites- and that everything the other women in the room were wearing were designer and bought from an expensive boutique. Can we say I felt underdressed?! It was a blast though cause everyone knew we were catered by Juan, so they thought we MUST be important people, and the place was just hands-down fun. Going back in after the hotel tour, Juan ushered us through the line of people waiting to get in. We just cut through and had the red velvet rope lifted up for us :D Can I also mention that there was a 500 peso cover (= $150) to get it. Yeah, we didn't pay anything. Surreal night! Guess I know now more what it's like to live the life of the rich and famous.
Little did we know, Juan is super legit. The next day, Maggie informed us that Juan is the big man of B.A. Everyone knows him and he runs the nightlife; kind of like a Paris Hilton, but without all the negatives. A mix of Paris and George Clooney. He comes from old money and is in his 30's and attractive, so he's always being photographed by the tabloids. She said she wouldn't have been surprised if there had been a picture of Juan and us on the cover of some magazine that day. haha now THAT would have been funny!
Whirlwind of Fun, part 1
This has probably been one of the BEST weekends (Fri-Sun) of my life!
Having a native Argentinean friend really has made A LOT of difference in how we've experienced BA...especially since our friend (MAggie) is super eager to show us everything the city has to offer both on the tourist track and on the native-track. Maggie's family consists of a ton of super artistically talented siblings, so Friday night (the 12th), she took us to her sister's Improv Tap show, in which another sister was singing and one of her brothers was the technical director. Her tapping sister is in a professional troupe and they were INCREDIBLE! I'd never seen an improv tap show before and it blew me away. SO much talent involved and SUCH a full body workout. I don't know how they were able to keep tapping so quickly and so emphatically for so long! The tap club had a very bohemian feel and it was very intimate but fun. One of those places that's really cool to go but you only know about if you're in the know. Everyone there was Argentinean and it was a cool atmosphere and way to spend our Friday night. Then after the show they played salsa music, so people randomly got up and danced. Of course I was on cloud 9 :D
Saturday, Tom, Jocelyn, and I took a day trip to Colonia, Uruguay, the oldest city in Uruguay and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. How baller is it that I can say I took a day trip to Uruguay! It's SO random! We took a fast ferry at 10 am, so we arrived an hour later. The historic quarter of Colonia is such a quaint, cute town- I really felt like I'd stepped back into time. Municipal elections are happening soon, so there were motorcades going up and down the main street of the town honking horns and waving signs to convince people to vote for their candidate. Cars, wagons, buses, you name it, drove by covered in signs or ads. Everything about it and where we were really made me feel like I was in some tiny American town in the 1950s. It was gorgeous and warm outside in Uruguay, so the three of us absolutely loved the day. It was so nice that we opted not to go into any of the museums, which everyone told us were really cool and different, and instead just wandered around outside all day. And I don't regret our decision. I wish I could describe in words how lovely Colonia was....anyway, great town + fun people + another passport stamp = MAJOR success.
Having a native Argentinean friend really has made A LOT of difference in how we've experienced BA...especially since our friend (MAggie) is super eager to show us everything the city has to offer both on the tourist track and on the native-track. Maggie's family consists of a ton of super artistically talented siblings, so Friday night (the 12th), she took us to her sister's Improv Tap show, in which another sister was singing and one of her brothers was the technical director. Her tapping sister is in a professional troupe and they were INCREDIBLE! I'd never seen an improv tap show before and it blew me away. SO much talent involved and SUCH a full body workout. I don't know how they were able to keep tapping so quickly and so emphatically for so long! The tap club had a very bohemian feel and it was very intimate but fun. One of those places that's really cool to go but you only know about if you're in the know. Everyone there was Argentinean and it was a cool atmosphere and way to spend our Friday night. Then after the show they played salsa music, so people randomly got up and danced. Of course I was on cloud 9 :D
Saturday, Tom, Jocelyn, and I took a day trip to Colonia, Uruguay, the oldest city in Uruguay and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. How baller is it that I can say I took a day trip to Uruguay! It's SO random! We took a fast ferry at 10 am, so we arrived an hour later. The historic quarter of Colonia is such a quaint, cute town- I really felt like I'd stepped back into time. Municipal elections are happening soon, so there were motorcades going up and down the main street of the town honking horns and waving signs to convince people to vote for their candidate. Cars, wagons, buses, you name it, drove by covered in signs or ads. Everything about it and where we were really made me feel like I was in some tiny American town in the 1950s. It was gorgeous and warm outside in Uruguay, so the three of us absolutely loved the day. It was so nice that we opted not to go into any of the museums, which everyone told us were really cool and different, and instead just wandered around outside all day. And I don't regret our decision. I wish I could describe in words how lovely Colonia was....anyway, great town + fun people + another passport stamp = MAJOR success.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Tango Fusion style
The professional tango show we saw at the tango club was Tango Fusion. Here's a clip from the performance:....prepare to tilt your head, though, I shot the clip vertically.
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