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Ola!
Well the last time we blogged, we had just had our Tango lesson and were heading off to our first Milonga. It was great... we arrived to Catedral, which was a huge old warehouse decorated with mismatched tables and chairs and low lit with deep red lighting. Very atmospheric! We were joined by our host family from the B&B and some of their friends, so as soon as we arrived the drinks starting flowing. The evening began with a group 2 hour Tango lesson, which was conducted in Spanish...Uh Oh! Without our translator we were only able to catch the odd word, twist, lean, flick.... and whilst the other people we were with tried to help us, within 30 mins we had no idea what we were supposed to be doing..so, we gave up on the instruction and just practicised what we had been taught earlier in the day from our private lesson.
After the lesson finished at around 12.30am, we ordered some tapas while the Tango band set up in the main room for the Milonga. A Milonga is just free dancing to a live Tango band, but when Chris and I saw some couples practicising, i started to feel VERY out of place. They looked amazing and Chris and i had only learnt a series of 3 moves which we could repeat over and over again! I wasn't even sure we could do the moves in time to the music! lol.
Anyway, the band started up and the dancing began. We sank a couple of glasses of beer and plucked up the courage to hit the dance floor. We quickly realised that couples danced around the band which was set up in the middle of the dance floor. Our 3 moves didn't work like that, so everytime we completed our 3 moves, we had to shuffle over to avoid bumping in to other dancers. It was cringe worthy, and whilst i spent most of the time giggling, we only dared stay on the dance floor for a couple of songs as i was pretty sure the real dancers were getting annoyed at our 4 left feet! We stayed until around 3am dancing and drinking but the Milonga went on until 6am. What an experience!
We only had a couple of days left to explore the City before we met our Dragoman tour so we visited the Sunday market in San Telmo which sells a range of antiques and tat! It was an overcast day and to be honest i wasn't expecting much of a crowd but when we arrived, the streets were packed with market stalls, traders, street performers and thousands of visitors! It had a great atmosphere and we spent a couple of hours exploring the side streets looking for bargins...there were few to be had. We finished off our Sunday with an all you can eat Parilla which is basically barbequed meat..yum! Steak, sausage, chicken, the lot. Amazingly tasty and quite cheap to but I'm still craving vegetables which just don't seem to exist in restaurants here. Boooo hiss.
Our final day was spent exploring Palmero and Recoleta which are both quite fancy areas of the city. Lots of shopping, green parks and expensive looking apartments! We also visited the Recoleta cemetery which is famous for housing Evita's tomb and lots of other famous and rich residents of Buenos Aires. The cemetery covers 14 acres of land and contains almost 5,000 vaults which are all abve ground. Chris and i made a special journey to visit the cemetery but to be honest it made us feel a bit uneasy. The tombs were surrounded by bars but windows were open and you could see the coffins by peeking your head in. Hmmmm, not very nice. Hundreds of tourists were roaming around taking pictures and it left us feeling like we shouldn't be there, so we left. It was interesting to see the french architecture of the tombs but in regards to the cemetery being a tourist attraction...it wasn't for us!
So having said our goodbyes to our hosts Elena and Mike from the B&B, we made our way to 'Hotel Splendid' to meet the group we would be travelling with to Rio. We arrived at the hotel with 15 minutes to spare before the group meeting and were quickly introduced to the other 11 people on the Dragoman tour. 2 Australians, 2 Swiss, 2 Germans, and 5 British people. Luckily, they were all really nice! Yay! On our first night we went to Bomba De Tiempo in Buenos Aires.
Bomba DeTiempo is a 17-piece improvisational drum group that incorporates world beats including Central American and African rhythms, samba and Argentine folk beats. It was hosted in Konex which is an old cooking oil factory, it was packed, noisy, and smoky but the atmosphere was amazing and for me it felt like we had found a piece of real Latin America night life. A great first night out with the Dragoman group.
After a couple more days in Buenos Aires we started our Journey with 'Elle' our Dragoman overland truck towards Iguazu Falls. The truck is very cool, 30 years old and still going strong. It is a fixed axle truck, converted for overland use, massive wheels and loaded up with camping, cooking gear and playing cards! The journeys here in South America are so long as you have to cover massive distances so the truck is designed to be really sociable. There are a couple of fixed tables so 8 people can face each other which is great for playing games, chatting and drinking!
One of our first stops was Iguazu falls which are series of waterfalls that are taller than Niagara Falls, and twice as wide with 275 cascades spread in a horsehoe shape over nearly two miles of the Iguazu River. Absolutely breathtaking.We had 2 days to explore the falls from both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides. There was loads to do in the area and several people in our group took helicoptor and boat rides, but we were happy exploring the area by foot and doing several of the walks through the UNESCO World Heritage Site. I think, it was one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen. We were camping in the area so although we spent most of our days with the rest of the group we also were able to go off on our own for a few hours which was great. So far camping has been good although i have been cold a few nights. Cooking and travelling with our group has been brilliant and we both agree that it is good to have some fresh conversation after travelling alone for 4 months. Anyway, lots more to tell me my time is up in the internet cafe. I will continue in a couple of days time.
Lots of love
Becci xxx
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