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Tango and Futbol.... it could only be Buenos Aires!
We were told by a German on the overnight bus from Bariloche to Buenos Aires that it´s a wonderful city to visit, but a terrible place to live. Life in this city is fast paced, noisy and colourful. It didn´t take long to see what she meant - we had a great time here, but the clamour of daily life would get to me if I was a permanent resident.
On our first night we met up with Roman - Tim´s German mate from Sydney who´s currently studying in BA. It was good to see the city with a semi-local and we had a great dinner at Siga la Vaca together. For less than 10 quid its an all you can eat BBQ where you point to the meat you want off the grill, a salad bar, a bottle of wine per person and dessert. Tim was in heaven! The Argentinians (and South Americans in general) have such a different attitude to dining. Its great to be able to go to a place and not feel hurried (a blessing after London). While we sat and ate and talked, a crowd of Argentinians formed in the foyer and chatted away while waiting for a table. The restaurant served them free empanadas to keep them happy, something that would never happen at home or in London!
Our hostel was quite full on. Activities happening everyday and parties everynight. It fit right in to the BA way of life. If you wanted to do it, they could organise it for you! We took advantage and went to dinner and a tango show on our second night. We didn´t realise until after we signed up that a tango lesson was included as part of the package (Tim was not so excited about this, but you know me, I love to dance!). We started with a few basic steps around the room, shuffling along behind a huge group of German gerriatrics. It wasn´t long before we´d mastered the basic step and proceeded to trot around the room crashing into other couples! Tim was an excellent lead, pulling us from some near collisions with precision (some other leads were not so practiced!). It was great fun.... even better when the professionals showed us how it should really be done! The show was quite intimate with the dancers moving amongst the tables at some points and pulling people from the crowd for an occasional dance.
We may have indulged a little too much at the tango because the next day the prospect of an afternoon at the futbol did not seem so inviting as it had the day before! With sore heads we made our way through the heat to Boca Stadium to watch Boca (a local Buenos Aires team) take on Chacarita in the Argentinian league. Our guide warned us that the futbol would be sh!t (both teams being ranked quite low this season) but that the atmosphere would be awesome due to the long rivalry between the clubs. He was right! He also said that we should pay no attention to the price shown on our ticket in relation to what we paid the hostel. In his words, "This is South America. We have to pay the Boca Hooligans so they don´t f*** with you!". Regardless, we chose not to take our camera to the stadium... so unfortunately no pics or film footage of the crazy Argentinians dancing away to the drum section in the stands. We were in the quieter Boca fans section, facing the more "lively" section at the other end of the stadium. The whole stand opposite was a seething mass of people jumping in time to the drums and chanting the Boca mantras. Great to watch.... not so great at the end of the match having to wait for the opposing teams fans to leave before they´d lead us out. But given that there were several signs around the stadium with "Pasion, Sin Violencia" on them I was kind of glad that we were forced to wait!
All in all, we had a brilliant few days in BA and I´m very much looking forward to getting back there soon....
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