Buenos Aires was probably our favorite city on our trip. There is so much culture and so much to see and do! We were there for 8 days and still weren't able to do everything we wanted.
We were told that every Sunday, there is a gathering downtown where locals go to dance tango at Plaza Dorrego
On our way to the plaza, we ran into many other groups of people gathered to listen to groups play music and dance.
Here are the locals dancing tango at Plaza Dorrego
Some people go and asked strangers to dance, and some people you can tell are couples that have been dancing together for years.
A few days later, we ended up taking a Tango class (which crossed off
#41 on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days - take a dance lesson.)
The manager of our bed and breakfast first taught us about the history of the Tango. How there are different versions of tango music, classical, techno, modern, etc. She then took us to a near by place where she learned to tango
it was definitely different. Not what we were expecting. Seemed like an abandoned warehouse that they threw a bar in.
There were probably 20 of us in that night's class
It was much harder then we thought. They taught us some steps, then got us (more me) to learn to feel my partners movements. To do this, they had me put my hand on Bitu's chest and lean against him and close my eye. When he moved, i had to try and follow.
After this, they told us to go ahead and dance.
The key to the Argentinean tango is to let the man dance the way he wants to the music and you follow. Its different than the Spanish tango where you stamp your feet while dancing across the floor in anger, arm straight out pointing where your going. To us, it felt more like we were waltzing. Needless to say, we aren't going to be on "So you think you can dance" any time soon doing the Tango.
A few days later, we went to a professional Tango show & dinner.
We were unable to take photos during the performance. The show was good. I think i was expecting something like on dancing with the stars, so my expectations were a little too high.
Polo is a very popular sport in Argentina. Unfortunately we were there during summer break, but we got the opportunity to watch a practice. It was a 3 hour drive outside of the city with miles of sunflower fields
The practice was on a farm/ranch where they train horses for Polo. We learned that there are 6 periods lasting 7 minutes each in a polo game. Most Polo players have 6 or more horses so they can run the horses hard each period.
Look at the above photos, the middle horse's feet aren't even on the ground!!
We loved watching the game so much we decided to take a Polo class. (Even though it was on my list of things to do, we thought it was too expensive, but after watching the practice we had to try it!)
#90 - Learn to play Polo
First, we had to learn to ride the horses.
We then practiced going up and down the field hitting the ball. This requires a lot of forearm strength and aim and i don't have much of either, so i would miss, then have to turn my horse completely around (which was a huge task as the horse didn't like to listen to me, he kept wondering over to stand beside his other horse friends)
Can you see how impressed i am. lol. By this time, my arm is hurting from attempting to hit the ball, and i'm annoyed by my helmet that is too big.
After 6 of us got the basics down, we had a mini game. We used maybe only 2/3 of the field. The game was full of a lot of laughs as we would have the chance to get on a break-away, but miss the ball and have to try and turn our horses around quickly enough to try and get to the ball before anyone else.
I definitely have a lot of respect for professional polo players now. Its a game that requires a lot of strength and coordination.
We spent an afternoon shopping at a vibrant neighborhood called La Boca.
La Boca is the oldest, most colorful, and most authentic neighborhood in Buenos Aires. The neighborhood was settled and built by Italian immigrants that worked in the warehouses and meatpacking plants in the area. I was told in my tango class that when tango first came around, it was very popular here. Upper class people refused to accept tango because they saw it as something only poor people did. It wasn't until a popular tango artist originally from Spain went back to Spain and taught the people there about it. After he returned to Buenos Aires, the people learned that Spain had loved it, so the upper class became more accepting of it.
Due to Bitu's stolen camera, photos are missing from our Empanada making class, which is so sad because it was my favorite thing we did in Buenos Aires.
Those of you who know me well, know i have a thing with corn not touching anything else on my plate. (If i think something else on my plate, eg. gravy will touch my corn, i will play it safe and put my corn in a separate bowl) And you also know, i love to eat meat.
Anyways, we made 2 different types of empanadas, beef & corn.
Right away, i ruled out eating the corn empanadas. Corn, red peppers, onions, and a bunch of spices sounded horrible to me. But, i was on vacation and promised myself i would try new things. Boy was I surprised!! I LOVED the corn empanadas! Not just a little, a lot more than the beef empanadas. It was my second favorite meal on our trip (1st goes to a little Italian restaurant in Cuzco where i had the best fettuccine Alfredo ever!!) Luckily for us, we got the recipe so my corn fears can be conquered many more times :)
Bitu decided he needed a hair cut, so we went to this really cool, old fashion barber shop. This shop is famous for cutting Diego Maradona's hair (famous soccer player)
I loved everything in their. So many beautiful antiques!
1 side was the barber shop, the other, a bar.
They also offered straight razor shaves.
The elevator in the apartment we stayed in.
It was old school but felt pretty safe. You had to open and close both doors yourself.
The only bad thing, its pretty small
The manager squished in the 3 of us + both our big backpacks & regular backpacks.
