To Tango or Not To Tango

With it being both myself and Felipe's first time in Buenos Aires we were very tourist and went to a tango show. I have heard that no locals go and that most shows aren't even authentic and just tourist traps but as a tourist I do love a good trap once and a while. The city has definitely caught on to the money they can make with these shows which only makes it harder for me. With so many options I can admit that I was completely overwhelmed in trying to decide what we wanted in a show and what show had that. There are dinner options and pre-show tango lesson options and the worst thing I did was to read the reviews on trip advisor they were as diverse as the shows and really were no help. We had decided that we would go our second weekend there as the third we had big futbol dreams but by the Thursday we hadn't decided. After considering many things and being overwhelmed I gave a short list to Felipe and told him to just pick one and book it. Thankfully he just listened to the names and picked one and luck was on my side as it was a show without dancing lessons first. Felipe is Brazilian so has a natural rhythm and I'm awkward and funny to watch dance and he was looking forward to that so I'm glad I didn't have to dance. Anyways we finally booked one at Charles Gardel which is one of the oldest if not the oldest shows. We paid $140USD per person and that included dinner and a show and we thought transportation to and from the show but we were staying out of the 'zone'. After booking the show it was decided that I need to get a new dress because I've been living out of a backpack for four months and I didn't have any classy options. So we went shopping all day Friday in hopes of me finding something. Long story short, I didn't find anything. Well I found one dress that I read the price tag wrong and after loving it, it wasn't an option. So I went with what I had and look beautiful if I may say so myself!

We then went promptly to the show after having a quick Starbucks, which I have gotten Felipe addicted to. We weren't sure what kind of seats we would have because we book so last minute but we ended up with a great booth table on the edge of the main floor with a great view of the show and no one else seated too close. The large tables on the floor were just long tables so we watched as young couples were seated beside Japanese tourist and groups of business men. Thankfully that was not our situation. After being seated the waitress was eager to take our orders for all three course and pour a nice glass of wine.

The dinner was nice nothing note worthy except the size of my steak was that of a large calf. During the dinner portion they play a video on the history of tango and the theatre and different things in Spanish with English subtitles nothing amazing again but interesting and it last about 45 minutes if I remember correctly. They also pulled groups out to be photographed with two dancers as to encourage you spending more money on photos. And well they trapped us, we bought them.

This is a photo of the professional photos and looks a little distorted here

Then the show. The show reminded me of So You Think You Can Dance with themed dances but all tango. The show progressed through the decades of tango and the costumes reflected that. Photos were tough to get once the show started but I'll share a few blurry ones with you.

Notice the orchestra in the back of the stage

The show lasted about two hours and I enjoyed every minute. The one thing was that they have traditional singers. The singers are not accompanied by dancers and have quite a few numbers. Though they are very talented it was a bit much by the end of the show and would have preferred to see another dance number or two.

Overall we had an amazing time and would recommend seeing a show to all the tourist out there that like me enjoy a good trap once and a while.

 

All Boys Club

Well as promised here Felipe and I were able to attend a futbol game in Buenos Aires. After a lot of googling and attempts to figure out how to get tickets. We had first hoped to see a Boca Juniors game but we soon learnt that they do not sell tickets to the public. You have to be a member of the club or buy through special tourist agency that recieves tickets and sell them at a minimum of twenty times the price or about $300usd. Neither of us were willing to pay that price and we weren't too impressed with the system. It is quite awful all the way around because even local fans can't buy tickets unless they can afford to pay the members fees each year and I've heard there's a wait list to even become a member. Crazy crazy! But anyways we didn't realize this till our last weekend in BA so we were left with few options. We also learnt that River Plate does not play home games on the weekends that Boca Juniors play so that wasn't an option. So for a while we thought we might not find tickets to anything but thanks to the wonders of google around noon on the 9th we found out there was a game at 5pm for the All Boys Club with tickets being sold at the stadium at 2. I'm not making up that name it is in fact their name though I'm happy to report they do let girls in the stadium. We weren't sure if there would be a line up and we got some missing leading information online about where to buy tickets but after a long cab ride far from home we had tickets in our hand. With time to kill we went to a little BBQ place around the corner from the stadium.

Felipe being annoyed at me taking his photo over and over again and BBQ left overs

Nice and early still we entered the stadium but not after going through security. We had to be split up for security as I had to be thoroughly felt up including searching my bag my where I had hid my very serious weapon AKA a pen, which caused a scene because I didn't understand what the issues was or what was going on. After that we learnt that wasn't our gate and we went through security two more times before we found our gate. After finally getting through we weren't exactly sure where we should be sitting so we went to the best seat in the stadium and hoped for the best. We did end up getting bumped over a few seats but ended up with great seats in the members only section that not only had cover from the sun but misters to keep it cool. The seats were amazing though I was a little afraid to leave and go to the bathroom because as it got closer to the game starting there was security everywhere and we had to go into the club house to get a drink or go to the bathroom. We luckily were never kicked out and watched a great match of the All Boys Club vs Mendoza.

The side opposite to our seats were the popular tickets or the cheap seats its first come first served seating over there and it really fills up. The fans are almost as entertaining to watch with their chanting, singing and drumming. I'm not sure how they were surviving the heat but it was all fun on the other side. I tried to get a decent video of the crowd but I wasn't succesful. Our side was very seriously invested in the game. I was in the ref bashing section which is my second favourite part of sports. I also enjoy when the entire stadium cat calls to the players when they dive or are generally crap.

Visitors section all caged in

At the end of the game we went to leave only to find we were the ones now locked in. With serval police officers at the door we had to wait until they received word that all the visitors were out of the stadium and on their bus. It took a while but we waited and a few women and children were let out but Felipe looking so unruly kept us trapped in the stadium 🙂

I can admit I was a little nervous after seeing the number of police officers at the gameand the fact that almost all restaurants in the area we closed that it would be a little to crazy but it ended up being a great day in the members section of the all boys club.

 

Buenos Aires Photo Bomb

I have so many pictures of buenos aires I need to share and not all have an interesting story or really much more then a caption so I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures and you can make up stories to go with them.

San Telmo Market

San Telmo Market

San Telmo Market

Metropolis Cathedral

 

Casa Rosa

Casa Rosa at night

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

I still have a bit more to share about my time in Buenos Aires but here is a little bit to keep you coming back! Stay tuned!!

 

Buenos Aires Photo Bomb

I have so many pictures of buenos aires I need to share and not all have an interesting story or really much more then a caption so I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures and you can make up stories to go with them.

San Telmo Market

San Telmo Market

San Telmo Market

Metropolis Cathedral

 

Casa Rosa

Casa Rosa at night

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

Chinese New Year in Barrio Chino

I still have a bit more to share about my time in Buenos Aires but here is a little bit to keep you coming back! Stay tuned!!

 

Lost in Buenos Aires

I have learnt that Buenos Aires has a major flaw. It doesn't have safe water for swimming. The government in 2010 created a beach and to be fair I haven't visited it but from what I've heard its not the best option, feel free to disagree as I haven't been. But for all arguments they don't have a beach within an hour of the city. As a west coast girl to begin with and then spending 2 months on the coast of Brazil I see this as a major flaw. I love everything about the beach and even in Vancouver where I don't usually swim due to the temperatures I love the option. Buenos Aires does offer a lot of green spaces that I absolutely love but they are not the beach. After a confusing effort to get to ecological reserve we ended up at Parque Rosedal in Palmero.

 

This error turned into one of the best days we had in Buenos Aires. In Rosedal there is so much to see at first we walked around a small lake that had ducks, and green space with many people enjoying the space.

We arrived at a small bridge that led into an impressive public rose garden. The bridge was quite busy with people taking photos but just as went to ask someone to take a photo the bridge cleared right out but eventually someone came and kindly took a nice crooked one of us.

The garden led to more green space and fountains. These photos don't look as good there from Felipe's phone but I didn't get any shots here. Though at this point we still thought we were at the reserve which online had very mixed reviews but we were loving it. Even after three weeks of exploring this is still one of Felipe's favourite days.

After exiting the park we still didn't know where we were so we picked a direction and started walking. After walking a bit I saw the yellow hop on hop off tourist bus and was able to get a map from them which really helped and confirmed we were not at the ecological reserve but Rosesdal park. So we continued walking looking for a place to grab a water and we found a very expensive cafe that we passed on and kept down the road. We ended up having a very romantic date in the Esso cafe. The cafe was very exotic and filled with dragon flies.

The romantic date led to a burst of energy that took us to the Jardin Japonés or Japanese gardens. The garden was so beautiful. Although the visit was fairly uneventful just a peaceful stroll.

By the time we finished this park we were very hot and very exhausted. The walk back to the metro almost killed me, a slight exaggeration but not by much. The metro here is not the most efficient. Everyone takes the metro and it doesn't seem to have bad traffic at any time but public transit is always pack. A flaw is that the lines go in the same direction and basically all meet at the same point. So to get home you always have to go all the way to the end of one line and connect to your line. It doesn't sound that bad but it can be exhausting and at a lot of time compared to if they had even one line going the perpendicular. Ive learnt to avoid the metro completely in the evening becuase it's too crowded and the trains don't come frequently enough. But we made it back to the metro and slowly made our way back home. A perfect day!

 

Buenos Aires Futbol tours

I have been in Buenos Aires for just over three weeks and have been very busy and had some very lazy days too. For the first time ever I have booked an airbnb apartment and am completely in love. The apartment has all the basic amenities and I'm really enjoying the privacy after 3 months of couch surfing. And a maid comes once a week so really what else is there. I have been moving around the city with ease on the metro, train and bus system, I'm not sure I always take the fastest route but I get there each time. You will probably notice in the photos I have a Buenos Aires co-host that reappears frequently. That would be Felipe he is visiting buenos aires with me for 3 weeks from Rio, where we met.

One of the first stops was the Boca Junior Stadium. The entire neighborhood surround the stadium is painted blue and yellow, this is a team I would be very nervous to wear the wrong colors around. The stadium had a museum of the teams history. Having done many stadium tours in my life I can't say this is the best but it was very authentic to the feel of the team and was informative. Unfortunately that day a full tour was not possible so we were not allowed through the press room, dressing room or other areas but it was possible to enter to stadium and get very close to the pitch. They are currently doing some construction so I'm not sure if that is the reasoning. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the Boca Junior Stadium.

With both of us being big futbol fans this was not the end of the futbol tour. A few days later we visited the River Plate stadium. This stadium was much bigger and also had a museum and tour. After purchasing our tickets we confirmed our tour time of 2pm and then wandered through the museum.

The museum was very well developed and I was glad we visited the Boca Juniors museum first as it would seems disappointing after this one. The museum has the usual trophies, player info, jerseys and history of the stadium but it also includes historic information for each era the team has been in existence and it was interesting to see what was popular in each period from a Argentinian perspective. The 1900's was done by the decade with the 60's missing or forgotten I'd blame the hippies but I'm not sure if Argentina had hippies.

After wandering through the museum were arrived at 2:05 for our 2pm tour and we missed the tour even after another staff member wandered us through the stadium looking for our tour. We also learned that the 2 tour actually leaves at 1:55 even though they give you a sticker to wear that says 2. Thankfully they were flexible and we switched to the 3 and went to the cafe to eat lunch. After ordering our salad and waiting a while we realized we would probably miss the 3 so we asked to switch to the 4. And at 3:55 we promptly left for the 4 pm tour. I was pretty excited to see the stadium from the exterior it seems quite nice and big. The tour takes you through the visiting dressing room and up through the tunnel to the pitch, and with all tours we can't go onto the pitch but there were some great shots from the view point.

The dressing room

After the pitch we headed up to the VIP area I wish I could repeat the information the tour guide shared but I either didn't understand or don't remember so … Pictures!

This view ended the tour where we headed back to the museum. After a train ride and two metro rides almost killed me before I arrived back home safely in the air condition. But it was an amazing day that inspired our search for tickets to a game. SPOILER ALERT! We get tickets…. Stayed tuned for more futbol fun!