Leaving Buenos Aires

I'm not ready to leave Buenos Aires. It's not the city that I'll miss - it's not a particularly beautiful city - it's the people, the friendliness, the smiles.


And there's so much more that I want to do. Mostly connected to dance. The Lindy Hop scene is really good, and the tango... well the tango. My tango has improved to the point that I don't thoroughly embarrass myself whenever I shuffle my feet onto the dance floor. But I've not had a bad night. Even when I haven't danced or when my dancing is terrible, I still enjoy soaking up the atmosphere of these places. The music is so mesmerising that I can just listen for hours watching the movement of feet on the floor.


We did a daytrip out of the city to a river delta. It's like a rich man's playground, where people have holiday homes, and boats. There's waterskiing, swimming, camping and bbqs. It's a place of fun, and it's closer to nature than the city. It was such a relief to get out of the noise and dirt of the city and into this place of fun and relaxation. It was difficult to understand what we were doing... Where is this boat going? don't know! Well, let's take it and see what happens. We got drenched on the boat, but just laughed it off. It was lovely. Yet still I craved the tango.


It's not long now till I join the climbing trip, and I'm really excited about seeing the mountains and climbing them. Yet I know I will miss the dancing. There really is so much in this world that I want to learn and experience, but they all compete for the same short amount of time. Most of the places I have visited in this world I have thought of as once in a lifetime visits. Buenos Aires is different - I know I will come back here.

The Comfort Zone

It is now my ninth night in Buenos Aires. I have been tango dancing most evenings and I love it and I hate it. The music is beautiful, but so unfamiliar to me. It's a dance that is so close and so personal. But I can't do it. Well, maybe I can, but I don't. I've really enjoyed all of the evenings I've been to. It's great watching people dance, and I'm letting the atmosphere soak in to me. But I'm not really dancing. I'll do the classes, and maybe afterwards find someone from the class who I'm comfortable dancing with. But asking one of the locals to dance is a bridge too far for me. I have done it. Sunday night, I asked two girls to dance. I only meant to ask one, but I caught the other's eye by accident and overcommited myself. Both of these dances were terrible. I was stumbling everywhere. She was stumbling everywhere, because of me. One of the ladies even sucked audibly through her teeth at one moment - and I'm still completely unaware of what I did wrong at that moment. Neither lady stuck around for another dance, as is the custom here.

I've returned to my comfort zone by going to Swing Dancing a couple of times. There's a really good scene here, quite international and very friendly. They've made me feel very welcome. Both nights we've gone out for food after dancing and so I've got to know everyone a bit better. And I've been introduced to the concept of kissing everyone on the cheek, man and woman alike. This is both when you meet them, and when you say good night. Because of this custom, saying good bye is inevitably a long-winded affair, especially in a big group, but it really does aid bonding. It's a custom I like - but not one to be brought back to the UK.

It's not only the tango where I'm struggling. The language is also difficult for me. I can manage to talk and to make myself understood. However, if the reply is not a stock answer (preferably "si" or "no") I find it really hard to get the meaning. I've tried to have conversations with people, but we inevitably had to resort to English, sign language, or simply "ciao". I was sat in a coffee shop the other day and a rather attractive lady was sat alone on the table next to me. I thought for half an hour about how to strike up conversation with her in Spanish. I knew I could get my opening gambit over the line, but then I would have to concede that I don't know conversational level Spanish and do an embarrassing retreat in to English. I was still thinking about it long after she left the restaurant, my comfort zone unbreached.