Day 53: The Adventure Continues

Today's image comes from the final act at the Tango show that cheshcat and I went to this evening:



Really, it was more than just Tango, as there were musicians, an excellent singer, two pairs of dancers, and some wacky guy with painted faces who beat drums and did some spinning on stage.

---

Not surprisingly, today was more mellow than the intensity that was yesterday. After getting in so late, we slept in and did not actually emerge from our hotel room until about 2:30pm. We caught a cab down to the Reserva Ecologica Costanera Sur, which is an ecological reserve that evolved naturally on the landfill that the military dictatorship dumped in the Rio de la Plata in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a very good place to walk; if we had bikes, I would have loved to go for a ride.

When we left the Reserva Ecologica, we walked over to the barrio of Puerto Madero, which used to be an active port and is now a gentrified waterfront area with restaurants, shops, and apartments housed in the buildings that used to be grain warehouses. cheshcat and I sat and ate helado by the edge of dique quatro, one of the four former docks.

Then, in mid-afternoon, our trip turned into a surreal comedy of errors for a few hours. I wanted to take a boat tour of the Buenos Aires coast, but when I called the water tours place they seemed to have gone out of business. Then we hailed a cab to take us to see a famous fountain, the Fuente de las Nereidas. He had not heard of it. Luckily, we had an address given to us by a security officer at the Puerto Madero strip. Still, the driver had no idea where to bring us. He stopped and asked for directions several times before we finally gave up and concluded that we were not going to see the fuente. Instead, we asked him to bring us to Complejo Tango so we could make a reservation for tonight's show. He did so, but when we arrived, we experienced sticker shock -- the show cost several times more that we expected to pay! Instead, we made a reservation at the Cafe Tortoni, since we had enjoyed their much-more-reasonably-priced show on Wednesday. We had a few hours to kill before the show, so we went to get dinner at the Club de Progresso, which was the first social club in Buenos Aires one hundred and fifty years ago. We were welcomed at the club but, before they could seat us, we were informed that the chef had taken ill and that there would be no dinner served that night. They were very apologetic and offered us free champagne and a recommendation for a different restaurant. Since I do not drink, we declined the champagne and made our way down the street to try their recommendation.

At that point, reality straightened itself out and things went back to normal. We had a very nice dinner at the Chiquilin, which was the restaurant recommended to us by the Club de Progresso. cheshcat said that the steak she got was one of the finest that she had ever had in her life. Then we made our way to Cafe Tortoni without incident and had a drink before the show began. The show, which yielded today's picture of the day, was in their downstairs venue (different from the venue we had seen on Wednesday) and the show was even better than the last one that we had seen. cheshcat liked it so much that she bought a DVD of the performers (only thirty pesos, or ten dollars), which we got signed by the singer and one of the dancers. I decided that I really do need a tango dancer, preferably female, as one of my Yule presents.

After the performance ended, we walked back to the hotel, getting in around 1am. We were out for eleven and a half hours; not quite as long as yesterday, but we still got a respectable amount of vacationing done today. Now it is off to bed, as there is much planned for tomorrow...

Day 53: The Adventure Continues

Today's image comes from the final act at the Tango show that cheshcat and I went to this evening:



Really, it was more than just Tango, as there were musicians, an excellent singer, two pairs of dancers, and some wacky guy with painted faces who beat drums and did some spinning on stage.

---

Not surprisingly, today was more mellow than the intensity that was yesterday. After getting in so late, we slept in and did not actually emerge from our hotel room until about 2:30pm. We caught a cab down to the Reserva Ecologica Costanera Sur, which is an ecological reserve that evolved naturally on the landfill that the military dictatorship dumped in the Rio de la Plata in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a very good place to walk; if we had bikes, I would have loved to go for a ride.

When we left the Reserva Ecologica, we walked over to the barrio of Puerto Madero, which used to be an active port and is now a gentrified waterfront area with restaurants, shops, and apartments housed in the buildings that used to be grain warehouses. cheshcat and I sat and ate helado by the edge of dique quatro, one of the four former docks.

Then, in mid-afternoon, our trip turned into a surreal comedy of errors for a few hours. I wanted to take a boat tour of the Buenos Aires coast, but when I called the water tours place they seemed to have gone out of business. Then we hailed a cab to take us to see a famous fountain, the Fuente de las Nereidas. He had not heard of it. Luckily, we had an address given to us by a security officer at the Puerto Madero strip. Still, the driver had no idea where to bring us. He stopped and asked for directions several times before we finally gave up and concluded that we were not going to see the fuente. Instead, we asked him to bring us to Complejo Tango so we could make a reservation for tonight's show. He did so, but when we arrived, we experienced sticker shock -- the show cost several times more that we expected to pay! Instead, we made a reservation at the Cafe Tortoni, since we had enjoyed their much-more-reasonably-priced show on Wednesday. We had a few hours to kill before the show, so we went to get dinner at the Club de Progresso, which was the first social club in Buenos Aires one hundred and fifty years ago. We were welcomed at the club but, before they could seat us, we were informed that the chef had taken ill and that there would be no dinner served that night. They were very apologetic and offered us free champagne and a recommendation for a different restaurant. Since I do not drink, we declined the champagne and made our way down the street to try their recommendation.

At that point, reality straightened itself out and things went back to normal. We had a very nice dinner at the Chiquilin, which was the restaurant recommended to us by the Club de Progresso. cheshcat said that the steak she got was one of the finest that she had ever had in her life. Then we made our way to Cafe Tortoni without incident and had a drink before the show began. The show, which yielded today's picture of the day, was in their downstairs venue (different from the venue we had seen on Wednesday) and the show was even better than the last one that we had seen. cheshcat liked it so much that she bought a DVD of the performers (only thirty pesos, or ten dollars), which we got signed by the singer and one of the dancers. I decided that I really do need a tango dancer, preferably female, as one of my Yule presents.

After the performance ended, we walked back to the hotel, getting in around 1am. We were out for eleven and a half hours; not quite as long as yesterday, but we still got a respectable amount of vacationing done today. Now it is off to bed, as there is much planned for tomorrow...