Diagonal Walkers!

It's laughable as well as annoying but street walkers seem to meander to the left or the right here and can rarely find a line that they are happy with.  Now, you might say that they are gearing up to turn right or left but no no no!  They aren't, they aren't! They are just walking in one direction and decide that they want to walk diagonal for a bit or the whole length of their straight journey!  

Now, you might say that they meander because they are responding to an oncoming straight walker that they have spotted or a meanderer that's meandering into their line of walking.  Well, you could be right!  It might just be one huge fucked up vicious circular system of people that meander in diagonal lines.  If I brush past a 'diagonal walker' who's crossed my path I occasionally mutter to myself, LOUDLY, in English 'walk in a fucking straight line'.  I especially do this if they are swinging a lit cigarette!

Finding myself in Buenos Aires

Like my Dad, I love maps and always have since I realised that I am good at reading them.  I also have a good awareness of direction most of the time.

On my first day in Buenos Aires I bought a Guia T de Bolsillo (a pocket size guide to the city).  I opened it up and was wide-eyed very quickly.    The whole point of maps is to make orientation and navigation easier for people and I wasn't sure if this little booklet was gonna do the trick :S  

The Guia T de Bolsillo is so compact that it made the city look so small to me.  The city does feel small to me (compared to London) but not that small.  Since purchasing it I've had a look inside the full size Guia T and to my surprise it's also very compact.  

Despite my Guia T looking all battered and bent, I've actually learnt to love it and therefore I will personalise it and start referring to 'it' as 'him'.  The reason he looks as he does is that we spend a lot of time hand in hand, sometimes I fold him and put him in my pocket or the side of my rucksack, for quick reference.  The pages I use more frequently are fringing at the edges and one is about to tear off completely - must buy sellotape tomorrow!  It wouldn't be a hardship to purchase a new one as they are only 11 pesos.  I have heard from others that it costs less, but I think the street vender just puts a price on it depending on whether you look like a local or a traveller - Hmmm!  Anyway, you end up marking your GT with familiar spots and frequently visited places so I'd like to keep hold of this one for as long as I can.

The city is mainly in blocks and most calles (streets) run a pretty large length and width of the city.  You communicate your whereabouts with people by giving them your coordinates, according to your nearest street corners.  I lived on Paraguay y Borges for the first month, for example.  I actually lived on Borges but as the streets are so long here you narrow it down for people.  

I say long, Paraguay runs past about four or five barrios (towns).  The same can be said for many of the roads here.  Oh and when I say Paraguay, I do mean the street.  Streets here are often named after other countries, cities or important people, dates or words.  There's Chile, El Salvador, Estados Unidos, Av. Eva Peron, Av. Julio A Roca, Av. Independencia, Ave. 25 de Mayo to name but a few.

The cute compactness of the GT makes it seem like you can zip around the city easily and that there's little need to take collectivos (buses) but you would be wrong to assume such a thing.  The blocks are actually quite big and unless you like walking or you have lots of time in your day, fathoming out the collectivo system is a must!  

Oh and when I say, 'like walking'  please know that the side walks here at quite small and seem even smaller when you hit the microcentre where its very congested with people and diagonal walkers (see September 2010 entry).  You do have some pedestrianised streets like Florida and Reconquista.  If you want to zip pick Reconquista over Florida as Florida is more of a shopping street so people browse at shopping pace.  Reconquista is more 'I'm on a mission' pace.

The GT dedicates one page to a map and its opposite page has squares with numbers in them.  These squares correspond with the buses you can get within the map coordinate on the opposite page.  So basically you just look at where you are going and look at where you are and find a bus number that matches.  Easy, innit?  It's like the game!  SNAP!  :D  Except it ain't that easy.  Keep in mind that the blocks are BIG and finding where to catch your bus from within that block coordinate is a challenge.  But I have risen to this challenge more times than I can remember over the last 4 weeks.  I'm really proud of myself as the GT only helps to a point and you really have to do a lot of work yourself.  

I'm not sure how many bus routes there are in BA but the numbers run from 1 to 749.  There aren't 749 buses as there are some missing numbers but there are certainly a lot of freakin' buses!  They are everywhere and owned by different companies and seem to run for 24 hours which is just great.  People told me the taxis were cheap here but I just love the fact that you can take a bus for 1.25pesos (20p), which is cheap even if you are earning pesos.  The subte and overground train are even less, 1.10pesos and 1pesos respectively.  For me taxis (regardless of where you are in the world) are for; if you really feel lazy, feel like treating yourself, want a guaranteed seat, feel you are in an unsafe neighbourhood and don't want to spend time walking or waiting at a bus stop, if you just can't work out where the hell you are or if you are on holiday and don't want to try and figure out the public transport routes and systems.  Otherwise I'd say save your pesos and don't rely on taxis while here, get your bus cap on!  They are quick, cheap and plentiful!  Yes, at times four of them come at one time!

The city is predominantly urban so be wary of smiling at the site of green on your GT and journeying to the area only to find that it's private grounds owned by the polo federation or something.  Saying that, I took a bus yesterday (130) from Belgrano into the microcentre and passed a large expanse of green and lakes.  I'm over the moon to know that I'm living close to something ruralish in character and will be journeying down there soon to explore!

Tango in Education

Some of you know that prior to me coming to Buenos Aires I worked in Sport Development, in London. It's an industry that seeks to raise participation opportunities while, at the same time, increasing the profile of certain sport and dance activities.

I was very excited this morning to come across an article in one of Buenos Aires' free tango magazines, La Milonga Argentina.  The article was about a group that formed in 2009 to try and get tango into primary and secondary level education in Buenos Aires within the subjects of History, Literature and Dance.  

As you can imagine, I'm thrilled to see a movement like this in action with people embracing their culture and trying to build a legacy for the future (blah blah blah, talking like Seb Coe now!)  However, I am sparing a thought for those poor little ones with 2 left feet, not the latinos mind - aren't they ALL meant to have rhythm?

I'm thinking of those kids that are in receipt of the 'I can't dance' gene and 'I can't learn how to dance' gene (probably because they have one parent of another nationality).  

Setting this aside, I think it's a wonderful thing.  All this worldwide sports / dance development - the kids just don't realise how lucky they are these days!  Does a comment like that make me sound old? ; )

The Tango at Schools project is in the process of collecting signatures for the Tango dance in Schools bill.  Suerte to them all indeed!

Alfa-fucking-jores! Yeah Baby!

You WILL die and when you reach heaven this will be the sweet treat that god greets you with!

In my view you won't try anything quite as fine and as intensely satisfying as an Alfajor! 

This sickly sweet wrapped treat is available in abundance around Buenos Aires and in its basic form is two large cookies that have been sandwiched together with a generous portion of dulce de leche (which deserves a whole other blog entry itself!)  The dulce de leche contributes to the cookies becoming more cake-like in texture, making it easy to slither down your throat!  This sweet sandwich is then coated in chocolate and voila!  It's quite simply AMAZING!

Someone the other day told me that their Uncle, prior to their visit, had told them to stay away from Alfajores (pronounced alpha-whore-ez, but roll the 'r' a little).  Make no mistake, this is good advice as after your first one, you may become hooked and the effect might be the expense of a new wardrobe to suit your new larger waistline.

Lets set aside the negatives and imagine we do all have built in 'control yourself' buttons : )

There are sooooooo many different brands that alfajores are a category of food in themselves...  Chocolate bars, biscuits, crisps, alfajores...  I've not worked my way through them all and doubt I will.  Many people said to me that the Havana brand is a classic must to try, so I did.  Havana is a chocolate shop with chains around BA.  You can sit in and have a drink and a sweet treat.  It's a more sophisticated way of eating an Alfa' but I'm not sure if they are more superior to other brands.  They all taste bloody good to me.  

I also don't feel very sophisticated when eating an alfajor- I feel more ashamed!  Ha ha!

Like I said, you have your uniform classic, but there are others that aren't coated in chocolate, ones where the dulce is dipped in desiccated coconut, the alfa' is coated in a thin meringue, the dulce is chocolate flavoured, the dulce is coffee flavoured, there's an extra layer of dulce and an extra cookie.  Do you see where I'm going here?

Anyway, yesterday was my last pack of six.... er, I mean my last one!  ; )

   

A Traditional Milonga Experience!

My first experience at a traditional milonga was last weekend and it was not planned.  The milonga I chose was Cachirulo: Norma y Hector at Plaza Bohemia, Maipu 444.  At the doorway I passed a lady smoker in very fancy heels and a 1950’s style polkadot dress, she looked completely out of place on this central downtown street but I knew that beyond the doorway I would find more women dressed to impress.  As I climbed the stairs to the actual entrance I reminded myself that I didn’t plan this evening out and therefore wasn’t myself, dressed to impress.  I wore a pair of white tight cut off pants and a fuscia pink plunging vest top and on top of that I wore a big hairy cardigan – attractive!

At the top of the stairs I asked the lady the cost and whether I could have a sneak peak before entering.  Once we’d both battled with the language barrier I came to understand that ‘no pay, no entrance’.  I could hear the music and feel the ambience!  I could even see specs of dancing when the breeze from the street fluttered the velvet curtain, that was between me and the milonga.

I decided, why not and paid the Senora for the key to the sacred world of Plaza Bohemia!  I was told to wait for the tanda to end before entering.  The tanda is a set of dances that the DJ or orchestra plays before a break in the dance, it normally consists of 3-5 tracks and was 5 in this case.  It didn’t take long and when I did enter people were clearing the dance floor and returning to their seats.  I looked to my left and noticed that a rather large Porteno with a mustach was looking at me with a huge grin on his face.  I looked down the line of circular tables and noticed that a few of the men were looking at me but then turned to look across the room at the other female dancers who were prepping and cabecceoing for the next tanda.  


At this point a female host approached me and looked at my ticket.  She then escorted me to a seat and table on the far side of the room.  The seat was sandwiched between two women who had been seated earlier.  I was very bemused by this treatment as I really wasn't expecting anything quite so formal - I just acted 'all cool' as if I knew what was going on.  I later found out that where the hostess seats you, you stay!  Some people book tables in order to get good seats – these are normally at spots in the room where everyone can see you and therefore there is greater cabecceo opportunity!  i.e. more chance of catching the eye of the dance partners you want to dance with!

I sat and watched the room perform and turn.  The dancing was a very high standard with musicality to be admired and clever footwork from both the ladies and the men.  The music stayed within the traditional category of tango with some milonga and even one or two rock n roll or salsa tandas.

Fortunately I was sat next to a lovely Mexican lady called Lorena - who speaks English.  Lorena was a blessing that evening, and basically offered me a tutorial in the traditional milonga codigos (rules), highlighting the cabecceo specifically.

The Cabecceo was how I would get to dance.  There seemed to be no such thing as a verbal invitation at this milonga which made me feel like a fish out of water.  In England when I wasn’t getting verbal dancing invitations from men, I would invite men myself.  These were forbidden grounds at this milonga.  I needed to sharpen up on the correct technique to obtain a dance or else my seat was going to get very warm indeed!

Lorena put it straight.  If you want to dance with a guy, just stare at them.  If they catch your gaze and look away, that means they aren’t interested.  If they don’t catch your gaze, keeping staring.  I thought, this is going to be incredibly difficult for me as I have always had an issue with eye contact and the opposite sex!  Lorena went on – If you don’t want to dance with someone, e.g. you’ve seen them dancing and don’t fancy a strut then DON’T look at them.  At this point I start looking at all the men I don’t want to dance with, like a child that is told not to stare at people or... you know when someone says to you ‘don’t look now but so and so just walked in the room’ and then you look!  Fool!

Anyway, whilst I was having my fit of uncertainty I decided to look at Lorena or the dances on the dance floor.  She said that when a guy wants to dance with you his gaze will have more conviction and will be accompanied by a nod, to which you should reply with a nod if you want to dance with him.  He will then walk to your table, keeping eye contact, and offer his hand for you to take.   And voila! 

On the dancefloor you dance the tanda.  If a guy asks you to dance mid tanda or at the end of a tanda you will only dance, with him, what remains of that tanda.  I think it might be a tactic by some men so that they can suss out your dancing in one tune and decipher whether they want to ask you to dance later or not.

When the tanda is over most men will escort you back to you seat and really experienced men will end the dance at your seat – skillful!  You are then seated and cabecceoing begins again!


The experience really tested my confidence.  It's not really my scene and I won't be attending traditionals regularly as I just find it all quite serious and nerve wracking which isn't why I dance tango.  Saying all that, I'm glad I went!