Milonga marathon...

Went the Barrio Chino in the morning with NDM. Had nice lunch and got ready for my planned milonga marathon.

First stop Nino Bien's Saturday martinee: Los Consagrados. Got there around 5:20pm. Saw the waitress, she recognized me and we greeted with a kiss on the cheek. I went to Ruben y Cherie's regular table. It was empty. No one was there yet. I changed my shoes and ordered a cafe con leche. This is a porteno's martinee milonga. All the regulars have their regular table.

I cabeceoed a lovely lady at the table to our left. She was there last week but we didn't dance. The floor was roomy at the time. We had a nice tanda. She was really light on her feet. No wonder she danced tanda after tanda.

The young and pretty chica came shortly after, same dress, same table, same time. I waited she settled down and cabeceoed her for her first dance. We had a lovely tanda, and the floor wasn't crowded yet.

Cherie came around 6:30, rougly the same time that she said she would be there. We had a nice Pugliese tanda. I danced with the chica again, and with two more portenos. And it was 9:00pm. Time for the next stop.

I said goodbye to Cherie y Ruben. Thank them for their good company. They are wonderful milonguera y milonguero, genuine people. It was a great pleasure to have known them. I will miss them.

Second stop: Maipu 444. Had dinner at the restaurant next door, Asador and spaghetti.
Food in the stomach, I went up to Maipu 444. The place was packed, a lot of young chicas. No star tonight, but very good dancers on the floor. The host was warm, handshake and all that. But I was stuffed to the worst chair in the room: in the back between the men's and the lady's room.

No matter, I would get my dances once I got on the floor. The floor was small, a little bigger than P&B. DJ was good, great control of the flow with selection of tandas.

My first dance went to a Porteno,who is petite and just barely up to my chin. She was clearly a pre-intermedite. I had to cover a lot of her steps. Then again, it must be my lead (90% is leader fault.) She kept saying " muy lindo." during the break. I couldn't say the same about her though.

Second dance went to a LA native who is going to spend a year here.(how fortunate!) She seemed to get a lot of tandas. Other than another dutch woman, all six of my other dances were with portenos (some cute ones too). I am really getting good with this cabeceo thing.

I would have stayed to the end if it weren't for my planned mission. By 12:20pm, I was ready to hop to the next milonga: Italia Unita.

Third stop: Italia Unita. Cost of entrance: 20 peso!!! The most expensive one. The place looked very classy. The floor was nice, not crowded at all.

That also presented another problem, there wasn't enough energy on the floor. The milonga felt dead. I stayed for about twenty minutes then moved on the last stop, El beso.

El beso was crowded at 1:30 am. I kept working my cabeceo and danced with five portenos. There was this lovely blond who is petite and very cute. I cabeceoed her. She came over and i was quite taken by her beauty.

But she was very nervous. Mayb I am too handsome, :). She told me after one song:" you dance so so." I was surprised. "you're very nervous." I told her with some body language that imitates nervousness. She relaxed, then we had two very nice song. At the end of the tanda, she smiled (beautiful teeth):"muy lindo."



I danced with two more portenos and a dutch. And it was the la Cumparita. It was only 4:00am in the morning. Sharing a cab back to the apartment with the dutch, she talked about not getting the dances at Maipu444. I was surprised: "Maybe it is your cabeceo." I told her. (another subject for another time.)

The night was still young and I haven't danced for 12 hours yet. Outside, the street was still very busy. Young people were walking ups and downs. Trendy clubs still got long lines outside. Cafes and pizzerias were still opened with many customers.

I love this town, where you can tango from dawn to dust.