Cost of living in BsAs from a Turista's point of view

How expensive or inexpensive traveling to Buesnos Aires is? At 3.14 peso to 1 dollar, here my break down of daily expense:

Breakfast at 12:00pm: 4 media luna and two pastries from a pastry shop at las Heras and coffee at my apartment

cost: 4 peso

Lunch: A steak (10 peso), Asado (8 peso), half roasted chicken (16 peso), Salad (6 peso), beer (4 peso),Spaghetti with sauce (15 peso)

average cost: 20 peso

Modest Dinner: in a restaurant: steak, salad, water,

average cost: 30 peso

A night out to the milonga:

entrance: 12 peso
water: 6 peso
coffee: 6 peso
empanada: 2.50 peso/each
Taxi back home: 12 peso

Average cost of a night out: 40-50 peso

I had been taking the collectivo (bus) most of the time except coming back to the apartment 4-5AM after milonga. So I had saved quite a bit transportation cost. Still my average expense a day is around 100 peso.

If I went out to a fancy restaurant or ordered a bottle of wine or champagne at the milonga. The cost went up accordingly. Mind you, as I went out every night, I kept my expense modest. Even a few times I took a few friends out for dinner, we went to local restaurants that serve portenos.

My rent for my studio apartment at Recoleta costed: $560 a month (1750 peso).

Two pairs of Neotango shoes : 380 peso at 190 each (after 10% cash discount)

Eight sessions of msssage: 480 peso at 60 each

Credit recharge on my BsAs cell phone: 30 peso

38 Tango CDs at Zival: 800 peso

5 bottle of delicious Malbec at Disco: 130 peso

Transportation from and to the Airport: 160 peso

My private classes and couple of dinners with friends: 4200 peso

Round trip ticket: 2450 peso ($780 dollar)

for 24 days: 12,650 pesos ($4000)

Average good salary in BA: 2000 peso?

I don't know about you. It doesn't sound like an inexpensive heaven. A pair of Neotango has gone up 20 peso since December of last year, in merely 3 months. The entrance fee in some milongas has gone up too. We went to Puerto Madero one night. The club we tried to go charged 50 pesos for entrance. We looked at each other, Nah, too steep.

But comparing with other big cities in the world, it is still a relatively inexpensive place to visit for short term. I havn't gone to Europe for two years simply because it becomes very expensive to travel in the Euro zone. Asia is too far for me. :) (how ironic consider where i came from) Hong Kong is a very expensive place to visit. A night at a decent hotel costs around $100. Although I have a nice big apartment to stay in China, there is no tango in that city. I won't be staying at any place without a milonga for more than a week. I can't.

So for my next visit to Buenos Aires, I am planning to stay for a few months. It has tango, beautiful chicas, interesting night life, characteristic barrios and generally good people. Hopefully, by the time I go, it is still affordable for me.

Post BsAs Blue

Got home yesterday morning. First impression: it is cold here. Second impression: to put it less offensively to my fellow New Yorkers, where did all the beautiful chicas go?

Got back to my apartment and found out my Lucky bamboo survived three weeks without being watered. I forgot to leave it under my dripping bathroom faucet. Unpack half of my suite case, and went to bed for a nap. Woke up a few hours later and felt starving. Thanks to American Airline, all the weight that I had gained during my last couple of days of fine cuisine tasting in BA had lost in the ten hours flight back: total less than 12 oz food served. Cheap bastards! They didn't even serve enough water.

Returned the pastdue book to the library, paid my overdue mortgage, and went to get some greasy Chinese lunch and resupplied my frig with fruits, veggies and fishes. Went to blockbuster to return a DVD and rent a new one.

Another nap after the lunch.Cooked dinner around 11:00pm and finished my dinner well past midnight. Eyes wide opened at four o'clock in the morning and wondering what Canning was like at that hours. Finally felt into sleep at day break, and dreamed about the delicious media luna and cafe con leche.

Woke up around 11:00am this morning. Texted my colleague and told him I wouldn't be in the office till tomorrow. I am sick.

I have post BsAs blue, though not as severe as last time. Nonetheless I have it. I have been feeling nostalgic. What's worse, both of my Mate wood cup cracked after cure. Now I have half kilo of Mate but no gourd to drink it from. It crossed my mind that I would jump on the next flight back to BsAs and confront the vendor who sold me two cracked mate cup, or at least who sold me two cups without proper instruction of cure.

Checked out what had gone on in NY's tango scene through facebook photos. I almost cried when I saw the postures of some women. That ended my thought of going out tonight, tomorrow night and the night after tomorrow...

Spent the whole afternoon on importing my new CD collection. Now I have 266 tango albums, 4973 songs and 21.0GB of music that will last ten and half day of non stop playing. Read some blogs and later listened to Adriana Varela, which added more nostalgia.

My life without tango is indeed quite pathetic. It will take me some time to get back to the normal life here. First thing first, I have to get back to work...

My next time in BA will be much longer, months longer... at least that's what I have to plan for.

Day 23. Happy Ending...

Every story has its ending. All in all, it was a happy one on this Saturday night. The last day of my trip started with a late morning breakfast. I actually forgot my massage appointment. Oh well, I guessed I didn't need it at the last day of my stay. I would be more relaxed back home.

Went to Consagrados for a good bye dance with some friends. Every portena I know told me to come back soon. I danced with Flo a wonderful tanda of Pugliese; Paula, the beautiful chica from la plata, a nice tanda of Tanturi; S, who is lighter than a feather.

Javier and Andrea are performing tonight at Sunderland. I reserved a table for ten. We went earlier to have dinner. I saw a few friends there. I danced with all my friends. It was a great way to say goodbye. Tango with them.

Javier and Andrea's performance was incredible. See my youtube channel for all of the performances.

(Andrea's favourite song. I danced with her a few time of the same music. :) )

They are wonderful people, fantastic teachers and great tango artists. Not just dancers, ARTISTS. If you have the chance to take private with them, just do it. Accept them, understand them, follow them. They will transform the way that you look at tango and dance it.

For any leader who has just danced two year, I can say that few can outdone what I have accomplished in two years. A lot of the credits go to my maestro Carlos De Chey in New York and Javier and Andrea in Buenos Aires. Carlos has shown me how tango is danced in Buenos Aires. He is heavily influenced by Nito y Elba, classy and elegant. Javier has transformed the way that I dance, opened my mind and inspired me in many ways.

The party continued at La Viruta, where young and cool kids hang out. I don't know what this place has. I felt more and more that I like it here. Maybe it is the dim light, maybe it is the hot babes ( loads of them), or maybe it is the chacarera at four o'clock and the darness at 6:00am (make out time, that is what I called it.) Whatever it is, it got the best of me. I felt that I was free on this dance floor. I had natural high dancing with some women. No judgements, no apologies, just hot and sexy tango. If Javier saw me dancing like that, he would have given me a thumps up. (not that I hadn't gotten one.)

We had the freshest media luna at 4:30am. Coffee and cortado kept me going till the very end. What a scene when all those gorgeous women who wear sexy outfit passed by me! My friend sighed:" Damn, look at all these gorgeous women!" It is good to be single!

That was it. I spent all my pesos, had a wonderful time, learned a lot and still don't know a lot. But one thing that I know for sure..

I love tango.

El Fin.

BsAs...

is no Nirvana. BsAs has average dancers, even bad dancers too. BsAs' milongas can be very crowded and hard to dance for some. BsAs has hot and humid summer days. BsAs has problems like every other city in the world...

But in BsAs, you can dance tango 16x7 (save 8 hours a day for sleep, eat, drink and go to the batroom). In BsAs you can dance with just about the world. In BsAs, you can dance with the best, if you are strived to be the best. In BsAs, you can experience something magical...

So if you are serious about knowing tango, make a trip to BsAs. Maybe you come back with disappointment, maybe you come back with depression, maybe you come back with different perspective of tango, or maybe you come back and quit...

Then one day you would say this: I('ve) dance(d) tango, I've been to BsAs...

I am an addict, a junkie: crazy, irrational.

I probably need help but you are supposed to live only once. Non? So I just bought another ticket to Buenos Aires leaving on the 22nd of February for three weeks. Great price: $782. Hotwire.com.
Now I am settled.

Ten Memorable moments of the trip

1. Had my first dance in Nino Bien with Cherie. I was a bit nervous at the time but gained confidence as the night went on. Ruben y Cherie are wonderful to be around with.

2. Danced behind Javier and Andrea at P&B. Nervous of bumping into them.

3. Had a great night with L-A-F-S at P&B. It was great feeling though nothing happened.

4. Danced with Andrea Misse for the first time.

5. Watching the French woman dancing with the blind man.

6. Met with Sally. You are a wonderful woman!

7. Dinner with F&E at Cafe del los Angelitos. Talks about meaning of tango.

8. All those private with J&A.

9. Met with the fellow NY tangueros and tangueras and had a tanda or two with them.

10. Knowing that I will be back to BsAs very soon.

Tango marathon continued...

From Ideal, I went to Club Gricel. Nito was teaching there. NDM was there too. He is a great teacher. Learned a few things by just sitting and watching. But I was tired and sleepy.



Dancing two tandas with NDM and we decided to leave. I went to P&B by myself. Saw the waiter at P&B and he got me a decent table. P&B tonight was dead. I danced with a German and a French. Both had problem with their own axis.

By 1:00am, I was ready to leave for El Beso, crowded, which I was told by the German. I loved the crowd, more dancers, better level of dancing and most of all great energy.

Saw Javier's friend M, gave her a big kiss on the cheek. And walk down the block to El Beso.

The place was packed. A lot of hot chicas, great dancers. Saw Gustavo there, so was Issac from crossroad. They both danced like Javier, very good dancers, especially Gus.

I thought I made a mistake to get in to el beso at 1:30am. Should have come here first. I would get a lot more dances. But I was extremely tired and my whole body was stiff. I danced with someone from NY and LA, then I walked out there around 3:00am in the morning.

On the way back to the apartment, I was already planning my next visit.

The scent of a woman

It happened at Ideal, sans the dips and the open embrace.

I was continuing my tango marathon on Sunday. After a trip to the flea market at the cemetery, I went to Ideal. It was quiet then. A few old milgueros and milogueras were dancing on the floor. I was quite tired. For a moment or two, I dozed off. I was debating if I should go back and take a nap before heading to Club Gricel.

I had been sitting there for about an hour, didn't even put my shoes on. Finally I decided to leave. Then I caught the sight of this woman with short hair. She seemed to know every one, and had been getting dances.

I cabeceoed her. And we had a lovely tanda. She understood the embrace. She is from Paris (french again).

My sense of tango had come back after the tanda. Then I saw this petite pretty woman whom looked like Eva Longoria. Cabeceoed her, she responded, but another guy mistook it and walked towards her. She looked away and chatted with the woman sitting next to her but the guy was so eager to dance that he actually asked her. Oh, only if people followed the code.

He was a lousy dancer and a Pugliese tanda was playing. Saw the look on her face, eyes wide opened, thought that it was not a very happy one.

Then I saw the French woman was dancing with this guy who had no sense of direction and wore a pair of sunglasses. Why would she dance with the dude? She had got all the good ones to choose from. Her eyes were wide open. She danced with her eyes closed with the others.

Then I realized this was the blind guy whom someone had nmentioned to me. I watched her being careful with the people around, yet at the mean time tried to enjoy the dance with him. At that moment, I felt my eyes were watery. I was touched by the sight of a wonderful woman and a courageous man.

At the end of the tanda, she walked him back to his seat, which not far from mine. She walked pass me and I touched her elbow. She stopped, I told her that it was emotional to see her dancing with this man. I had tears in my eyes, and she said that it made two of us.

We danced our emotion away with a milonga tanda. After that, I had my dance with the Eva Longoria looking woman. And that was it for me at Ideal. I had witnessed something special. And that moment will always be remembered. A kiss and a wave goodbye to the French woman, I walked out of Cafeteria La Ideal.

That was not the best milonga I've been to, but definitely a special one...

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.

Salon Canning-11.30

Had a nice buffet dinner with NDM with a bottle of wine, cost only $20 each. I think I will go back again before I leave.

Went to Canning after. It was supposed to be the milonga for Friday night, but what a f@#$^!g nightmare. The level of dance was so bad while we got there. I just sat there most of the time and made snide remarks with NDM.

We went on to the floor and danced one tanda. During one song I was bumped four fucking times. It felt like back in Monday's DM luna milonga. You got people dressed in jeans with holes and sneakers. Most of the women didn't even know what cabeceo is. I looked and looked, no response (not even a signal of "NO"). I was frustrated.

Comparing to Nino Bien, the floor craft on this Friday was terrible. You got f@#$^!g old men who got no sense of direction, flinging the women with 4 inch heel around as a weapon and danced to every foot of free space possibly found. There was no flow of the floor. It reminds me NY, with actually some of the milongas in NY have better flow that one of Canning this night.

Saw Gustavo with his friends and Issac from Crossroad, it was interesting to see how they danced since we all studied with Javier.

Every single girl whom I danced with got some sort of flaws. Most of them don't have their own axis or wobbly, stiff embrace with the gringas. I danced with one Porteno. She told me she just danced in the milonga, and never took any lessons. No wonder she felt weird.

I was bit disgusted. We spent thousands of dollars to improve our dance. And you just come to milonga and dance. What the...!

Even my favorite Italian girl was felt rushing the steps. But she's got a good embrace. Plus I like her a lot. Other than that, the night was almost disastrous.

Sat with Javier's friend M a bit, and went over to Italian girl's table and we exchanged e-mail addresses and names. And hopefully will meet at the milongas some where.

I was feeling sore heels. I hadn't felt the wears on my heel for a long time. I know it was from dancing with these women whom don't f%$#@!g know how to embrace a man, don't f%$#@!g know how to stay on their axis, and don't f%$#@!g take any lessons.

There you go, Women don't get to be the only ones who b%^&*.

Hopefully Maipu 444 is going to be as good as last week.

Canning at 4:00am in the morning.

Private Five- Finale.

Andrea was sorting out her Comme IL Faut when I walking in. Twenty pairs of them. Today was my lucky day. She was going to break in a new pair of CIF with me.

We talked a while first. I asked technical questions and principal questions. Javier answered them. There were so much information but so little time.

Then I danced with Andrea. I was surprised that the music Javier put on was Pugliese. I didn't know that I was ready for Pugliese. I always felt timid with Pugliese.

Stop. Javier was serious. "I care very much on the aesthetic presentation of the feet in the dance." Andrea translated "Never embellish with the outside edge of the foot." Javier showed me how to lapiz works. Then we worked on parada, and musicality. And the freedom the man has to lead.

I was taking them in and made notes and digest. Now I understand why Javier was not keen on me taking video. It takes away the process of thinking. What I learned these few days had gone into me, I am a better dancer mentally.

I am so grateful to both of them of showing me essence of the dance. Had me a taste of what it was like to have a perfect dance.

I danced with Andrea a whole song of Pugliese. Javier approved with his eyes and a little nod, Andrea said it was muy lindo. Although, few moment I tipped over her and put pressure on her heel. It was my bad habit from my beginner's day.

On the way down, Andrea told me that she was glad that we had done so much in five days. I told her that I looked forward to seeing them again soon.

With a kiss goodbye, I had completed my five memorable hours private with two of the best teachers in the world. They had transformed me and educated me. That was the purpose of coming here.

Nino Bien- A week from the first night, 11.29

One week has passed. I came back to where I started my first milonga-Nino Bien. Had a wonderful and light hearted lesson with Javier and Andrea, I went straight to El Beso. It is small place but jam packed.

I danced a tanda with a girl whom I danced the other night at P&B and E (whom I thought was getting worse following.). After that I took off and called novia de maestro and met up at Nino Bien.

Got there early, saw the fellow New Yorkers again. Had a decent table (don't bother to call for reservation. Unless you are a regular, reservation doesn't mean squat) and ordered some vino and chatted a little. She doesn't go out much to the milongas. Even though she's been here close to a year, she found my milonga tales were very interesting.

After danced with her, I started to cabeceo around. One regular (yes, one week here I am getting my regular cabeceo.)responded and we had very nice half tanda when the floor was clear.

Next one went to the beautiful Italian girl whom I danced with Tuesday night. NDM said that she closed her eyes and smiling during the whole tanda of Calo. I felt great in the perfect embrace with her. My energy was high. The floor was packed then. Had her in my embrace, breathing and feeling the chest expanding together was blissful.

Later I had a second tanda, a D'Arienzo with her. She is good at the music as well, recognized different orchestra. I guess she is as much into tango as I did(can tell through the conversation the way that we talked about music).

During our tanda, a filming crew was here. The camera was following us for a long minute or two. I was slightly distracted and led her too close to the front table (I was using every single available square foot). Her heel caught the woman whom was sitting there next to the floor in the feet. (One advice, ladies, if you don't intend to get a lot dances, for any reason, including your ability to dance. Don't sit at the front row close to the floor. Front row is for dancers whom actively cabeceo for dance, not spectators to sit and watch.)

That happened at the last song of the tanda, we danced just about 15 feet during the whole song. I apologized to her. It was my first accident in one week. I felt embarrassed, more so because the camera was there to catch the accident.

Later towards the end of the milonga, I looked over at her. We both wanted to dance the third one, but were inhibited because of the codigo. She said she would be at canning Friday night. So I would probably see her again. And maybe get her e-mail address this time

Overall, the energy of the dance was not as good as last week. But I was having a fantastic time. Danced with a Swedish, a fellow NY tango dj/organizer, a Brit, a few others and it was close to 3:30am in the morning. My last one went to this chica from Hong Kong, who doesn't look like a Chinese at all. I had no idea. What an coincident!

It is interesting how tango brings people together from different places in the world.

Later, she invited me to share a cab with her. We exchanged e-mails and promised to meet again before I leave for NY.

It was great night all in all. Great class with great milonga. I was getting comfortable to dance to what I learned in the class. Especially the embrace part, it works.

I got home feeling so tired, didn't even have the energy to write anything. Not until now, 1:00pm in the afternoon that I have recovered from the unforgettable night of dancing at Nino Bien. My favourite along with Porteno y Bailarin.

Private four- Copyright infringement-Tres Javier

I am more comfortable with Andrea and Javier. I even loosed the second button of my shirt. And Javier noticed that and said: "muy Argentino."

Danced a full song with Andrea without being stopped by Javier. I viewed it as a big improvement from the first day, when I was stopped just about one minute into the dance.

We continued fine tuned the embrace, walk and energy flow. Then Javier explained the energy of a giro that I did.

" I saw you did this." He said, Andrea translated. My favorite Javier move.

"Yes, I learned that from video." I said and

"I know." Javier winked. "I recognized it." "But it is a copy."

So he explained it how the energy works and I understood it, but couldn't do it right away. I need time to have it become part of me before I have the confidence to do it.

Javier and Andrea danced one song together to show me how it was done. I felt that I was so privileged to see the performance right in front of me.

The door bell rang. And it was another Javier's student from Taiwan. Gustavo! I recognized him from the photos on the web. I know he is very good. Some introduction after, we resumed the lesson.

I danced with Andrea one more song. Unconsciously, I used one of the moves that Javier just did. After the dance, Andrea chuckled and told Javier. Javier was laughing:" Mafia Chino."

"Mafia numbero Uno." he pointed to Gus "y Mafia numbero Dos." He pointed at me.

"What can I do," I joked " I have to steal from the rich man."

He chuckled after andrea translated. That has concluded my fourth private with them.

Then I watched Gus led Javier for one song. I recognized all the signature Javier moves and energy in his dance. I was laughing and admiring. Yet I don't want to dance just like Javier. I want to apply what he taught me and dance like me.

On the way down from the apartment, Javier told me when I go back, I should start following. Then you would understand how the mujer feels, he said.

It was a great class.

Meeting Sally

Sally and I decided to have a blogger union at Cafeteria La Ideal's afternoon milonga. Got there around 5;00pm, it was quiet. Sally walked in a few minutes after. We were so happy to finally meet.

Ideal was quiet at that hour, only one of two couple dancing on the floor. We chatted a bit until a Pugliese was played and a Sally's regular cabeceoed her. Sally danced like some one who has been dancing for a few years instead of just one year.

She has very precise steps and cute little embellishment. It was a pleasant treat to watch her dancing with the milonguero.

We had a nice tanda of tango and vals. She looked so good that a guy kept his eyes on her all time while we were dancing. But he was one of those bad dancers. Sally was way out of his league.

Time flied when you had a great time. It was close to 6:30 and I had to take off for private. It was wonderful to meet an amazing woman like sally in the real world. It makes cyber world a little more humane.

Trapped in the elevator

Woke up this morning having a little headache. Looked at the empty champagne bottle than I understood why. The bright side was that I had a sound sleep. Now L-A-F-S is gone, I can concentrate on tango again.

Planning to meet a respected blogger later at la Ideal (yes, going back to that place), then 7:00pm private, after straight to El Beso, then Nino Bien around 1:00am. With full schedule ahead, I had my coffee and media luna and went out the Bulnes to get some cash and changed $100 bill at Carrefour by getting another of fine champagne (13 peso, 4 dollar). Came back and picked up my laundry.

The elevator at this building is strange. The apartment that I rent is on the 1st floor. The button hasn't been working right since I came in. Today, I just couldn't get it working at all. I went up to second floor, no problem, press the 1st floor. The elevator gave a click sound, then nothing.

Didn't want to stepping into the darkness of the second floor and walk down to my floor. I pressed 0 to get down to ground floor. Then press 1 again, click, click, and beep beep beep. Fuck, I ran out of patience. Still don't want to use the fire escape stairs. (it is a horrible experience, trying to the find the light switch in pitch black.) I pressed 3, smoothly the elevator carried me to the third floor.

Guess what, no luck again. back the ground floor, one more try I said to myself, press 1 again. Yes, it finally was moving...

Private Three

On the way to Javier's place, I tried to call my NYTFs and plan for the milonga later. The call got cut off and gave out a bunch of Spanish. I thought that my minutes was used up. So freaked out, I asked the taxi driver to pick up add-on phone card for me. He was kind enough to jump out of car at a mobile store and did it for me.

I was ten minutes late for the class. Javier and Andrea were having a mate when I walked in. And they offered me to try it. It tasted like herbal tea, very interesting, and I am sure, organic.

This class is about fine tone the dance. I still had the problem sometime right leg crooked the left. Javier told me to think of just the standing leg and push with the whole feet, not bending the knee.

And he discussed a lot of breathing, energy and the little things that make or break the energy and the feeling for the woman in the dance. He led me a few times and had me feel the different lead (good one, and the bad one I did). I tried to absorb what he said. But there was too much information. I had to take it all in and digest slowly when I get back to new york.

The biggest gain of these privates is that he and Andrea had taught me what is the essence of the dance. It will take many years for me to be able to dance like that. But it is great to know that I am walking in the right path. I am definitely coming back for in March for some more lessons. They stay till late March before go on tour again.

Later Javier told me to just dance with Andrea. He asked me if I like the music. I told me I preferred to dance to D'Arienzo. Then D'Arienzo it was. During the dance I felt I was at times rushing Andrea, and lack of control.

I left Javier's place a little absent minded.

Porteno y Bailarin- Performance by Alberto Podesta

I don't believe in love at the first sight. But I did have a great time and a lot of good laughs with some one whom I just met here. I called her Like at the first sight, L-A-F-S.

Anyway, got to P&B early to get a seat at the table. Just had a perfect dance with Andrea, was still savoring it and taking in what was learned from the class. So dancing with average dancers was very unfulfilled.

P&B draws good crowd tonight, El Falco, Tete, Luna, Mariela from NY (just arrived this morning.)and some less known names. Of course Alberto Podesta is performing tonight. Sat with the Tango Zen guy from DC, danced with two Germans, one Dutch, one Italian, one special friend from the States. I spoke a little German to the Germans, and Italian to the Italians, but every one seemed to be in the Spanish mind. It took them a while to realize that I was speaking their native language.

The performance must be one of the memorable moments in this trip. I shot a lot of videos of the performance. And I stayed late till 4:00am dancing with my new L-A-F-S.
I am loving this town....

Private Two- In search of the perfect dance

Went nuts with the shoe shopping. Found the shoes Javier wore and recommended at Neotango. Spent one hour there and finally picked up three. Then went to El Arranque for the milonga martinee. Was too tired and didn't even dance. Had lunch at 6:00pm at a cafe at the corner of Callao.

Walked to Javier's apartment 10 to 7pm. Andrea wasn't there yet. Tried on the new shoes, they felt good. Andrea came in 10 minutes later and thought I was wearing Javier's shoes.

More comfortable now, I started to gain confidence in my dance. Javier and Andrea communicated to each other after we danced half song. She thought that I was opening my left side a bit, she felt a bit pulled off balance. I knew that the cause of it must be the last couple of weeks that I was trying the V shape embrace.

We spent a good amount of time trying to fix the little nuances, such when to collect the feet for me, (especial when lead the woman into the cross from ocho cortado), how the think of the right arm embrace as having two needles hanging from both side and try to maintain that way, how my left hand should be by my body not to push the woman the arm, and walk straight line. I corrected them little by little until Andrea felt perfect.

Then she had a little request. I needed to show her the music. It took a few minutes to understand that. The man interpreted the music like a conductor. The man shows the woman how he wants this music to be danced. The woman shouldn't have to guess the music. I don't know if this sits well with North American women. But this is how I am taught.

In the last dance with Andrea, a Di Sarli, I danced the whole song with her. After that, Andrea told me it felt perfect and Javier gave me a thump up and gave his seat to me to sit down.

I was tired physically (not just from the class but from all these late night dancing.), but I was emotionally high. Went to the apartment to fix some dinner and headed out to Porteno y Bailarin. Alberto Podesta is performing tonight.

Club Gricel- Monday night 11.26

Club Gricel is on La Rioja in san Critobal, a bit far from where I live. Took the last subway of the day round 10pm, D line to Catedral and changed to E and got off at Urquiza, walked up two blocks to the left. And here it was Club Gricel.

It was F's last night in town. Saw her right away on the floor when I walked in. It was crowded then. The host greeted me with a kiss on the cheek. That made me feel comfortable already. Then she had me waited to be sit it. Since I am a tourist,solo and it was crowded already at the time, I was assigned the worst seat, which was also taken.

I sat down and ordered agua con gas. Before long, two gentlemen came off the floor and told me that they sat there. The host made a mistaken and the seat was taken. Didn't know what to do, I got up and walked back to the front and tried to talk with the host.

Then Ruben and Cherie saw me and signaled me to sit with them. They were with their guest tonight. I danced with F a beautiful Pugliese tanda. We spent most of the time in each other's embrace, only a few steps here and there when space was available. I would miss dancing with her.

I walked around just like rest to practice cabaceo. And this woman stopped me. Wanna dance, she asked with heavy accent. A portena. Ok, why not. How bad she could be? Well, to say the least, she felt different. In the break, we had a little conversation. It turned out she had been to NY before as a.... Tango teacher! And it seemed that she knows a lot of people: my maestro, lexa, Daniel from dancetango.com. She asked me to say hello to them. I told her that I would carry her hellos with me home.

I didn't know if it was normal in the milonga. She stopped in front of a table where some of her acquaintances sat, and said to them "Chino, bailer tango." Her friends nodded and said "Bueno"

I didn't have a very good night in terms of dancing. The floor was very crowded, and I got bumped once and kicked twice. One guy blocked me during a Pugliese tanda. And I left one of my dressing socks at the apartment. So I was in my white button socks. I didn't want to look stupid in front of these people. So I danced in really small steps and tried not to show what was under of the hem of the pants.

But I had a great time socializing... I would have good dancing another night and anothe milonga. I came back happy, happy to be in Buenos Aires...

Private One

Late for my private with J&A. I felt so bad. First class and I was 15 minutes late. Rang the bell of Javier's Apartment. Andrea came down to get me. She recognized me from last night at Porteno y Bailarin. We chitchat a little until Javier came out.

I think I will keep the details. But mainly we worked on the embrace, Javier explained how the man embraces the woman so the woman is over the man's chest. He had me adjusted my right hand higher, and left hand palm facing the face. My walk is too academic, not natural, use the whole feet but not bending the knees. So the woman feels less disturbed and smoother.

Tango is danced in a block, straight lines. If I want to be circular, there is thing called pivot. Then Attitudes: we spent more time on the attitudes than the technique. Dance like a Argentine, be confident, but not cocky nor arrogant.

In the begiining, Andrea felt that I was nervous, timid and hesitated. She told Javier. I explained:"I am dancing with the best dancer. I get nervous." Javier said seriously :"then bring your own partner." Because any withdrawn feeling conveys to the woman and makes her feel insecure. From the moment that I invite the lady for a dance. I have to have the confidence so it conveys to her and the people around on the floor.

I took notes. Listened, and corrected the technical flaws. Time flied before an hour was up. Then Javier told me to dance one song with Andrea and dance the way that I normally do with the things that he taught in mind.

After the dance Andrea told Javier: "Muy potencial!" She and Javier approved. Later Javier showed me his shoes and told me to get a softer, lower and bigger heel shoes. It will transform your dance. Andrea translated.

We scheduled the next four days and Javier walked me down the lift.

Out on the street, I was so glad that I had made the right decision to come to BsAs and take privates with them. It is eyeopening experience.