Another Summer in Buenos Aires turning to Fall

1 April 2016, this is no joke...The title proclaims: The Ideal does not close. But Confiteria Ideal is closed, temporarily - it says - for restoring it to its former glory. Being Argentina, that may take some time, wisely the sign promises 'for a while' instead of the rumored 'eight months'...but, time will tell.

 

 No more daily afternoon milongas in one of the most famous tango venues in Buenos Aires - everyone, who owns a pair of tango shoes, hopes that once again soon the traditional airs of tango, milonga and vals will see 'the regulars' back on the tiled floor for their accustomed after work diversion of tango.

That's it, 'la persianas' are closed, who knows what is happening, if anything, behind these green curtains....

Meanwhile the Sunderland Club, temple of traditional Tango Salon Villa Urquiza Style, has already 'renovated', not totally, just the gymnasium/dance floor. Sunderland Club is not exactly a romantic venue, it is indeed a baseball court with all the trimmings for a sports venue, and - as a bonus - a reasonable priced very good restaurant inside the building. On Saturdays, tables and chairs are arranged at the edge of the  baseball court, tango music fills the hall, and mostly elderly married couples come for their Saturday dining out and tango treat. A few groups of friends congregate to celebrate a birthday, and some aspiring tango champions practice their elegant moves. For outsiders, arriving singly, it is rather slim pickings in terms of getting out on the dance floor for a tanda or two.
Couples dance with each other, friends dance with their table mates, and the few solos are left to wait for a successful cabeceo. Unless one finds an acquaintance among the scant singles, dancing does not materialize...nobody dances with an 'unknown' here...

 

A large hall with terrible acoustics re-enforced by loud whirring of overhead ventilator fans, the Sunderland Club lacks elegance and warmth, but is strangely proud of its unique aspect in the Buenos Aires tango scene.

 Monica and Jorge preparing for their performance of the evening.

Monica Parra and Jorge Olguin after their show of tango, vals and milonga are being presented with a souvenir of their performance.

 

The floor of the Sunderland Club used to be polished concrete, hard both on athletes' and dancers' feet. It is now covered over with wood. Due to economic constraints the new layer is NOT made of parquett flooring, but of lacquered plywood sheets, enhanced with some kind of gooey material. It is so sticky, that it makes pivoting (a critical move in tango) almost impossible. After an hour of 'pivoting' albeit during a lesson, not during the actual dance (I did not dance one dance) the soles of my new shoes looked like the example on the left. It took an hour of dedicated scrubbing with steel wool to get the gloop off, unfortunately together with the smooth leather surface, to leave me with something like the example on the right.

 

During the last couple of weeks here, once again - a few outings into the surroundings....

At Los Cardones together with tango friends from Britain, for a treat of  Folklorico, and a dish of stuffed Aubergines.

 Off for another stroll through quaint San Telmo and the café notable El Sedon.

 Nothing has changed here since a hundred years, except the 'cuentas' are produced on a computer instead of written out by hand.

San Telmo churches grace the city scape...

A short stroll through Abasto, Carlito Cardels old home barrio, affords a varied line up of Filete paintings.

Carlito Gardels Statue, without hat but with his famous smile, guards the Art Deco Shopping Centre of Abasto...

 Many fronts are decorated with the famous filete paintings...

 ...some with a different style of wall art....

 ...and some with a little extra local colour thrown in...

 ...some just cry out for you to burst into song...

 ..some  make you wonder what on earth this lady is doing up there...

 Filete birds admire painted rain drops...

..and event he pavement stones cite melancholy tango lyrics....

Volver....one will return....unless El ultimo Café puts a stop to it.

 

..and so one prepares one's suitcases, and fills the last week with tango, music, outings, walks and good byes....

La Rural...Nuestro Caballos y Nuestro Perros

Every year, at the beginning of April, La Rural (Exhibition Grounds) in Buenos Aires hosts one of the most renown Horse and Dog Exhibitions in South America. Modern exhibition halls complement the graceful Belle Epoque beauty of historic exhibition halls and spectator stands. Only a couple of years ago, this event was a cauldron of activity, dozens of exhibitor stands of all kinds, hundreds of horses and their picturesque gauchos, and huge crowds of spectators. Galloping inflation has taken it's toll even here. Transportation and stabling has reached unaffordable levels of expense for the rural community,  

The vast halls housing the animals were hardly occupied, the feria artesanal was reduced to a couple of dozen stands... and the public stayed away.

 

Beautiful Belle Epoque Exhibition halls

 

 

 Young woman working her 'Peruvian Paso' in the warm up ring ...

 Criollo Horse line classes...small, compact, intelligent, tough, strong....a horse with legendary stamina, descendands of Andalusian Horses turned feral after the Gaucho wars a couple of hundred years ago.

 A smaller crowd of onlookers, mostly exhibitors as well...

 One of the few remaining artesans at the Exhibition: a jeweller creating pieces made from horse shoes. There were a couple of silversmiths selling mate gourds, horse tack stands, clothing vendors, one or two artists and two stands with local delicatessen (honey, cheeses, hams, bacons and sausages)

 Not a tack store, but a tack room for Frisian carriage teams - there actually were one or two of them...

 The dog show was almost as well attended by participants as in previous years - however, again less vendors offering pet food, clothing, grooming and insurance.

 Housing a dog at an exhibition involves a crate and a little space, definitely less expensive than paying for one large stall per horse, especially when travelling with more than one equine.

 The intrepids and less impoverished still take their treasures to town. Every time I see a magnificient specimen of the Criollo breed, I wish I could take one home to Canada...

Judging in Progress

The Walk Past in front of critical judges of quality horse flesh.

No exhibition, no sport, no game, no outing ...nothing is complete, without a stimulating sip of hierba mate...

And the Winner is...

 ...maybe this dairy cow...already occupying her stall in an adjoining exhibition hall, awaiting the exhibition of 'lechera' ....milk production

I was glad to have visited the Nuestro Caballos y Nuestro Porros exhibition to connect 'with the country' and sad at the same time, to see, how over a few years a popular event with a large number of rural participants, four and two legged, has devolved into a shadow of itself.
The Dairy Exhibition, which was scheduled to follow the one of Horses and Dogs, was already gearing up with a few dairy cows undergoing their visit to the 'Dairy Spa' for a wash, dry, and cut...

Paseo Cultural in Buenos Aires....March 2016

Fall has arrived in Buenos Aires...a good time to visit museums, walk among the monuments of La Recoleta and enjoy a cafecito at Café Biela in Buenos Aires.

 

Faces at a Milonga

Los Consagrados, dance venue at 'El Centro Leonesa' on Calle Humberto Primero in Buenos Aires, is where EVERYBODY meets sooner or later on a Saturday afternoon. The milonga starts at 4:30 p.m., when dancing is still possible as only Early Birds populate the tables spread around the best dance floor in Buenos Aires (no cracks) and take advantage of plenty of room to dance 'expansively'. By about 7 p.m. every table is taken and everybody dances; the dance floor feels like a vertical sardine can, where the art of bailar en la baldosa (dance within the space of a square foot)  is the major part of floor craft skills. No room for tango nuevo moves (which would result in multiple collisions and injuries) but good old 'tango salon' or 'tango para la pista' as it is called now. On this particular Saturday the floor happened to be particularly crowded, as the Tanturi Tango Orchestra was providing live music for the dancers.

Women always outnumber men by a large margin at this milonga. The women's section of the milonga seating is in four 'filas' (rows), of which the first one is always reserved for the regular local Portenas who occupy the same seat week after week, and year after year. At times a visitor may be able to occupy a front row seat, if the regular 'owner' is on vacation.

Cristina

Noelia

Ergo, being a visitor (even a frequent one) relegates me to the back forty, which at my height makes me 'invisible' for any 'cabeceos' from the male side of the room. I may just as well bring a matress and go to sleep under my table for the duration of the milonga.

Marcela

But, one is grateful for milonguero friends, who - once they discover one's whereabouts in the back row, come and ask one to dance anyway. In between tandas, lots of time to people watch, which particularly on Los Consagrados milonga is entertaining, educative and revealing.

So without further ado, here is a selection of Faces on the Dance Floor of Los Consagrados.

Nelda

Mario

From Japan

From Holland

Nigel

The longest pony tail on the dance floor, adorned with a rose...

Sonia

Rino

From Rumania

From Guadalupe