On Sunday the sun came out for us! We went to the Feria de los Mataderos. This 
was my first time there. We took a 20 minute (or so) taxi ride and we arrived around noonish. It was a fair similar to the one in Recoleta or like the one here in Plaza Dorrego BUT it has a stage where there is live music and Folkloric dances. It was really neat! They danced: Chacarera, Chamame, Samba. The artisans were lovely as well. I think the small group of us who went enjoyed it. I know I really enjoyed the empanadas that we ate!
Here are the ladies making empanadas in a stall.
There was this very old man with a face of a thousand stories who was dancing in the street with the rest of whomever wanted to. At one point he yelled at the crowd "to move farther away" – to give more space.
Sunday we had a wonderful asado prepared for us by the America del Sur where we are staying. We had some beef, chicken and veggies and a beautiful desert plate prepared for us by Chef Juan! During the course of our meal we were also lucky to have some live music with 2 musicians.
The America del Sur often plans things and it so happened that they were planned for this evening. It was a lovely addition to our meal!
Sunday night we went to El Beso for some dancing. It was a bit of a controversial evening!!! A little bit of male tension on the dance floor and some female frustration for the desire for more dances. This is an interesting position that I have found myself in. The need to fill my "contract" with everyone to have them dancing as much as possible or at least experiencing some growth and satisfaction. AND noticing that this is the midway point of the tour – people are tired and some of us are coming down with colds! NOT ME though! I also had an interesting evening dancing with an older milonguero – pretty famous – he is known as ToTo! Really interesting to dance with these older men (like the famous milonguero TeTe who just passed this January). They have an interesting phrasing as well as small steps – not a lot of drama or not too busy in their dancing. Really lovely and totally unexpected.
Rommel has been down for a couple of days and today – Tuesday – seems to be much better. Lu was a little under the weather and a few people in the group took the night off last night.
I have decided to divide the group for the next few days to try to maximize everyone’s experience. This also means dividing the assistants. So for today and tomorrow I have decided to offer 2 options and those who want to go to 1 milonga go there and to another one go to the other one. I do not think I can spread myself as thinly by trying to go to both places. So I will just go to 1 or the other… some of the group are going to both – which is great!!!
So last night a small group of us went to see the Orquesta EL Afronte. www.elafronte.com.ar/ I think we had fun. It is right around the corner from where we are staying, so that’s a nice bonus! It’s a little place that has a dive-bar feel! But seeing and dancing to live music is always pretty cool!!! Ryan had an interesting dance – a full circle of sorts for him! He danced last night with the assistant who helped us on his first tour 3 years ago!!! It was really nice to see her and for Ryan to be courageous and dance with her. So great for him!
Here’s Delisa with Jose Luis