Here is the latest link for pictures I have uploaded to Facebook
The tour ended on a positive note. We were able to take the official “shoe” picture as well! I think there are 35 pairs here!!!!
We spent the last few days with the group somewhat divided. We picked several different places and allowed them to pick or come to both milongas.
Tuesday we had some of the group go to an early milonga and a small handful of us went to another milonga later. I think the group still had fun attending the milonga that they felt they would most enjoy or just to explore a different setting.
Wednesday we had a fabulous class with Analia y Marcelo. We were lucky to have them for teachers 2 years ago and so happy to have them again this year. It’s amazing to watch teachers grow as well and I still love their approach and the material and ideas they have to share. They were fun!
I think they all got something from this class. It is hard not to. They offer some lovely ideas for connection and they always always stress dancing not this idea of a follower and a leader but DANCING! I like this!
After the class the group did their thing to get ready for the evening’s milonga. They had 2 choices again. A small group of us went to the later evening TangoLab. I thought that this might be an interesting place to go for another casual venue with a young scene. I also knew the DJ – Mathieu – a Canadian transplant to Buenos Aires.
Here are the guys!! Hanging out! There was a performance here as well. Which for some reason we haven’t seen too many this trip. Maybe because it’s hard to top Julio y Corina from the first night!!!
TangoLab wasn’t very crowded but it was very relaxed. It was a different feel and had a mostly younger scene.
Thursday was the last full day of “stuff”! We had our early afternoon tea at Cafe Tortoni on Avenida de Mayo. We decided to try this cafe this year as it is a nice walk from San Telmo. www.cafetortoni.com.ar/ Unfortunately, I think, Las Violettas is much much better and will return to that next year!
I think Tortoni relies heavily on its historical significance and it’s expensive and not as beautiful. We did have our long table in a room at the back. It was kind of funny because the room had a large Buenos Aires scape and we took advantage of the good lighting to do lots of fun poses!!!
Maybe you can see the backdrop in this next picture…. Here’s Jose Luis, one of the assistants.
We feasted on coffee and alfajores, Lydia’s new found love!! And we had cake and churros. It was fun and nice to have the group together. They wanted pictures with the boys and just Sabrina, our female assistant. We had just the girls and the boy assistants! Many different combinations!
Thursday night we all went to Nino Bien. This is one of my favorite milongas and I asked that everyone attend. There were a few people who attended another milonga earlier and we all met up at Nino Bien. The night was slow going it seemed. The hall was never quite as packed as it gets but Rommel and I stayed quite late. The rest of the gang was done in several waves throughout the evening. I had the opportunity to share several tandas with Dany “El Flaco”, who was one of the teachers on the tour 2 years ago. He had just come out of some sciatic surgery about 46 days ago (if I understood correctly!) and here he was, well, here we were!
Today the tour ended with checkouts and with some final shopping. It had rained last night but the sun managed to break out and leave those who were leaving a sunny day to travel. 5 of the group make their journey home today. Lydia, with a bag packed with alfajores, shoes for all and hopefully great memories.
We have just a couple days of rest and then on Sunday there are 8 of us venturing to Mendoza for some vino and relaxation. We will have 1 day of dancing while there.
I hope to spend some time in the next few blogs discussing some observations on the city.