I am happy to announce my Tango Tours for 2011 and also happy to have Rommel Oramas join me once again; his assistance is invaluable in these tours.

We have 3 choices of tours this year: Mendoza – Vino y Tango, Buenos Aires 10 day Cultural Immersion; and NEW this year, Buenos Aires 8 day Tour de Lujo.

In chronological order:

MENDOZA – Vino y Tango  May 19 – May 24, 2011 $900

Buenos Aires 10-day Cultural Immersion Tango Tour May 25 – June 4, 2011 $1700

Buenos Aires 8 day Tour de Lujo June 6 – 14, 2011 $2350

Non-refundable deposit of $500 due March 15th to hold your place.  First come first serve. 
Tours do not include airfare, tips, and Reciprocity Tax to enter Argentina of $131 (paid at EZE airport)

I look forward to 2011 in so many ways and so should you!

1) 3 TANGO TOURS TO CHOOSE FROM!
We will be offering 3 tours this coming year for tango lovers.  The Mendoza – Vino y Tango tour: 5 days in Mendoza Argentina exploring wine country.  The 10-day Cultural Immersion Tour – 10 days in Buenos Aires and the 8-day Tango Tour de Lujo. Each with a different pocketbook and objective in mind.

2) BORGIALLI TANGO SHOES ON THE ROAD!
Rommel Oramas and I will be taking the Soy Porteno practice sneakers on the road this year.  We will be visiting several festivals across the country and we are looking forward to bringing some comfort to your feet!  We will also be unveiling the Borgialli Tango Shoe website with shopping and logo.  VERY EXCITING!

3) MORE CLASSES!
Besides my classes at Scottsdale Community College and ASU this semester, I will be teaching my FUNDAMENTALS CLASSES in January.  ALSO, Fridays January 21, 28 and February 4th Rommel Oramas and I will be teaching ADVANCED CONNECTIONS WORKSHOPS at the Art of Dance in Scottsdale.
I will also be teaching in Jerome, Arizona in February!

4) ASU TANGO FESTIVAL APRIL 1, 2, 3
I am really excited for this festival. Not just because it is on my home turf! or is being hosted by my students or because I will be teaching at it! but MOST IMPORTANTLY the selection of teachers are some of the best teachers in the US (Canada)!  This will truly be a learning and sharing weekend.  Please join us…  Housing hosts and group rates available. 

Happy NEW YEAR!  May all you wish be fulfilled!

www.facebook.com/album.php

Here is the link to more of my pictures: www.facebook.com/album.php   and more:

www.facebook.com/album.php

Wednesday night we went to a little local milonga hosted by Jose y Ana. It was great to see everyone using their new found tango confidence to dance with some locals as opposed to shying away from the idea…

On Thursday we woke up relatively early – it was still dark out at 8am!  And we had a long drive ahead of us. We were headed to Uco Valley – Valle de Uco.  This is much higher, chillier.  It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get there.  We were supposed to go to Andeluna and they couldn’t confirm our reservation so we got a last minute visit with La Azul.  A really small bodega.  We had a lovely tour and fabulous explanation of their wine-making process.  Each tasting is individual – and also corresponds to each persons habits.  For example, a person who drinks orange juice will experience the wine very differently than someone who maybe drinks coffee in the morning.  The distinguishing of the acidity will be different for these 2 people.  Luis, our tour”guide” told us that he loves Fernet (this bitter liquor that you add to Coke).  He had to give up Fernet when he became involved in this business – his palate had become used to the bitterness of the Fernet and therefore could not distinguish “bitter” taste in wines. 

We then went off to Jean Bousquet.  This bodega is like a machine – it has lots of machines too!!!  They do not sell their wines in Argentina – they do all their business for export.  We became thoroughly entertained with Bousquet’s German Shepherd pup who just wanted to play.  His name is Buster and whoever would pick up a rock or a piece of wood or whatever and throw it – he would fetch it back.  There were plenty of us in the group who happily obliged him! TOO CUTE!

Bousquet was interesting to see how as it seemed very hands off in terms of “quality control”.  He advertises that he uses organic grapes in his winemaking. The grapes are planted in soil that contains re-constituted flowers and does not contain pesticides. There are roses planted at the end of every row of grapes. The roses help in discouraging bugs and they use sulfur and copper to ward off any other critters (like wolves, etc) who do not like the smell.  Very interesting. Also their reserve malbec was only $25 – right? 25 pesos….

We then went to Salentien – a very big fancy winery to have lunch and tour.  Well – we had lunch and well, missed our tour!!!!  This winery might be interesting to visit again next year.  They have a museum, a chapel and the restaurant.  The building is built like a cross.  Lunch was ok….. 

Here’s the gang with a complimentary glass of champagne.  This is our last outing together for this year.  We head back to Buenos Aires later today.  And after that everyone starts their journey back to Arizona.  

Yesterday we visited 3 bodegas with wine tastings and crashed Achaval Ferrer’s tasting room for our “picnic” lunch. 

The gang at Catena Zapata

We have hired Walter and his 15 person van to take the 8 of us around for these 3 days.  So yesterday we visited the Lujan de Cuyo region – we visited Catena Zapata, Achaval Ferrer, and Alta Vista.  We missed seeing Carmelo Patti and visited him today.

Each winery has its own unique aspects.  I think similar to tango it’s good to experience many wineries – many milongas – to know that there is not 1 way to do things but many as there are people and ideas. 

Here we are at Achaval Ferrer in their lovely tasting room.  After we had our tasting a few of us bought their lovely Dulce – a sweet wine of malbec grapes.  Then we asked if we could stay and each some lunch.  We all brought some bread, cheese, ham, salami, etc and we had a bottle to share – we had a lovely lunch!

We missed Carmelo Patti even though we had made an appointment with him so we continued on our merry way to Alta Vista.  We had to wait a bit for our tour so we enjoyed the surroundings of the interesting birds hanging out, and the little critters that look like guinea pigs but are a rabbit of sorts!!! and the lovely lavender.

Today we visited Carmelo Patti.  And I enjoy visiting him so much.  His methods are very different than the other places we visit and we can a real personal approach to the wine making industry.  I think we all managed to buy a bottle from him.  I don’t remember what i bought last year but this year I am coming home with a signed bottle of 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon.  YEAH!!!  He is a big fan of letting the wines age and then he is a big fan of letting wine decant – breathe!!!   If you’re going to take the time to dress or to cook a lovely meal then the wine should have time to do the same – breathe!   

THEN we went to our lunch with wine pairings.  We had scheduled to visit Ruca Malen, which is the same place that we had enjoyed a lunch last year BUT at the nth our last night our reservation was canceled due to a large group of journalists who would be attending.  SO Rommel had them suggest and help us with our reservation at Melipal.  What a lovely afternoon!!!!

Check out all those glasses!!!!!  Each course was accompanied by a wine from their winery.  We discovered that the Chef here is the same at Ruca Malen. We were in good hands!  They were accommodating to my veggie / no lacto needs and I think everyone enjoyed their meal.  We took about 3 hours to consume with pleasure!!!

The Chef is Florencia and the sommelier who helped in the wine pairings was also a woman.  This was refreshing to discover!!!  Ryan, Rommel and I had been to Ruca Malen last year and had enjoyed the food but not so much the wine. This lunch we all agreed that the food and the wine were both quite delicious!  We also managed to dance a tango in their hall on our way out! 

AND THEN!  Why Ryan and Joey decided to run a sprint across their lawn is beyond my understanding but they did…

So Melipal was a success!!!  We made it back to our Mendoza home all content and a little tipsy!

Tonite we have a local milonga to attend.  We attended last year and thought it would be fun to revisit this year. 

Ryan brought the latest in apple technology on this trip – his IPad and we have been lucky enough to enjoy several games of scrabble on it!!!  And I finally won a game between Ryan, Kaitlin and myself today!! YEAH!!!

the gang arrives in Mendoza

www.facebook.com/photo.php

www.facebook.com/album.php

Another great new place that I found this trip was/ is Cafe San Juan.  On San Juan near Balcarce: San Juan 450. phone 4300-1112.  We found this place in the Guia Oleo.  What a delicious place.  Rommel and I took Katie there for a late Graduation present. 

we enjoyed tapa sized appetizers of brie and sundried tomatoes, tortilla de papa with morones on toast, then main dishes of rabbit in port wine sauce, brochette of shrimp, like a paella.  Then a delicious wine to wash it all down!  We also had some delicious desserts.  There was an apple tartlike thing with homemade cinnamon ice cream.  Then a mousselike treat with all kinds of flavors in it!

The last place I want to mention is Taberna baska on Chile and Tacuari.  (chile 980)  Another lovely meal.  Delicious options.  They even have “centolla” – the crab from the Patagonia area.  It has some really interesting options including paella and shrimps and calamari.  And some great sounding dishes.  I hope to go their again.

So – now we get ready for Mendoza.  We leave Sunday – tomorrow in the evening – there will be 8 of us.  Looking forward to getting away from the city.

www.facebook.com/album.php

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. 

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

Here is a link to some more pics from the week.

www.facebook.com/album.php

I thought I would spend some time commenting a little on the types of milongas we have been going to this trip.  My assistants picked the milongas very well this year.  The group as a whole has been dancing a lot.  That’s the purpose and I’m very happy about that.

Some of the group has opted to do many things on their own and I think this is fabulous as well.

Delisa has been taking so many fantastic pictures and I hope I will have a link to them as well.  They are so beautiful and such a great view of the city through her eyes.

The visit yesterday to the Palacio Barolo – www.pbarolo.com.ar/ – was really interesting.  The view from the top was amazing.  A clothing store called Tango Moda is located there. How interesting to have a tango clothing store at the very top – a nice place to go to work!  Some of the group bought some clothes there so that was great too!

The shop is quite small but their in house tailor is there and the access to 2 terraces for dancing or for a parrilla are there AND A GREAT VIEW!  They gave us a glass of wine – and the ladies and the gents went at it!  They have a couple of dressing rooms and it was kind of fun! And of course bartering is always key and Rommel is super good at that… I have seen his mom in action and know he refined his skill from her!

Good looking gang!!!  Ryan, Katie, Delisa, Earl, Claudia, Jayne, Linda, Lydia, Joey, Lu, Michael, Kaitlin, Romme and I on the roof at the Palacio Barolo and the end of our shopping there.

Tonite we are off to an early milonga at Cachirulo – Maiupu 444.  And hopefully it won’t be too much of a challenge to get there.  Then I think there is a small group who really wants to go to La Viruta for late night tango. So we’ll see how it goes!