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The plan of my first night was to dance a few hours at Cachirulo at El Beso, then move to Canning to meet some friends, and finish at La Viruta.

Earlier, Sebastian Arce and I had a very nice conversation about tango music, the dance and the beauty of it. It is an inspiring experience to talk about tango, to exchange ideas, not just to dance it, especially with an artist like Sebastian. It opens the mind.

I got to the El Beso at the beginning. The class was just finished. Music started a few minutes after. I got a nice seat, and next to me a guy from Germany. The entrance fee has gone up to 18 pesos, with the better exchange rate, the cost in dollar is roughly the same. But there weren’t too many locals there. Of course, Tete is now gone. When I passed the table he used to sit by the bar, I couldn’t help but remember him.

I spot a very good couple of Argentine dancers right from the beginning. They had danced about five six tandas together. Probably the best couple in the milonga the whole night. I spent most of the time watching them dancing and learning. And I thought to myself, I want to dance with her.

I began my night with an Italian to a Di Sarli tanda. She was ok, but I had showed myself by dancing with her.

A few tandas after, I cabeceoed the Portena who was sitting now. She smiled, nodded. But the woman who was sitting next to her also smiled at me. And the German guy sitting next to me thought they were cabeceoing him. Oops…He got up, while I remained seated. He approached to the Portena, who was looking away. The other woman was looking at my way. So he was standing there between two women who weren’t planning to dance with him. It was a funny scene.

To add more complication to the matter, another European guy saw the slightly embarrassing situation, and decided to save the night. He got up, went over and tried to ask one of them to dance. Two European guys now stand before two women, who had no intention to dance with either of them in the first place.

I was sitting there, entertained by the whole scene. The portena looked at my way. We were both amused, grinning. So I cabeceoed her again, nodded and got a nod back. I went up and got her on the floor, out of the situation while the two guys were left trying to figure out now who should dance with whom.

We had a very nice De Anglis tanda. The floor of El Beso was a bit too smooth for my liking. So I was a little inhibited. I thanked her after the tanda and thought to myself that I would love to dance with her again. I’d sat for an hour and avoided a few cabaceos, while listening to the orchestras that were playing.

I had another good tanda with a beautiful young Portena, who happened to have studied with Jorge Torres six or seven years ago. Then I left for Canning.

Canning was packed even at the wee hours. I met up with a few friends there, danced a few tandas with them. The floor was a mess. How could anyone enjoy dancing there? I had no idea. But it was a place to see and to be seen. And I loved the floor of Canning, just the right friction that I prefer.

The rest of the time, I was just mingling with acquaintances, friends, talking with Damian, the DJ a bit, and got to know a few new faces. By three, I was ready to leave, although the plan was going to la Viruta after. I didn’t want to exhaust myself on the first night. I had made my round. Now rest up for more great tangos in BsAs on Day 2.

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Blink of an eye, it has been two years since my last trip to the mecca. So much has happened and been experienced since. I feel that I have grown up a lot in tango. Yet at the same time, so much still seems mysterious to me. I know, however, that I am on the right path. As a few mentors/friends have told me: you always know how you want to dance and you stick to it.

Six more weeks, I will be in BsAs again. This time I don’t need to count down. Gone is the excitement and anxiety. I will be on the plane and wake up to the southern sun, before I know it. Quite a few friends/acquaintances are going to be there. I could almost imagine going out every night with them, El Beso, Nino Bien, Canning, Maipu 444, Sunderland on Saturday and early AM at La Viruta eating fresh media luna and drinking cafe con leche… I need to build up my stamina for the trip.

And of course, the purpose of my trip is to take some lessons again with Javier and Andrea. More specifically, I want to learn some woman’s technique and work on my milonga. I am sure you would read about the stories here.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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