Buenos Aires
The tango environment in Buenos Aires is changing all the time, so this information may not be up to date.Check it if you can.
More info about Buenos Aires - more recent and comprehensive than ours.
Travel to BA
There are 4 ways to get from the airport to the city centre:taxi
Costs about 50 pesos and is fast.shared taxi
Costs about 24 pesos per person, and you might have to wait a little while for the taxi bus to fill up with people. you might also be asked to pay extra to get to your final destination if it is outside the very centre of BA.Bus Number 86
This is wonderfully cheap at about 1.30 pesos. You also get to see a lot of the city as the bus runs parallel to the highway leading from the airport to the city centre, but of course it is a lot slower. To find this well priced transport go out of the airport terminal and past all the people trying to get you into their taxis. Turn left and walk round the curvy walkway (1/2 circle). You will cross a road, then there should be a bus stop, possibly with some buses hanging around. I cannot remember the bus number, but I think there is only one.Takes aout 1hour of 1.5 hours to get into the center of BA.
Someone picks you up in a car
This does not happen very often as not many people have cars in BA apart from taxi drivers.Dancing
These are some of the places that we liked to dance at:La Glorietta - Barrancas de Belgrano
On Sunday evenings at a band stand by the main bus station that is in Belgrano. Very relaxed and informal. Friendly. It was even running in the Winter in 2001 with people dancing in boots and scarves.17:00 - 20:00, but the dancing usually went until 22:30.
El Nacional - Alsina 1465
Every Wednesday evening in an old dance hall. Long and narrow, but we were easily able to meet people and to socialise.23:00 - 04:00
Salon Canning - Av. R. Scalabrini Ortiz 1331
"The best dance floor in BA" some people say, and we did like it. Monday evening was quite nice there, usually with a band playing and possibly a show of some sort. Runs on other nights of the week as well with different organisers.23:00 - 04:00
Nino bien
Every Thursday evening. A famous place buzzing with chatter. Very crowded dance floor for most of the evening, but you can really feel the buzz there and it feels like you can ask anyone to dance.Tango Magazine
There is a free monthly Tango review called "Tangauta" with very useful listings (classes and Milongas). Everything you need you'll find there (dates, times, addresses). They are usually displayed at Milongas free to take away. So just go to one at the beginning to pick one up. See also: http://www.eltangauta.com
Teachers we liked
Ricardo y Nicole
They usually run a practice on Saturdays that is very good. Very precise teaching and superb personal corrections. Friendly people. 09/10/2003, apparrently they split up a while ago and are now teaching with different partners.Rodolfo Aguerrodi and Mihoko Osaki
We love the teaching of this couple. If they can do it they can teach you how to. If they cannot do it they can also teach you how to.Chicho y Lucia
A very musical dancing couple. They do not just teach sequences of steps and do their very best to explain what is going on.Mauricio Castro
An inventive teacher using a very relaxed style of dancing.Places to stay
Ricarda's tango hotel - newly finished
Lunallena: petit hotel tanguero, a beautiful old townhouse and nice conservatory with wooden dancefloor.Contact: ricardalunallena2135@ adding the hotmail.com after this.
There are some nice pictures here
Shoes
We bought fantastic tango shoes in Buenos Aires - 5 pairs for me!
We got the shoes handmade to our feet size and shape (to some extent, but of course not to orthopeadic standards). We also chose the colours, leather types and style. We were recommended to go to this wonderful shoe shop with very friendly people at:
They do not speak much English so be good at pointing or Spanish. They might even remember us if you say our names...
PH tango shoes Grito de Asencio 3602 Cap. Fed. - Argentina Tel. 4911-0925Someone else who went to this shoe shop also liked it: "The advice you gave me for buying shoes was great: a real experience...even going there was interesting as it was far off from the common places. You might like to mention it on your web page."
Money to take
This has changed again. You can now get Peso's out of cash machines and no longer need to take dollars with you. Often in certain shops and restaurants, you can use your card to pay, although in many places they remain suspended.
Tango Tours to BA
Tango tours and holidays information, including BA.Current Living Conditions in BA
People have very little money so there is now more stealing going on. Be careful and sensible. Do not walk around carrying expensive electical goods, such as camcorders and digital cameras. You have to take extra precautions for safety, eg be careful where you walk at night. Don't hail a taxi on the street. If you do, make sure it's a radio taxi (and look to see that it has an ariel). Better to phone a reliable cab co or remise. I used Premium Taxis Tel 4374 6666. They were very reliable and turned up at the door usually within 5 mins, rarely more than 10.Do not go into empty bars - it has been known for the door to be shut behind you and for you then to be robbed. If you want a taxi then order one by phone, rather than getting into one by yourself then being robbed. Places with lots of people are good. Generally tourists are wellcome as they bring in foreign currency.
Next Paragraphs are a personal view by a UK visitor to BA - 01/08/2002
Dance places are not packed, but enough milongueros to dance with, and it's more sociable when there are fewer people there somehow. Life seems to go on normally for half the population at least, with a few inconveniences like not being able to buy imported goods any more.
On every street after dark there are many people scavenging among the dustbins and binbags. Outside the banks people are queuing all night. It seems that these are jobless people who queue for other people with bank accounts (who pay them in the morning to take their place). Similar proxy queues are outside a number of consulates.
The peso has devalued this week almost to its lowest level, at 3.95 to the dollar. Many shops have closing down sales. CDs are 2 pounds each! But amazingly life seems to go on as normal for a lot of people - many restaurants, bars and cafes are full. The anger of people who are suffering hardship is directed mainly at authority and social mores have not broken down (yet?) because of desperation, so you should not feel personally threatended in the street.
But with those precautions, I really didn't feel at great risk. At least, no more than in NY or
certain parts of London, eg Brixton. Demonstrations went past our door every other day
(on Av de Mayo) and were entirely peaceful.
Milongas are still worth going to. Milongueros still there.
The main difference was many professionals missing, as most are abroad now.
Next Paragraphs are a personal view by a resident BA dancer - 27/08/2002
The situation here in BA is not quite as good compared to the one you met when you last came. But it's still OK. You can still go out at night, go to the milongas. It's just that you need to pay a bit more of attention to the places and the people that sorround you, and maybe it's not convenient to take the bus at night. A radio-taxi is better.
Next Paragraphs are a personal view by a UK visitor to BA - 30/10/2003
BsAs was great; there's more of a buzz there than two years ago - the economy is doing better although there are still a lot of people out of work and I think there are fewer milongas (or maybe fewer are advertised; we found one just by dropping into a hall in which a tango was playing). Prices for local stuff - food, wine, tango CDS, shoes, taxis, etc - while higher than a year ago, are embarrassingly low because of the almost 3:1 rate with the US dollar. Miguel Zotto even has a new Tango por Dos show on - Tango from the Southern Cross. We got to sample about a dozen milongas, mostly in the South (at La Argentina, Dandi, Defensa, Gricel, La Ideal, Nino Bien, ..) although we also ventured up to El Beso and Canning