La Milonga de los Consagrados – Useful information

Saturday afternoons 4.30pm-10.30pm; Entrance fee of 10 pesos; Reservations: 15-5892-2056.

Reservations are really necessary unless you attend alone, and then they can squeeze you in someplace. Usually this tango salon is full (more than 300 people) by 8.00pm.

La Milonga de los Consagrados is organized by Enrique “Gordo” Rosich, and although it is officially in the barrio of Constitucion, it would probably be referred to as San Telmo by most (official barrio borders are largely ignored in Buenos Aires).

Same venues, different milongas…

As I pointed out in my overview on Tango in Buenos Aires, even if a milonga is in the same salon as another, each milonga will still have its own character depending on the day of the week, the organizer, the crowd, and if it’s in the afternoon or at night.

Los Consagrados is in the same salon as the famous Nino Bien of Thursday nights (in the wonderful Centro Region Leonesa), but it is a totally different experience. And to my mind, the best afternoon milonga of the week. The fact that it’s held on Saturday afternoons, the traditional “difficult” day for singles, makes it even more of a plus…

A perfect tango salon

For one thing, the salon is perfect: large wooden dance floor, high high ceilings with a skylight, a bar, red velvet curtains at each end, a balcony for smokers. It is old and elegant at the same time, with the faded ambiance that foreigners especially love about Buenos Aires.

This is not a tourist milonga by any stretch of the imagination, despite the fact that several tourists do find their way there. The majority of the dancers are locals and regulars – sitting at the same tables week after week.

The atmosphere is friendly and open (although the strict tango codigos do apply). Men sit on one side, women on the other, couples and mixed groups at either end. It is necessary to cabecear to get a dance. There is very little of the snobbishness and elitism that permeates milongas such as El Beso and Maipu 444 (to be reviewed shortly). There are also very few of the “bottom feeder” types, who come to prey on foreigners, such as can be found in La Ideal. The level of dancing is fairly high.

Well, almost perfect…

Because Pato (Patricia), a tall beautiful dark haired waitress, has recently taken over the bar, you must now be more careful with your orders! Every week I have to send back my glass of champagne because either 1) it tastes foul; 2) it’s not champagne, but Sidra; 3) it’s flat, or leftover from the week before. Pato also refuses to bring the traditional potato chips to accompany your cocktail orders, and serves peanuts – for which you must pay 3 pesos, even if your order of a bottle of expensive champagne or a large bottle of beer! [I've learned to bring my own bag of papas fritas these days ]

Unlike many milongas (Chique, for example), tandas of other rhythms are always played during the afternoon: a tanda of tropical (merengue and cumbia), rock ‘n roll (Dixieland to Elvis) and folklore (La Chacarera). The DJ is capable, but tends to be a little unoriginal and repetitive.

Finally, for added excitement, each week there is a sorteo, an entrance ticket prize draw, for a bottle of champagne or a snack plate. Best of luck!

Cherie’s Tango Services

If you are interested in trying out Los Consagrados, or indeed another milonga in Buenos Aires, you will be fine going along by yourself, even as a novice, and you will likely be warmly welcomed. However, we understand that some people are a little apprehensive about their first visit to a milonga, which is why Cherie and her partner Ruben offer to accompany you there and make your tango experience in Buenos Aires a fun and authentic one…

If you are interested in this, or want to find out more about their other tango services and tours, you can contact Ruben & Cherie on the following details:

• Email: BsAsMilonga@aol.com
• Telephone: 4932-5027 (from within Buenos Aires)
• Blog: Tango Cherie

It’s a small world…

So, the other night I was ambling around Retiro with Maya, Tom and Carito at the monthly Gallery Nights event (failing miserably to score any free champagne on this occasion) and coming out of one gallery, I literally bumped into Stefan, one of the guys behind Buenos Aires Insider magazine. I say literally, because it was an actual collision, and just as I turned round to shout obscenities at him, I realized who it was, and instead said “oh, I know you, don’t I?” (I only shout obscenities at people I don’t know. At a safe distance, obviously).

Anyway, Stefan was kind enough to give us some copies of the first edition (September – October) of the magazine, which is currently slated to come out on a bi-monthly basis. After getting my greasy mitts on this beautifully designed, slim, brand spanking new magazine, I can confirm that BA Insider is indeed an excellent little read, with up to date listings and suggestions for great places in Buenos Aires to eat, drink, explore, buy stuff and so on, mixed in with helpful hints and tips for expats living in Buenos Aires.

Alternative activities in Buenos Aires

Despite it being aimed at the expat crowd, and written with the idea of providing more ‘real’ alternatives to usual tourist haunts here, BA Insider should still be of interest to short-term visitors to Buenos Aires, who are perhaps looking to avoid those kinds of places too. I especially like their guide to BA’s Barrio Chino in this edition, a place that is becoming closer to my heart these days, as I start to experiment with cooking with spices!

After bidding Stefan goodbye, later that evening we all agreed that Buenos Aires has been calling out for a frequent and regularly published guide, so that people can get up to date listings and info on events in the city, and not have to rely on the potentially out of date information found in their guidebooks…

So, help support BA Insider Magazine now, and hopefully if it is a success, they might end putting it out on a monthly basis, and help fill this gap. It costs just 4 pesos, and is apparently available in Kiosks around the city, although I think it might just be easier to email insider@bainsidermag.com for info on how to get hold of a copy – apparently you can pre-order 6 editions for the price of 5, if planning ahead is your thing. Happy reading!

[Note - This is not a paid review, and I am in no way affiliated with BA Insider Magazine, beyond having bumped into one of its publishers a couple of times around Buenos Aires]

I’ve just seen on Pasa en Buenos Aires [ES] that the Buenos Aires Government Tourism Portal has launched two new blogs about tourism in the city of Buenos Aires, one in English, and one in Spanish.

Buenos Aires and Web 2.0

They say that the aim of the blogs is to form a Web 2.0 community around the subject of tourism in the city, with readers hopefully contributing useful ideas and content in addition to the city government writers themselves. For example, the new blogs want to be open to the following:

• travelers can ask their questions about the city before arriving;
• visitors can ask their questions when they already are in Buenos Aires;
• visitors can tell other travelers and also porteños about the places they found out;
• porteños can go public with their secrets about the city;
• you can comment what you like and what you don’t of Buenos Aires;
• you can meet people traveling, staying or living in the city;
• you can recommend, criticize, discuss and learn what is said about tourism in Buenos Aires.

Sounds interesting, and I’m looking forward to their posts, plus the comments from visitors to the city and of course porteños. So far, they have a couple of posts up: one on Buenos Aires in Winter / Buenos Aires en invierno, and another entitled Where did you go last night / ¿Adónde fuiste anoche? – both excellent starting topics, so go take a look and comment in whichever language you prefer.

But don’t forget me and the other Buenos Aires bloggers…

I have to say, that I still also welcome as much user interaction on my Buenos Aires blog as possible, in the same vein as the new city government blogs wish for – so please don’t be afraid to leave your views or questions in the comments sections at the end of each of my posts, or you can email me if you are interested in contributing a guest post or review from in and around Buenos Aires to this blog – such as the recent excellent guest posts we’ve seen from Diva of Bitchtours and Tango Cherie.

Finally, worth noting is that, after an extended absence, Jude has made a welcome return to the land of Buenos Aires blogging, over at Not for the fainthearted, and another fairly new blog that I’m reading on a regular basis is Soy So Lindo, which covers a load of cool and quirky things going on in Buenos Aires.

Happy reading!

I have to say, it is with great honor that I welcome Diva, of Buenos Aires Through My Eyes (AKA Bitchtours) fame, to the blog. If you haven’t read her site, then, well, you should, now. Oh, actually, read her guest post below first, and then go to her site. And do please come back after, or I might cry.

1. I order a dish from a menu and they don’t have it

This is not something unusual here, even in fancy restaurants. You spent 10 minutes deciding what you’re gonna have and when you order the waiter gives you this look like you’ve pronounced a forbidden word and then says: “I’ll check if we have that”.

How come? It’s on the menu, the only thing I would eat right now is that damn dish and you don’t have it? Give me a break.

2. I buy something in a kiosk and they give me candy instead of change because they don’t have coins

Mr. or Mrs. kiosk: I’m buying a pack of Lucky Strikes and a diet coke, do you think I really want candy? Maybe we should do what a friend suggested the other day: Keep all the candy in a jar and then try to buy my cigarettes with them.

3. The taxi driver tells me that he doesn’t know the street I’m trying to get

Taxi driver: Corrientes and Anchorena? Hmmm… I’m not sure where that is.

Me: That’s the Abasto.

Taxi driver: Abasto? Is that the place where there are horse races? Excuse me, but I’ve been driving this taxi cab just for 3 days and I don’t know the city very well…

That’s the oldest trick in the world, dude, at least in Buenos Aires. I know what you are doing. You are testing if I know where I’m going. I do know, and I also know the fastest way to get there so cut the crap and drive.

And then you are going to tell me that you’ve just started your shift so you don’t have any change. Don’t worry, I have lots of candy…

4. The TV in the subways

Oh my god, that’s annoying. Maybe you are visiting and you don’t have to take the subway like most of the locals do (anyway you won’t escape from the taxi drivers). They have these TVs all over the place repeating the same crap every 5 minutes. From stupid music videos to political propaganda, from fashion shows to a coach teaching people how they should dress in order to get a job. All kinds of uninteresting programs that last 30 seconds.

I would get a taxi cab if it wasn’t that they probably won’t know the address I’m going to.

5. Bad graffiti

Hey you, the guy that paints the walls in such a messy and ugly way: If you are going to damage private property, at least do it with some class. Haven’t you seen all those wonderful stencils around Buenos Aires? Those guys try to add something to the world, they carefully design what they are going to paint. What you do is just stupid. I hope the police caught you while you are damaging another wall. If you have things to say, go get a therapist, because nobody wants to know what you have to say.

And that’s it. I could go on and on, but this is not my blog so…

Coming soon from Diva: “These are a few of my favourite things”

About me: Buenos Aires Through My Eyes

Dear readers, what do you hate about Buenos Aires?

South America

• São Paulo, Brazil: Tony Galvez posts about the slightly unusual idea of a Japanese Festival in Brazil on his Brazil Travel Blog, with lots of photos from this colorful event.
• Buenos Aires, Argentina: My friend Dalila presents her 7 things to do on your visit to Palermo Viejo, the coolest area of Buenos Aires, in her blog Trendy Palermo Viejo. Some nice tips there, Dalila – I really should get hold of some of those free maps of Palermo for myself

Europe

• London, England: Steve Madsen suggests a few things to see and do in London in his blog Exit Row Seat, along with many helpful hints and tips for visitors to the city.
• Preston, England: Riversider asks is the Preston Vision Board split over the River Ribble barrage? over at Save The Ribble.
• Larnaka, Cyprus: Sue presents Larnaka beach in the evening posted at This is Cyprus, including a nice picture of a sunset over Larnaka beach.
• Zurich, Switzerland: Jul reports from the Züri Fäscht festival on the blog This non-American Life.

Asia

• Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Grace insists that Dubai Dubai is a safe city, despite the bad safety image of the Middle East region in general, in her blog Sandier Pastures.

North America

• Paris, USA: Jon Rochetti can travel from Washington DC to Paris in just an hour, but this does not involve an amazing new speedy form of transatlantic travel. No, instead there is a small town called Paris in Virginia as he notes on his blog The DC Traveler, with an overview of the town, and a recommendation for an Inn there.
• Maui, Hawaii: Kailani spends a weekend in Maui and posts about it, including photos, in her blog Local Girl.
• Honolulu, Hawaii: Evelyn reports on the 1st annual bike show at Kapiolani Community College over at Homespun Honolulu, in what must be the longest post I’ve ever read on the subject of bike paint jobs (It also happens to be the only post I’ve ever read on the subject…)
• Denver, USA: My friend Cherie breaks tradition from her usual Buenos Aires-related posts, instead writing about the Tango Magic in Denver, Colorado on her blog tangocherie.
• San Diego, USA: Carole Lane looks forward to the 54th annual OTL beach softball tournament over at The San Diego Beat, including videos of what to expect at the event.
• Jamestown, USA: Sheila Scarborough explores the subject of pilgrim-beating settlers in Jamestown over at Family Travel.
• Seattle, USA: Mary Jo Manzanares gives us the lowdown on Seattle’s Fishermen’s Terminal on her blog, The Seattle Traveler.
• New York City, USA: Meredith Mathews takes us on a Virtual Walk through New York City using Google Maps’ new street-view feature, in her blog Lemonade Stand.

Well, that’s about it for your carnival of cities this week. Next week’s will be held at the Christchurch Tourguide blog, with submissions to be in by Sunday 22nd July. You can submit a blog post to the next edition of carnival of cities using this carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can also be found on this blog carnival index page.

Happy posting, fellow city bloggers!

Dancing Tango in the Confiteria Ideal, Buenos Aires [Photo credit: Gerrysan]

Note from Alan – We are lucky enough to welcome a seasoned Buenos Aires tango and milonga expert to the Buenos Aires Argentina Guide, in the form of Cherie Magnus, from the Tango Cherie blog (see the end of this post for more info on Cherie). Her first offering is an excellent guide to the types of tango salon in Buenos Aires, for those interested in the real world of social tango dancing in the city. So, over to you Cherie…

If you want to dance tango in Buenos Aires, where do you go?

Actually it depends on many things: your age, what style you dance, what day or night of the week you want to go out, if you go with or without a partner, and so on…

Dancing social tango in Buenos Aires has nothing to do with the Tango Show Dancing on the streets of San Telmo, La Boca, calle Florida, or Recoleta, or the many Tango Cena-Shows with an orchestra, stage dancers and dinner. The first thing to know about tango is that what you’ll see in those places is a different dance – Tango for Export. And that is another post entirely!

Experience Authentic Social Tango in Buenos Aires

If you want to experience authentic social tango, you really need to know the best places for you to go to watch and dance. You could pick up one of the many free tango publications from shoe salons and hotels which list all of the milongas (places to dance social tango), but unless you have lots of time and money to explore each one, you can’t tell which is right for you. And that’s why Ruben & Cherie (as well as other bilingual local dancers) provide a service to help tango tourists get the most out of their visits to Buenos Aires. They know where you can have the most fun and how to break the codigos, and will even take you there themselves.

If you are interested in their tango services, you can contact Ruben & Cherie using the following details:

• Email: BsAsMilonga@aol.com
• Telephone: 4932-5027 (from within Buenos Aires)
• Blog: Tango Cherie

Click here to view the embedded video.

Types of Tango Salon in Buenos Aires

First, a tip: when checking where to go to mingle with the locals in Buenos Aires on the dance floor, remember that dances in the same salon vary greatly depending on the organizer, day of the week, time of day etc. In other words, every milonga at Region Leonesa or Canning will not be the same.

The following is a general break-down of the different types of places to dance tango in Buenos Aires, with some examples of each…

Salon de Baile

A formal atmosphere especially for dancing, with predominantly elegant attire, tables with tablecloths, uniformed waiters, tango codes are strictly respected, professional DJs play tango, vals and milonga music of the 1930’s-50’s, often with tandas of Latin and Jazz music. The public here is older (50-80) with an intermediate to high level of dancing in the close-embrace milonguero style. Women and men sit on opposite sides of the salon and use the cabaceo. The afternoon milongas tend to be more formal and traditional than the late night dances.

Examples in Buenos Aires: El Arranque, Gricel, Salon Canning, Viejo Correo, Los Consegrados, Maipu 444, Lo de Celia, El Beso, Chique.

Confiteria bailable

This old-fashioned type of salon has many of the same characteristics of the Salons de Baile, but also has a restaurant. The public is more varied, with lots of groups. The only example today is the Confiteria Ideal, which is famous for its long life and its architecture. Nowadays only a few Salons de Baile have restaurants, such as Nino Bien and El Beso, but they are milongas first, and only very few of the clients order food from the kitchen.

Club de Barrio

The dance floors are cement basketball courts or the club restaurant. Meals are usually available. Predominantly attended by the neighborhood families and older married couples; the music includes tango, jazz and tropical.

Examples in Buenos Aires: Sin Rumbo, Los Bohemios, Sunderland, Club Chicago.

Baile Joven

Informal atmosphere, young public (18-30), variety of casual dress, often with live music and dance exhibitions. More relaxed standards, a more diverse level of dancing, and more salon-style than close embrace. You will hear the music of Piazzolla, some rock ‘n’ roll, as well as salsa and cumbia.

Examples in Buenos Aires: La Estrella, La Viruta, Parakultural.

Aire Libre

Outdoor milongas that attract a wide variety of dancers.

Examples in Buenos Aires: La Glorieta and Plaza Dorrego (year round) and La Calesita (in summer).

An Aire Libre milonga in Plaza Dorrego, San Telmo [Photo credit: nyluke]

Practicas

Informal, bare-bones ambiance, no professional DJ.

Examples in Buenos Aires: Cochabamba 444, El Motivo, Tangocool, Soho Tango.

Gay Milongas

Informal, relaxed atmosphere, anybody can dance with anybody, alternative music along with the classics.

Examples in Buenos Aires: La Marshall, TangoQueer.

Coming soon from Cherie – reviews of different tango milongas around Buenos Aires…

About Cherie Magnus

Cherie Magnus is a published travel writer and dance critic from Los Angeles, and an expat tango dancer and teacher in Buenos Aires since 2003. She and her Argentine partner Ruben Aybar also do bilingual Tango Tours. Last year they were finalists in the Campeonato Metropolitano de Tango de Buenos Aires. She’s working on a memoir, The Church of Tango, and one of her pieces is included in a soon-to-be-published anthology on San Miguel de Allende. You can read more on her blog, TangoCherie.

Yes, another play on words. Deal with it (for those unaware, it just snowed in the city of Buenos Aires for the first time in 89 years).

What is the carnival of cities?

First up, blog carnivals are where someone finds a load of blog posts on a specific topic, and then puts all those posts together in one roundup blog post called a “carnival”. I guess, back in the day when I did the weekly Buenos Aires blog roundups, I was really posting up carnivals. To be honest, it felt more like a circus.

The carnival of cities does exactly what it says on the tin. It includes blog posts submitted from cities around the world, about any aspect of each city – local news, opinions, travel advice, general musings, reports of public lynchings, philosophical treatises on city trash disposal policy, organization of hobo-baiting activities, and the like. Well, maybe some of those are made up. But not all.

Buenos Aires hosts again: mi blog es tu blog…

So, the Carnival of Cities is coming back to Buenos Aires once more. Previously, Cesar at Argentina’s Travel Guide did a sterling job of hosting in our great city. And now, the weight is squarely on my shoulders to produce. The submissions are already pouring in, and quite frankly I’m disappointed: enough posts about the snow in Buenos Aires already! Most of you guys don’t even have a blog here…

To participate, all you need is your own blog. Just write a post about the city of your choice and then submit it via this submission form. Here are the guidelines for submission. Read them with care and take note the strict ban on elephant porn. Send this directly and anonymously to your boss’ personal email account.

The deadline for submissions is this Sunday, July 15th, with the carnival post following on the next day.

Suerte!

So, moving swiftly on, it is thanks to Arjewtino (top blog, by the way) that I found a fun little tool that gives a film rating for your blog, depending on the number and variation of ‘bad’ words found on it. Although, as you’ll soon see, it does throw up some pretty off-the-mark results.

Buenos Aires Argentina Guide: Pure as Snow

Along with many other respectable colleagues in the Buenos Aires and Argentina travel-related blogosphere, such as Argentina’s Travel Guide, Goodairs, and Asado Argentina, I can happily say that I am pure as snow. We’re all goody-two-shoes Rated G blogs:

In fact, the tool even says that no bad words at all were found on my site. It’s amazing how different people are in blogging compared to real life…

Anyway, surely there must be some bad boys (and girls) out there in the Buenos Aires blogging world, and my job is to first track ‘em down, run them through the rating tool, and then name and shame ‘em. So, read on for a list of some extremely naughty Buenos Aires bloggers…

[Clearly I'm doing this for the good of all you parents out there worried about what your young children are reading on the internet ]

Rated PG in Buenos Aires

• We start out with Dan over at Saltshaker, who is guilty of mentioning the word ‘punch’ but one time, and according to the tool that means his blog surely contains a description of a violent fight. Or maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with it being a food blog and punch being a type of drink? Hmmm…
• Next up is there is the Greek in Argentina, who the rating tool says has his mind only on one thing: ’sex’. A full 6 (six!) mentions. Isn’t it terrible how bloggers can get wrongly labeled just for keeping up with current events.
• Nathan, nathan, nathan… honestly, I expected better from you. Wash your mouth out with mustard young man. What are all these mentions of the word ‘dead’ doing here? Anyone would think you had recently posted about a visit to a cemetery! And as for your use of the word ‘bitch’, well, I’ll reluctantly give you the benefit of the doubt on that one… I think you’re just hanging out with the wrong crowd… well, one Rated R blogger in particular, anyway.
• Marce of Pip in the City seemed like such a sweet girl when I met her at the bloggers cookie event. And yet, from the blog rating tool it appears she has an obsession with ‘knives’ and ‘death’. I hope that Frank has double locked the cookie factory tonight… I believe that Marce lives close by, and we don’t want anything to happen bad to his ‘friend’ the Cookie Monster now, do we?

Rated PG-13 in Buenos Aires Argentina

• Yanqui Mike is, unfortunately, apparently even more obsessed with death and the dead that Nathan and Marce were before him (parents: be strongly cautioned!) – I hope this is not a bad omen, because he appears to be going through a pretty damn bad fever right now… get well soon, Mike
• Our token Rosarino on this silly list, Pablo from D for Disorientation, seems like a very respectable fellow. His triple whammy of ‘ass’, ‘pain’ and ‘drugs’, however, gets him rated PG-13. But as he appears to be such a nice guy, I hope that pain in the ass (ahem) disappeared with use of the drugs, and stays away…

Rated R in Buenos Aires

• If I had put money on any blogger to come in Rated R, it would have all been on Diva from Buenos Aires Through My Eyes. I’d have put my house on it, only I live in an apartment (and it’s rented, but you catch my drift). The words ‘bitch’ (seven times), ’sexy’ (three times), ‘kill’ (twice) and ’suck’ (once) have titillated her readers over recent times. But won’t somebody please think of the children?
• Finally, closing out the list of shame, is Maya and her Sexy Spanish Club. OK, so with a blog name like that, you’d expect fourteen recent mentions of the word ’sexy’. But persistent mentions of ‘viagra’ (three times), and an ‘ass’ thrown in for good measure, means that apparently under-17s must have a parent or guardian accompanying them when viewing her blog. If it was a film, that is. And of course, if this blog film rating tool were actually not just a big pile of crap…

Interesting to see, according to the tool it’s the lady bloggers of Buenos Aires who are the most foul-mouthed.

Or maybe, just maybe – the blog rating tool is wrong, and really it is me with the most warped mind out of all the bloggers in Argentina. I did just write this slightly warped post, after all!

If all of the above hasn’t put you off doing so and want to see how your blog rates, you can find out your blog film rating here, and let me know what it is in the comments section.

[Hope no one takes this blog post the wrong way! Normal service will be resumed tomorrow, I promise...]

Out of the very few strict life rules that I subscribe to, the most important happens to be: “when in Buenos Aires, if a man gives you some delicious cookies for free, you must write about them on your blog”. My dear old grandmother used to say this when I was a child sat on her knee back in the mid-1980s. A magnificent woman, and clearly a technological visionary to boot. However, hard as she tried, she was unable to knock out of me this annoying tendency I have for making ridiculous things up.

And so, this post. Read on for more cookies and assorted photo silliness.

Sugar and Spice cookies: a great sweet snack in Buenos Aires

I have to say that [disclaimer aside: Frank gave me free cookies yesterday at the bloggers event held in his new Palermo Hollywood store/bakery, but these are still my honest opinions] Sugar and Spice makes some fantastically delicious cookies and cakes. I admit that I have been unable to try them all (annoyingly I am allergic to nuts, to go along with my fish / seafood allergy), but those that I did were all extremely tasty, and a perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee (anything but La Virginia, mind you).

Being a chocolate addict, my runaway Sugar and Spice favorites are their “passion for chocolate” cookies and “super chocolate” budin (cake), but I also really enjoyed the raisin and oatmeal cookies and, from their savory range of biscuits, the copetin fugazza (a biscuit flavored like fugazza, an Italian/Argentine pizza with no cheese or sauce – just the dough with onions, olive oil and oregano). Great stuff – thanks Frank!

CAUGHT WITH HAND IN COOKIE JAR [I'LL NEVER MAKE A HAND MODEL]

Meeting other Buenos Aires bloggers

As ever, it was very nice to meet some other Buenos Aires bloggers at the event. And as bloggers have a habit of doing, most of them have already written about it: Nathan, Diva, Dalila and Marce, for starters. I had already met Nathan, Diva, and Frank himself, but it was great to see them again, and also meet all of Dalila, Marce, Tango Cherie and Stefan (of BA Insider magazine) for the very first time.

Personally, I would like to have more of these blogger events, because they make us feel loved and important. And if there is free food on offer, all the better. Invitations are welcome. Are you listening, all you Buenos Aires businesses out there, in need of good PR?

A MEETING OF MINDS SUCH AS BUENOS AIRES HAS NEVER WITNESSED

Much fun (and cookies) was had by all. But fret not, if you are in Buenos Aires and feeling left out of the cookie inner circle, you too can still be a part of it. Sugar and Spice biscuits and cookies are, I believe, available in the following fine Buenos Aires establishments (Frank, correct me if I’m wrong on any of these)…

Shops

• Sugar and Spice, Guatemala 5415, Palermo Hollywood
• Falabella (two outlets along Florida shopping street in the city center)
• Al queso, queso (outlets all over the city)

Cafes and Ice Cream Parlors (each with outlets all over the city)

• Aroma cafe
• McDonald’s McCafe
• The Coffee Store
• Freddo
• Munchis

Direct Orders: Sugar and Spice Contact details

• Telephone: 4777-5423 (from within Buenos Aires)
• Email: pedidos@sugarandspice.com.ar
• Website: www.sugarandspice.com.ar

Tell Frank that Alan sent you. Maybe I’ll get some more free cookies out of it

MORE COOKIE/FROG THEFT? DIVA SAYS: “NOT ON MY WATCH, SON”

Being the internet geek that I am, I was messing around with Technorati and happened across the following interesting statistic – the number of mentions of the words “Buenos Aires” per day throughout the blogosphere, and how this internet trend has changed over the past year or so.

Around 1000 mentions of Buenos Aires per day is pretty impressive by itself, but when you look at the chart below you can see that the increase on a year ago is simply massive, and even in the last 6 months the number of times Buenos Aires is mentioned in blogs per day has approximately doubled!

Here’s the chart:

[Posts that contain Buenos Aires per day, over the last 360 days]

I guess it must be partly caused by the many bloggers here in Argentina – keep up the good blogging guys and gals!

Buenos Aires vs Rio de Janeiro

And while we’re speaking of techie geeky things, check out how Buenos Aires has been owning Rio for number of searches on Google over the past few years…

I guess Buenos Aires really is (as much of the North American press keeps telling us) burning hot – and yet, it still at the same time manages to also be ice cool!