See the sights of Buenos Aires’ historical city center…

Just a quick note to let everyone know that, now we’re officially in Spring, I am once again offering private, guided, walking tours of Buenos Aires City Center. These sightseeing tours cover the main attractions in the historical center of the city, such as Plaza de Mayo, Avenida de Mayo, Plaza Congreso, the Casa Rosada, the Cathedral, Cafe Tortoni, and a whole lot more.

CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND TOUR BOOKING DETAILS.

Hope to see you soon!

Humberto Primo 1462 (between San Jose & Saenz Pena), San Telmo

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…

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Buenos Aires City Government Tourism Portal Launches blogs in English and Spanish

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.

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An Introduction to Dancing Tango in Buenos Aires

[Photo Credit: SMeaLLuM]

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 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!

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Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento Day Trip

It feels like I’ve been to Colonia del Sacramento (in Uruguay, a short hop across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires) for a day trip more times than I’ve eaten Argentine beef. And believe me, that’s a hell of a lot of times!

Now I know that this is a blog about the city of Buenos Aires, and Colonia is not only a different city entirely, but also in a whole other country… but it is such a popular day trip for people visiting Buenos Aires, that it justifies a few words from me here (well OK, I waffle, so it will probably be a lot of words).

I have always found it funny that in guide books, websites, forums etc, a regular answer to the common question “what can I do in Buenos Aires, Argentina?” is “visit Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay”. This is especially comical for me because it reminds me of a joke I once heard from a stand-up comedian back in Coventry, England. It went a little something like this…

“When I came to Coventry last night I asked at the hotel what there is to do in the city. After a little thought, the only thing they could suggest was ‘go see Warwick castle’. I asked them, ‘but isn’t that in Warwick, not Coventry?’, to which they shrugged and gave a nod.”

“To recap, the quick answer to the question ‘what should I do in Coventry?’ is ‘LEAVE! NOW! GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN’”

So apparently, thinking along these lines, a quick answer to the question ‘what should I do in Buenos Aires, Argentina?’ could be not just “leave the city”, but also “get the hell out of the country“. Just to be on the safe side.

Obviously, given the name of this blog, this is not a sentiment I would fully endorse! However, if you are visiting Buenos Aires for a fairly long period, or are an expat living here (perhaps in need of a 3 monthly tourist visa renewal), then a trip to sleepy old Colonia del Sacramento does indeed make for a nice day trip, to get away from the crazy, busy city of Buenos Aires. Also it’s nice to remind yourself of what the horizon actually looks like.

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