I could live in Buenos Aires!

out for tango, as usual!

Hola amigos!

Hope you are all well!  I continue to have amazing times down here in Buenos Aires.  As titled, I really could live in this city!  It is vibrant & full of culture.  Now that I've seen most of the sights, I have been fully delving into the tango!  It is so much fun.  Lisa & I venture out to lessons & milongas every day, I feel I've improved a bunch & just today, I treated myself to a lovely pair of green tango shoes.  I really never wear heels so it is a trick to dance, much less walk elegantly in them.  I feel fairly awkward also because wearing them I am far too tall!  It is still possible to dance with short guys but,  I may tower precariously over them.  Not to mention their faces are then shoved in my chest.  Awkward.  The shoes are great though, just staring at my feet in my elegant & fabulous new shoes is nice.  :)  These Argentines are real night owls & so am I, a good match!  Often these tango milongas won't start until 11pm & will go until about 4 (!).  While we don't stay out until the very end it is something new to see all ages staying out for dancing in the wee hours of the morning.  Some occur in the afternoon or early evening & these are usually full of old people.  At these the dancing may be a bit slower but the outfits on those older ladies are certainly no less racy.  It's nice to see those gals getting all decked out & having so much fun.  At one place the age range may have been 60-80 years old! :)

I've been here now over a month!  Virtually a local!  Lisa & I are heading down to Ushuaia, in Patagonia, in a couple of days.  This is the southernmost town in Argentina, in the Tierra del Fuego.  This will likely be the closest I ever get to Antarctica, wow!  I considered taking an expensive trip to Antarctica just because but, have nixed it due to cost $$$ (thousands of dollars) & lack of time.  (this may also be as close as I'll ever be to Easter Island, somewhere I've always been fascinated by, that would be another expensive side trip.  Rapa Nui... maybe another time)  We are planning a trek or two and will hopefully see some penguins on a boat trip.  It is REALLLLLLY far south so the temps will be much lower & Tierra del Fuego is known for inclement weather & wind.  Luckily, I've planned for this & have fleece & gore tex galore to protect me.  Lisa will jet back to Bs As & I will continue on to do some treks in Chile (Torres del Paine!!!!) and near Mt. Fitz Roy.  I am real excited!

there's Ushuaia!

look how close it is to Antarctica!  do you know about polar explorer Shackelton's expedition on the Endurance?  getting stuck in the ice?  it's an awesome survival story & it happened right down here!

Please enjoy my photos & commentary! :)

one of the old, classic clubs we've enjoyed, before the scene gets going

This tango venue, La Confiteria Ideal is a true BA classic in a beautiful space.  This milonga was held in the afternoon & thus is full of much older folks.   

i get a small, instant cafe to prime myself for dancing with a ton of old men :)

lovely miss Lisa , in her San Telmo neighborhood.

i am STILL loving my graffiti.

there is a ton of ornate, iron work on windows, balconies, doorways which, I enjoy very much

old doors often have mail slots built into them ("cartas") often in the door handles

graffiti artist in action!

instagramming it up again!

a unique bridge

here is a MASSIVE storm brewing up

you can't really tell but it is raining buckets & cats & dogs!

immediately after this I got caught out in a rainstorm & got absolutely drenched despite my umbrella

another afternoon old folks milonga 

adventures in tango!  important here is my large beer resting in an ice bucket.  i usually get a big beer (Quilmes.  costs about $2.50)  to fortify me for my tango milonga sessions.  lisa doesn't really drink but, she'll often have a decoy glass in front of her which she takes about one sip of.  the decoy because i don't want to look like i'm drinking the entire big beer, american style. :)

went to a great museum inside of an old mansion

went to another museum where i saw this Diego Rivera gem.  the museum of modern latin american art

frida!

there was also a really sweet temporary exhibit.  so creative.  the artist used all these tiny figures to set up amazing little scenes.  

Finally, the ladies & I got a few dry days to make it out into the field for our stream sampling.  It was fun!  We were a couple hours away from BA out in la pampa undulata, the pampas!  I loved it!  The scenery was pretty multi-use agricultural but, I found it beautiful.  There has been a big shift in land use on the pampa in recent years.  In the past the pampas, a huge amount of land, had mainly been used for ranching, raising the beef that Argi is so famous for.  Over the past decade it has become more financially beneficial to grow soybeans on this land.  GMO soy.  This soy exports to Europe or Asia to be used as animal feed, for.  Much of the beef now consumed in the country is raised in more of a feed-lot situation.  The soy is going to feed livestock!  I have been told that some of the more traditional ranching still goes on & these meats might be shipped abroad.  So, most Argentines are eating meat that comes from a factory farm type setting.  Sad!  In my eyes this seems to be a backwards & inefficient scheme/use of land resources, right??  It's all about the profit.

Some highlights of our sampling trip:  Nearly getting the car stuck on several extra muddy roads, two of the ladies falling in a creek & getting slightly swept downstream, more mosquitos than I've ever seen in my life and, losing the clipboard containing important data sheets out of the back of the truck as the door of the pickup had opened on the road somewhere...  The mission was interesting!  We've been working on sorting & processing that invertebrate sample @ the home lab.  There are very few organisms in the sample we collected, probably because of all those heavy rains.

let the sampling begin!  the ladies take measurements for water quality, soils & pestiicide contamination  

here is a lovely field of soy

taking samples in Ag. areas

I was in charge of a couple of tasks like using this device to measure water turbidity.  Also, I acted a lot as a "runner".

the crew!  they are happy to be done with 3 seasons of fieldwork in Argi, Brazil & Paraguay.  Way to go Lisa!

still enjoying these old seltzer bottles & other antiques in San Telmo

creepy hand door knockers

tango show in Plaza Dorrego.  this is right by Lisa's place & we go there every Sunday night for a charming milonga.  they roll out this floor for dancing & it is always an entertaining scene.  Often at a milonga some performers will put on a tango show at some point in the evening (well, usually about one am!)  Also, there will sometimes be live music, a tango orchestra!  Some people get quite into this music but to be honest, it often all sounds the same to me.  I do like it though, especially when it's dramatic!

here is a lovely space where we have taken some excellent lessons.  the big downer at a lesson is when there are tons of women and only a few men.  this happens a lot, then you have to dance with a woman or dance with that piano in the background :)

On a final note, my spanish is still crappy.  I've decided I'm not going to improve much unless I am forced to speak more.  It is pretty easy for me to rely on English.  Hopefully in my solo travels I can force my castellano.  I probably won't post a blog until I return from the Gonia, keeping you on the edge of your seat for that one!  I'll take a million photos, I promise.

Hope you all are well! xx
A