Domingos en Buenos Aires – Feria de San Telmo

You`re looking at toffee stawberries on a stick, covered in popcorn. In the spirit of experimentation, I tried one.  Yup, it tastes pretty strange.

Sunny day at the San Telmo market, and the tango orquestras were out busking in force. I took this picture just as the guys started playing Comme Il Faut

Tango dancers were also out busking.  I`ve seen a bit of  tango-for-a-buck-on-the-streets now, and it`s all been pretty ordinary.  Given the surfaces that the dancers have to work with, this is not surprising.  One group of dancers at the San Telmo market had stopped dancing for the day, and instead were charging tourists a few pesos to pose with them in photographs.  Prodding the client into a tangoesque pose is all part of the service.

 

Tango shoes

Mum`s getting impatient.  She wants to see some shoe action.

I guess most people reading this blog know that I have very small feet indeed.  In the larger scheme of things this is a good thing. I am a small person, and I`d look silly with big feet.  The downside of having small feet is that I don`t have much choice in respect of footwear.  In Australia, most (adult) shoes start at the size just up from my size.  When I started tango, I danced for the first six months in street shoes before biting the bullet and going dance-shoe shopping.

These are the shoes I ended up buying.  I actually had them made for me by a ballroom dance shoe manufacturer in Preston.  The off the shelf model that they were based on was a flesh coloured ballroom satin sandal with diamentes.  While I`m not exactly a clothes horse, there are some things that I just won`t wear. I think you might understand what I`m talking about here. 

For the last two and a bit years these shoes have served me well. My dancing however is at a point where a little more height would be good, and sometimes – just sometimes – it would be nice to go to a milonga in shoes that went a step beyond `functional` in the style stakes.

A few months after buying my first pair of dance shoes, I also bought a pair of dance sneakers.  The sneakers have also served me well, although truth be told, they`re just a little bit too clunky for good tango.  I`ve been yearning for slimline dance sneakers for some time. When I get my new sneakers, I plan to keep these old sneakers for dancing on rough outdoor surfaces.

So we come to Shannon`s Buenos Aires Shoe Quest: hunt down three or four pairs of good looking dance shoes with heels, and one or two pairs of slimline dance sneakers.

How have I gone so far?  Well, it seems that even in Buenos Aires, it`s not easy to buy shoes for small feet.  However, after going to practically every tango shoe shop in the city…

The first pair of shoes I bought were from Tango Brujo.  They`re frippery, and they feel about a centimetre too high for me to be comfortable in for heavy duty dancing, but they have nice flexible soles, and they`re a red that I like   Tango Brujo make shoes on request, so I`ve placed an order for a pair of dark brown suede shoes with a closed back, and a slightly different heel.

 

The next pair of shoes I bought were from a famous Buenos Aires tango shoe manufacturer that doesn`t have a web site, and prohibits on-sellers from posting pictures of their shoes on the web.  There are no printed catalogues of their shoes.  Everytime I see an amazingly styled paired of shoes on the milonga dance floor, they inevitably turn out to have been made by this manufacturer.

In keeping with the game, I won`t name the shoe manufacturer in the same post that has a picture of their shoes, although I will write a seperate post a little later to talk about the experience of buying these shoes.  The height of these shoes is the same as the Tango Brujos, but the balance feels much better.  The soles are stiffer than I like, but I`m hoping that a bit a dancing will sort that out.  And yes, I love the look of these shoes!!!

The next pair I bought were made by Alanis, a designer who runs her own shoe store.  They`re not as glamourous as the other shoes, but the height is just right for me, and apart from feeling a little uncertain about the long term viablity of the sandal style back, I feel like they will be good comfy dancing shoes – so – I`ve asked Alanis to make me a pair with a closed back in a heavier duty black leather, to use as practice shoes.

Other than the shoe shop that I`m being coy about naming, the best looking shoes I`ve seen here are at Neo Tango.  Unfortunately, the heeled shoes at Neo Tango that fit me, and feel good, are in colours I`d never wear (sigh).  Their sneakers however also fit and feel good, so I went a bit crazy and bought a pair with olive trim as well as a pair in functional black leather.

I`ll post pictures of the shoes I`m waiting on once I get them – OK Mum?

And with that, I`m all shoe shopped out.  Just as well, eh? 

 

Limitations of the body

I have flu.  Sore throat, aching body, sneezing, general blah.  I didn`t dance Wednesday, missed class this morning (Thursday), and despite an afternoon nap, am in no good shape to dance tonight.  If my Spanish was half decent I could watch documentaries on the tango channel on TV, but my Spanish is only barely functional. You have no idea how frustrating this is. The other night I turned on the tango channel after getting back from a milonga, and there was an interview with Alfredo Genovese. The images were fantastic, but I couldn`t understand any of the interview.  Arrghhhh..

I could of course use this as an opportunity to write an actual post about Tango In Buenos Aires, except the reason I haven`t written much about this so far is that its difficult for me to sift out what parts of my tango experience are meaningful to write about. Fuzzy-flu-head doesn`t help – so – tango experience post continues to be deferred. I`ll see if I can get it together this coming Sunday…

 

Jardin Japones

Japanese aesthetics, Buenos Aires style.

 

For my mum

I think I`ve mentioned a few times that everything in BA is large scale – including the parks. Rosedal is a huge public rose garden originally planted early 20th century. It`s still a little too early in spring for many of the plants to be in flower, but even before I entered the garden, the scent of roses was strong and distinct.

 

Cementerio de la Recoleta

The final resting place of the rich and famous. Of all the places I`ve been so far while in Buenos Aires, Recoleta is the place that`s had the strongest impact on me. Unlike everywhere else in BA, the scale is just right, and the result, is a wonderful serenity.

 

Cows on a stick

 

Avenida del Libertador

A small, unassuming monument by Buenos Aires standards.

Yep, that´s a ten lane road going one way, into the centre of the city.  Eight lanes for cars, two for buses.

 

Security

While it´s possible during business hours to walk into the ´milk bars´(which don´t actually sell milk) that are on main streets, most corner stores provide service from behind bars.

Many of the more up-market stores that are off the main drag also have a kind of security; you need to ring to get them to unlock the door and let you in.

 

Futbol

Yes, Sundays are extremely quiet – unless there´s a soccer match on.  The Sunday after I arrived, at around 3pm, a game started at the football stadium about two kilometres away.  The fans were tuneful, passionate, and above all, loud.  Over the past twenty years I´ve lived next to three different football grounds in inner city Melbourne, but even on grand final day at the MCG, Aussi Rules fans sound like geriatric mice compared to Argentine soccer fans.