Yard Sale Addict

Tango- If Atlanta could promote clog dancing the way BA promotes tango, Atlanta would have a lot more tourists. We actually determined that there were only about a dozen tango dancers in the whole city. They just keep moving from place to place. The six dancers we saw at the Museo De Tango one night were spotted later on the streets of La Boca. Two dancers we saw at a tiny bar in the same neighborhood showed up back at the Museo De Tango when we went back with some friends the following week. We also took in Tango oriented entertainment at the theater in the Borges Center. Located in the back of an overly upscale mall installed in a grand Belle Epoch structure the center has a theater and several large gallery spaces. We took in two shows there. The first “Tango Postales” was a hodgepodge of tango and ballet. Cindy asked if the name meant, “Tango going postal”. The second show was stranger, entitled “Tango Loco”; the show consisted mostly of old Beatles songs performed with traditional Argentine arrangements. The accordion solo on Yellow Submarine was unbelievable.

Mendoza- Wanting to get away from the urbanity of BA we headed to Mendoza. I booked passage on a full cama overnight bus that took 12 hours to get to this city on the edge of the Andes. The deluxe full cama buses offer hot meals, champagne, tumblers of whiskey, fully reclining large leather seats, pleasant attendants and scary movies. On the way there I passed into dreamland while Cindy was frightened by dead bodies rising out of a lake in ”What lies beneath”. Much more unsettling fare was on return trip when bus-vision presented “Man on Fire” an action drama centering on violent kidnappings in Latin America.
Mendoza was easy to get around in but difficult to get out off. We arranged a full day tour of the high Andes but four hours into our tour a truck flipped over in a tunnel blocking all traffic for several hours. Since we were in the middle of winter visiting a vineyard would mean looking a miles of dry leafless and fruitless vines. Instead we opted for sampling wines in restaurants and exploring the cities outstanding parks and plazas.