In order to renew our visas
so that we can stay in Argentina a few more weeks, Roy and I took the
ferry from Buenos Aires to Uruguay and the little port town Colonia.
It was such a pleasant surprise to after only one hour on the boat
find ourselves in a small, quiet town where the old part was just by
the sea with charming restaurants, beautiful old buildings (many of
them not occupied and left to decay. We found this amazing building
and started to dream of turning it into a luxury hotel with a
restaurant...) There where many small stone houses with gardens
filled with flowers (which reminded me a little of Visby on the
Swedish island Gotland), old cobbled streets with cafes where they
left old cars for view for the tourists (see photos album), and the
seafront was gorgeous. I was so exited to be in a tranquil small town
with trees and grass. Roy and i eat an expensive meal (we shared a
main course and the price was as if we would have had two courses in
Argentina, crazy) and Roy got happily drunk on sangria. Than we lay
down on the little beach and had an afternoon nap in the sun to the
sound of the waves and wind. It was a beautiful day trip and to be
quite honest we where not happy to return to the noisy city of Buenos
Aires at all...but we have committed to stay a few more weeks, so
here we are.
Talking about leaving, we
have had a nightmare changing the dates for our flight tickets(the
whole of the year is affected by the change) to fit with our plan of
staying here a few more weeks. Roy was trying to communicate with the
airlines in different countries over the phone, since none of the
airlines we are flying with have got an office in Buenos Aires. The
customers service for Virgin is based in Mumbai, India, and Roy had
difficulty communicating whit them, having to repeat the same thing
many many times, doubting the intelligence of the people he was
talking to. Then somebody said that they might have problems
understanding his accent, and that might be at the root of some of
the difficulties...The date changes we wanted to make made it
impossible for us to go to what was going to be our next destination,
the island Tonga. All of the flights where full. The result of a lot
of research time and hours on the phone (Roy's hard work), and
finally asking our travel agent in England to do it for us (which he
did, he is a wonderful man), is that we fly out of Buenos Aires on
the 4th of December, and via Los Angeles, US we then fly to the Cook
Island, another exotic country in the pacific ocean consisting 15
paradise island with white beaches, crystal clear water and palm
trees. Not bad. Right now we are working on finding a place to stay
there and as we look at the pictures of the hostels and hotels there
are many "oooh" and "aahhh" to be heard. Lets say
we are looking forward to, and ready for, a change of environment
very very soon.
But our life
in Buenos Aires is all right. In the past week we have worked hard on
the tango again. We had a break for the Patagonia trip and the
illness and then we started to gently get back into our tango. We
have enjoyed private lessons with a wonderful female teacher who,
unfortunately for us, left for France to tour with a tango show
yesterday. Paula Rubin was an extremely gifted teacher and she
uncovered many of the secrets about the dance that no one has been
able to explain for me so far. I ca really say that my dancing, as
well as Roy and mine together, improved a lot by just working a few
hours with her. Now i am mourning her leaving and i am hoping to find
someone in her caliber for our last 2,5 weeks. Parallel to Paula, Roy
has been working with the couple that we where working with before
the Patagonia trip. He is doing 2 hours private with them per day
(pew) and i am glad to see that he always comes back inspired and
with shiny eyes. Both Edit and Enzo are being hard on him and he
seems to love it! We are also doing a few milongas per week. Our
tango is moving on slowly but surely, i would say.
Last week we went dancing
to a more traditional milonga with our Swedish friend Hannah. The
milonga was full with people that are a bit older, and me and Hanna
(young blonds) got to dance a lot. Hannah asked one of the gentlemen
she was dancing with how long he has been dancing tango and he said
50 years. He then asked her how long she has been dancing and she
said 3 months...
Roy has set up sessions
with an Alexander technique teacher here in Buenos Aires. Alexander
Technique is a method for improving the way of moving the body and
posture and is based around relaxing the body for more efficient use.
He is doing sessions everyday, i think he is one week into it now and
he really enjoys it. A part of the practice is to lye on the floor
with a book under the head for about 20 minutes per day. He has jut
had his floor session and now, as he walks through the room, his
posture is amazing. He looks 10 years younger, at least! Wow!
And now some
bad news. My ipod was stolen on the bus the other day. I was sitting
with my bag in my lap and as i was to get of the bus, there was a bit
of turbulence with a lot of people moving around to let other people
got off. It was tight. I thought i held my bag in a safe way, but
next morning when i was reaching for the ipdo it was gone. I am not
entirely sure that it happened on the bus, it might have been when I
was walking along the street, but what i do know is that is is gone.
Nowhere to be found. We had to cancel our tango lesson that day and
go to a police station. They sent us to another police station
(specific for tourists). On the way there there was a rain storm so
strong that it was raining horizontally and the drains on the streets
could not cope with the masses of water and where acting like
fountains instead. We and the people on the streets got soaking wet
despite of the umbrellas that where useless, and we had to hide away
for nearly half an hour until it stopped pouring down so strongly...
That is Argentinean summer for you. When we finally got to the police
station, a very helpful man made it all easy for us and we left a
little bit later with a police report in our hands. We shall see if
we can get the insurance to cover the lost ipod for us.
Another thing is that my
camera broke too. It was when i was horseback riding in Patagonia in
the rain. The camera could not handle it and it died. We shall see it
the cannon cetnre here can fix it.
Things come and go, don't they.
love
ania x x
