Buenos Aires Entertainment

In my opinion there are three things Argentina is most famous for: Evita, Malbec and Tango. Over our stay we had thoroughly enjoyed one and saved the latter for a Sunday  night.

The tango shows here are abundant and after a few discussions with some locals we picked the Carlos Gardel which did not start until 10 PM. This left us plenty of time to meander home from the markets and La Boca, enjoy some wine and grab a nice Argentine style dinner (i.e., a huge hunk of grilled meat, veggies and more wine).

Side note: my pescetarian streak has been almost impossible to maintain here. Granted I ordered the ensalatas but how can you pass up picking food off of your husband’s plate when it’s a delicious steak??

After thoroughly enjoying our meal we cabbed it over past the huge Avenue 9 Julio (a street roughly 460 feet wide, one of the largest avenues in the world) to grab our seats before curtain call. Neither of us had ever seen tango (other than the hollywood-ized version that is). We were expecting some good dancing but we were both blown away by how impressive, sexy and insanely complicated the dance itself is.

The secret to making Tango look so sexy? Well, in order to move your legs so quickly the women are barely clothed. The men are in skin tight pants (see note about necessary leg movement) and the music is at once wistful and heart racing. It still baffles us how its possible to move your legs so much while keeping your face pressed against your partner’s cheek. Hands down this was an amazing show to take in – a definite must for anyone in Buenos Aires. While it may seem touristy, it’s on par with seeing a Broadway show while in New York – it’s just something that you do here.

The following day was again cloudy and drizzling. We revisited some of our favorite sights and booked tickets to take in a symphony that evening at the Teatro Colon. We had to chuckle at our multicultural experience: an Austrian composer (Mozart), played by the Toulouse orchestra (French) in South America. Garbage, dog poo and culture – three things Buenos Aires has in abundance.

The Teatro Colon itself is such a beautiful building gilded from tip to toe. The theater is massive full of old timey looking booths and red velvet covered seats. The orchestra was phenomenal and introduced us to another typical Argentinian occurance: rampant applause, screaming “Whoa!” (as a precursor to said applause) and continuing to clap until you’ve had not one, not two, but THREE encores from both the guest pianist and the orchestra as a whole.

It was a beautiful evening and such a lovely experience. Heading home we made plans to get up early, pack and head to the airport to catch our flight to Santiago where we looked forward to Pisco Sours, a little beach time and, obviously, more wining and dining.