


	02/26/2001

	Buenos Aires - ARGENTINE

	S 34°81 W 58°42

	+ 77

We are exhausted by the long flight from Sydney and the immediate visit of Buenos Aires. Without talking about the 14 hours of jetlag. Today, we really look like 5 zombies wandering in the city.

But you gave us a duty: dance Tango !

We walk for a long time in the area of San Telmo, then we sit in a bar. With an approximate Spanish, we chat with an old man next to us. Stroke of luck, the man, Martino, gives us an appointment at 10.00 pm in La Vita, a typical place where to dance Tango.

A shower, clean shoes, a nice shirt and here we are ! We afford 5 pesos and get into a huge hall in the basement, where hundreds of people dance with passion.

We're amazed. As soon as we arrive, a couple of teachers separates us: men on one side, women on the other side. "Chicos ! Repite !" We learn the first steps and it's... very hard ! Then each one of us dances with a different partner: Aleko with a 70 years old mademoiselle then with a young Argentine girl, Vale with a handsome hidalgo, as Maya and Marco dance together. Theo didn't come: there was Juventus - Milan on TV.

Looking and counting his steps, Aleko spends his time pushing the couples around... to such an extent that the teacher calls him in front of everybody: "El Francès, aquì !" We laugh a lot, a bit worried... But the lesson's already over and we attend a real demonstration of Tango... but watch the video !

(Sorry for the quality of the images, but the light is very low in the tangheras!)

TANGO

In the beginning, it was a back music used in the brothels.

It was born from the fusion of music played by poor people: black and persons of mix race put the rhythm, Italian immigrants violin, and German sailors accordion.

In the 18th century, Buenos Aires was a city of immigrants, and many men used to spend their nights to play and to rehearse during prohibited parties.

Tango has in fact a very elementary structure: a simple step - forward, backward, left, right -on which you add movements and improvised figures. All depends on the music and the relation between the two dancers. "Step on the note as you walk in your life, proud of yourself." concludes Martino, talking to the boys. Then, to the girls: "Tango teaches you to be more gracious in your movements and to abandon yourself to the man's intentions". Pour more information, we have chosen for you: Traveltango and Buenosairestango

Today, the 'Sentence of the day' is an extract of a mail sent by Davide Laurino, virtual traveler. If it was possible to reduce the world's population in a village of 100 persons, maintaining the proportions of all the people living on the Earth, the village would be like this: 55 Asians 20 Europeans 15 Americans (North, Central and South America) 10 Africans 52 Women 30 white 30 Christians 89 heterosexuals 11 homosexuals 6 persons would own 59% of the World's wealth, and all of them would come from the United States. 80 would live without water and electricity 70 would be analphabets 50 would suffer from malnutrition 1 would be dying 1 would being born 1 would have a computer 1 only would be graduated from university ... what do you think about that ?

PESO OR DOLLAR ? Argentina is a very expensive country and prices are the same as in Europe. Since January 1992, the Peso follows the US Dollar rate. Thus, you can find two currencies for the same country: here you can pay either in US Dollars or in Peso, it's the same ! The government decided that to face the hyper-inflation, which curbed miraculously since. Until the end of 1992, it could raise to 2000%, against hardly 3% today. But this strange financial game profited above all the higher classes; here, the poor are poorer and poorer and middle classes have to tighten their belt. If Pesos is divided in centavos, it divides the country more and more everyday.

Today, we danced Tango, as you wished; tomorrow we'll go towards South, heading to Trelew. Follow us and decide of our adventure in Patagonia !


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