In the past couple of weeks, the weather has warmed up, and so has the pesos. The paseos is staying roughly at the exchange rate of 1175 to 1190 pesos to the dollar, showing a smattering of consistency and stability.

Yes, life in this city is

a bit more expensive, but now there is a consistency here that did not exist before, especially when shopping for products. If in the past, when a particular item was available, you bought a few of those items because who knew when the store would get another delivery of that product.

Now, I am finding things that in the past were impossibile to locate here, now seem a bit easier. Merchandise seems to be consistently available. Markets are being remade in ways that previously were impossible. It’s too early to know what the outcomes will be.

In the past, it was about remaking the old financial systems that weren’t working, but every past government added more red tape. The system was completely topheavy with many restrictions. It was unsustainable, but now it appears some of the red tape is being cut out, as inflation is indeed much lower.

In the past, if you needed something from another country, you asked around and would try to find a person to hand carry that item you wanted back to Argentina.

As an example, I recently  needed to reorder my business cards, which I order from Moo cards and get them delivered to my US address.

I tried something different, and I had them printed in England and shipped to Argentina.

And wow, with the 2 week shipping window [estimated correctly too], the cards were delivered by a local contractor for UPS to my apartment building.

The amazing aspect of this story is that the tracking worked the entire time, taking a bit longer to clear customs. Although I did have to pay a customs fee of 24000 pesos. But I got my cards delivered from England in a timely manner.

Things are changing, and we are too dancing at new milongas. This is the first story in this series.

These are the two milongas that we have been to.
One in the afternoon in Recoleta and the other one in the evening in Palermo.

As a proponent of public transportation, living in centrally located Recoleta makes this an easy option. I prefer the bus to the subway anytime as I don’t like going underground but will use the Sube if it’s the only way of going.

As to taxis, they, too, have gotten a bit pricier than in the past. Currently, the prices start at 1940 pesos to sit down and start the ride. We are taking more of the online rides as Uber. Sometimes, the price differs as much as 4000 pesos. All these pesos do add up if you are retired.

We took the bus to Palermo, close to where Salon Canning used to be on Calabrini Ortiz.
The milonga named La Boutique del Tango happens every Friday night at 9 pm in the space, which is known as the Centro Culturo Beit el Emir  and is located on Jose Antonio Cabrera 4625.

We attended this milonga twice and was delighted to discover that a small cafe inside that serves Arabic and Argentinan food. Once we ordered the falafel and enjoyed it.

This center has a small, beautiful wooden dance floor. The hosts are a lovely Tango couple who teach a tango class an hour prior to the milonga. The couple, who are the teachers and organizers, are Verónica Centurión y Fernando Esposito. I don’t know them very well, but I found this milonga is both welcoming and has a friendly vibe.

Again, the milonga takes place every Friday at 21 hours. We found the atmosphere to be mixed casual, as some folks were wearing tango clothes and others were wearing street clothes.

It’s is a mellow milonga with a good Dj, who is originally from Italy. He has some marvelous old tango orchestras music that he plays.

The other new milonga

Again, taking the bus to the intersection of Ave SantaFe y Purrydon, we find the Recoleta Portal located a few doors from the corner.
This is the location of the milonga called Malfada Milonga, and the organizers are Sonia Grela y Rozenek Fabio.

Ironically, I had met Fabio many years before at another milonga, just before the pandemia. He is not only a lovely dancer but a good tango community organizer as this milonga is open to the community for free. Here, when this happens, the expression used is a la gorra. which was translated to on the hat.
This means donations are accepted for your admission at whatever you would like to pay.

This milonga is held every Sunday afternoon from 15 to 19 hours at the Santa Fe 2516.

One of the reasons we went to this milonga was to support a friend of ours as she was the guest dj that Sunday. This friend we had met dancing tango in Barcelona was from Norway, who coincidently lives in Buenos Aires too. This is the small tango world stuff we live in.

This milonga is a bit different as it attracts both locals and visitors. The crowd is mostly middle-aged aged tangeros and a small smattering of the under 40 crowd.

As you descend from street level to the underground location, the music gets progressively stronger. Upon entering the space, you see the dance floor slightly below you and the few areas that have tables and chairs. Surround the dancing area, which is on the right and left of the dance floor.

There is a kind of upper dance floor that is adjacent to the main dance floor that has more tables and chairs. On the opposite wall, there are a few wooden benches for changing your shoes. The day we were there, a clothing vendor was selling tango clothing, too.
There are 3 spaces to dance with varying degrees of floor stickiness. Thoughtfully, talc powder was provided. The best floor is the main dance floor below the dj booth.

With some wonderful music playing, we put our shoes on and danced a few tandas. It took us a while to figure out which floor surface worked with our shoes.

There is bar service, but on the day we visited, water was the favored item. On the end of the long bar is where the large glass admission jar is.

After an hour, it was time to go as we were going to another milonga later that evening.
We deposited our admission money in the jar on the bar and departed.
We enjoyed ourselves and decided we would go to this milonga again.

Next week, we will go to another one of my favorite milonga at El Beso on Friday nites. The El Abrazo Tango Club.
More stories to come on this milonga in the next issue.

Abrazos