Not much tango but lots of local life, such as party

Last week we just went to Salon Canning on Tuesday and La Viruta on Friday. The other night we were busy preparing the trip to Iguazu and Rio afterward. Rio is so full in mid-February during the Carnival. Just a tent on roof top costs 45 Reis (HK$ 225 a night). It is our cheapest choice already. We keep finding couch-surfing (CS, it is to ask if anyone has a couch at home to host). The couch providers in Rio are mostly out of town or have other couch-surfers already. It seems that local people will get away from the carnival if possible, are we doing the tourist thing by getting there at that peak time ? (M: Yes, we are, darling. Afterall, it's a world big event once a year, just be there as a tourist, once, okay?^^)

So far we just find a couch/room at Medianeira, 55km away from Foz de Iguazu, the Brazilian side of Iguazu Fall. The family has a deep history and is very welcoming. Our concern is that it costs 12 Reis one way to get to and fro the fall. However, as CS is about meeting people instead of staying for free, we would like to try by visiting the fall for 2-3 days and then go to Medianeira particularly, just getting to know local people. Wish us luck.

We went to Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) on Wednesday, when they had the main exhibit by Carlos Cruz-Diez. The work was amazing by combining simple colors and lines to complexity. The amazing will get boring when seen for too long. (But Cruz-Diez had been playing with this concept for over 30 years!) The more amazing thing was that those "modern art" work on display was created 40 years ago and are still looking very contemporary now. They stay 'modern' as time goes by.


Last Thursday we had a great party with HK tango girls at their apartment. To our delight, we can stay in BsAs for one more week in their apartment by setting up a tent in the terrace outside the kitchen. Thanks Carrie, Anne and Eva. We'll cook good meals for you.

We were nearly robbed in Retiro train station, on Saturday, by cunning thieves who spread some liquid to distract our attention. While we were busy cleaning, my rucksack was opened. Luckily we lost nothing, but I felt ashamed of my low awareness and easy fall to the psychological trap (as Maria said, Monkeys see Monkeys do). In similar situation, we should have ran away, instead of standing there cleaning.

 

We follow the queue and not knowing what's ahead of us!

After the scary incident, we found our refuge by visiting a nearby museum - Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano Issac Fernandez Bianco. It should have been closed at 7pm, but there was still a queue at 6:45pm. We lined up to visit the museum but ended up sitting in a monologue poetry reading/ drama session in the museum (in Spanish). It was good to familiarize with the language, soaking into the dramatic monologue with a good actress emotional performance and melancholy singing (something about a dead child and a sad mother), nice air-conditioning to cool-down, also with art collections around us. Later we found an English speaking church nearby.

Being too tired, we slept through the morning and missed the English Sunday mass and the possible Tigre re-visit on Sunday. After buying the bus tickets for Iguazu and Rio (only 550peso per person), we went to a local circus polo (tent set-up for circus show) at Juan de Garey. The free show was performed by local acrobat (I wonder if they are amateur, it is free anyway). (M: interestingly they give a look of 'lucky! I've made it', after every difficult tricks they've performed in near success.) We joined the locals and kids in applauding and cheering and had a good time.

After French onion soup, it rained and we stayed at home, though we thought about outdoor milonga in Plaz de Derrego.


We haven't packed for moving out on Jan 31. Wish us luck.