Buenos Aires - March 2008

Buenos Aires Background

Our trip to Buenos Aires was planned after we accepted an invitation to visit the home of tango by our friends and instructors, Ricardo and Violeta Pacheco of Calgary, Alberta. Several other Calgarians also made the pilgrimage to Buenos Aires including Maraya, Kevin, Linda, Alice, Bill and Sigrid.

The trip was a fascinating, inspiring and unexpectedly exhausting experience. We saw a lot of the city, took many tango lessons and stayed up way too late on too many evenings to sample the night life of a city obsessed with this marvelous and romantic dance.

A few weeks is only enough time to capture a glimpse of the city and its history, yet we managed to be captivated by its culture, style and enduring contradictions. Buenos Aires is a friendly but hectic place with a rebellious spirit that lies just below the surface.

Buenos Aires also gets in your blood, and we have at least for a short time, come to understand, if ever so briefly, the passion and reverence that so many have for this city, and for the most sensually expressive dance in the world.

Ian Watson,
April 2008