Land of the Tango

After a couple more long driving days we arrived in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. This is supposed to be the home of the tango. I spent an evening at a tango show in a cafe that would not have been out of place in Paris a hundred or so years ago. The show was spectacular. How an earth both the man and woman manage to kick their legs simultaneously through their partner's legs without doing themselves an injury, is beyond me. These people have alot of skill - and you realy wouldn't believe what they could do with wooden balls on a rope!! It was nice to spend a few days back in a city after the camping and tiny towns of the last couple of weeks. Felt very civilised to be able to go out for drinks and meals until the wee small hours. Nobody here even bothers eating before midnight.
I ventured into the Recoleta Cementry. Its famous for being the final burial place of Evita (Eva Peron) but the place itself is a work of art. It does not have graves but tombs and vaults. Each tomb is built by the family and they are very elaborate, most have imported italian stautes within them not to mention being covered in marble. Evita's tomb by contrast is not at all elaborate it is simply a plaque on the wall of her families vault. Mind you it has been sealed with alot of concrete and metal to stop anyone else stealing the body. Her sister only got Evita's body back 50 years after she had died. I know this as I also went to the Evita museum. Another region of Buenos Aires that was breath - taking was that of the Boca suberb. Footie fans will recognise the name but as well as housing a very famous stadium - it has a very colourful approach to homes. Boca was the first settlement in Buenos Aires and it was were all the extremely poor Spanish and Portuguese workers first landed. The area is still the poorest neighbourhood and therefore at night becomes the most dangerous part of town but during the day it is beautiful. To try and eleivate the harsh conditions they found themselves in, those first settlers painted their houses a myriad of colours and the houses are still kept in the same way. The place had such an artesian / old parisian atmosphere with alot of tango going on. One old chap (he must have been late 80's) even got me tangoing in the street. Alas I was useless but good comedy value for my friends! Buenos Aires is a great city but after 4 days there I am looking forward to seeing some more beautiful scenery and natural sights. There is only so much city life I can take at the moment - I have turned into a great outdoors type. Mind you its alot easier to do here due to the very comfortable weather conditions!