Hola Everyone,
This really is my last blog written in England .........
Before I returned to England I just loved every minute of my last month in Buenos Aires. It felt like coming home, happy and confident after all my travelling and the lovely encounters with so many people that I met along the way. I knew the city and how the milongas worked, I had friends round the corner, Madeline and Gary and Merry. Others I had met through different contacts, Edda, Stephen and Bernd and so it spun out into other groups and friends in my hostel.
I went to two fantastic concerts during this time - both utterly different and both quite wonderful. One was given by 2 guys amazingly talented guys who call themselves 'El Farabute' - James a young German on violin and Pablo a young Argentinian on piano. They played with deep passion, with humour and huge sensitivity, their instruments talking to each other in an extraordinary dialogue that was breathtaking to hear. Some of the pieces were accompanied by singers and some by a raunchy pair of tango dancers. Luckily for me the Placido Domingo concert was cancelled because of rain so I could go to both. This concert at La Plata holds a special place in my heart.
Placido Domingo and Soprano Virginia Tola gave an amazing concert attended by 120,000 people in the open air under the Obelisco. For me opera has to send shivers down my back and this happened time and time again on that evening. I did not know Virginia but when she finished one piece I just longed for her to sing another one - I never wanted it to end. Marta, Zeik and I felt we were the luckiest people in the world to be in Buenos that night - and we were. When Domingo wooed the crowd with encores of tango songs you could feel the palpable energy of the crowd loving him. I had a senora standing next to me singing her heart out, as were many others, but it was like a duet between her and Domingo, except he was unaware of this very special relationship.
It was all completely free ........ how wonderful was that!
Yes I did go to Uruguay. My two lovely Uruguayan friends I met in Bolivia had told me about 2 magical fishing villages so I decided to visit one and have some time out before I returned home.
So I took the boat from BA to Montevideo and then caught a bus up the coastline. It was a surprisingly long journey and I ended up being dropped in the dark at the top of a track to Cabo Polonio. 'Where is the village?' I ask. I had to buy a ticket and board a large open backed lorry along with about 6 others. We trundle off into the night, along sandy tracks through scrub and bush. I am amazed by the brilliance and multitude of stars in the firmament above my head - I have never seen such a display. We arrive at the beach and the lorry turns right and heads towards the village. I can see the gentle waves lapping up on the sand. What a fabulous sound. My spirits soar and I know this village is going to be just what I need. The lorry circles around 'the centre of the village' - a small piece of scrubby grass - and I realize that we have arrived. Most of the village is in darkness. I make my way to a little cafe that is lit by candles and ask where the nearest hotel/hostel is. One of the Argentinians volunteers agrees to show me where to go so I follow him in the dark. The hotel is small and friendly and I am taken to a little double room with an ensuite shower room - an unknown luxury in most hostels - I open the french windows onto a terrace and beyond that is the sea. I breathe a sigh of contentment, snuggle into bed and wait for the morning to explore - the generator light goes off!
Village is on a point with a lighthouse. This is the only place that is allowed mains electricity the rest of the houses are on generators. The houses themselves are completely random, from small wooden huts to the arab style white washed buildings. Lots of colour, flags and varying little terraces added on to each one. Some making up the main village and some at a distance nestling in the sanddunes. It is an utter delight with beautiful sandy beaches either side of the point leading to huge sand dunes in the distance. What heaven! There are 2 or 3 quirky little cafes and one restaurant that you enter through a huge painted mouth, taking off your shoes as you go, entering something resembling a bedouin tent. In 2 shops I have a lovely time buying several things and end up paying by Barclay Card which all feels very incongruous. Everyone is friendly. This is out of season so people have time to chat and pass the time of day with you. It is a National Park so there are no cars and no camping - and no electricity! There is a seal colony on an island off the point.
My last evening I just sit in a hammock watching the sun set and the colours changing as ripple upon ripple seeks the shoreline - peacefully and gently. The wet sand glistens and basks in a silver beauty. This is the natural world at its best
Interesting tango dancing, horseriding Polish guy and his partner are now in the room next door to me. He and I danced tango on the terrace rather badly but it was fun. The sound of the sea was our music!
The next day I leave. My alarm goes off but I turned over and go back to sleep. A near disaster, but I wake again with 10 minutes to spare until I have to meet the Lorry. No light as the generator isn't on yet. I fly round the room, dress at lightening speed, grab my bag and I am out the door. No lorry in sight but I realize that I have left all my bracelets and rings on a shelf in the room. I am not going without them so I leave my rucksack on the grass and run back to the hotel. Still no light so I scoop everything, hopefully, off the shelf and hightail it back to the pick up point to just see the lorry coming down the track - what a relief. I do my teeth and wash my face on the lorry!
Cabo Polonio has been so relaxing - swimming, walking, chatting, writing, collecting shells, watching, enjoying being in such magical surroundings - feeling restored by the natural world around me. 10 days of stomach problems have vanished and I am ready to go home.
My last 2 days in BA were hectic - fabulous last lesson with Fabian. His individual attention to my dance has fine tuned and freed me - softened my dance and made me listen. May I hold onto it. I went to Nuevo Chique on my last night and met up with Jas who I met during my first time in BA. We ended up in a street cafe chatting for hours - about her marriage and my adventures!
On the last morning Sandrine ( a french friend from the hostel) myself, and the Pink Elephant (my enormous suitcase) bundled into a taxi and headed for the airport. The Pink Elephant was extremely heavy. It took 2 people to carry it down the stairs from our dormitory and the taxi driver nearly had a hernia getting it in the boot. So I was amazed when I didn't have to pay any extra and greatly relieved when it was checked in and on the plane.
It was wonderful being met at Gatwick by Bess and Jake and Sean. We headed for a great pub for lunch plus Christian who is a long standing friend of Jake's. They then all took me to Liverpool Street Station by which time one of the wheels and the handle had fallen off the Pink Elephant. My worry was that I was going to have to change at Ipswich which involved crossing over a bridge to the other side and there was no way I could do this on my own. But as is the way someone came to my rescue.... 2 guards were seen heaving the Pink Elephant up the balustrade rail and down the otherside whereupon they put her in an invalid wheelchair and pusheded her along the platform to the waiting train and me! I was impressed by their initiative. A lovely friend from the village, Sue, was at the station to meet me and we managed to lever the PE into the kitchen. I unpacked her from there!!
There were endless reunions with family and friends,Tango friends, friends from the village and far flung places. I felt very loved when I left Buenos Aires and I now feel very loved coming home. Also nothing like returning to this amazing Sprintime that has been happening here. It has been truly wonderful and made my homecoming easy. People keep asking what I am going to do next and have I another big trip planned. The answer is that I don't know. Time will tell but at the moment I am happy being back in England and just seeing what comes up and where my life takes me in a more organic way. If there is another big trip I shall certainly write a blog again. I have loved it and have also taken great pleasure in revisiting it and remembering things that I had forgotten, little details that had slipped my mind, that luckily I had captured for ever in these words.
Thank you for coming with me and taking the time to read this blog - it made all the difference!
Muchos abrazos fuertes y besos
Sal xxx
