A Night on the Town: Buenos Aires Excursions

Franny and I participated in two separate evening excursions while in Buenos Aires. While in Argentina we knew we had to attend a tango show. It's practically a rite of passage. A small passenger bus picked us up in the evening, stopping at a few other hotels along the way to pick up guests, and took us to La Ventana Tango House. a fully restored, historic building located in the heart of San Telmo. We joined a group of Australians for a pre-show wine tasting where we learned about a variety of Argentine wines. We snacked on a few food pairings and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. While we were doing this, there was a tango class going on in the adjacent room, an option people could sign up for, we had fun sipping wine and watching people learn to tango before we headed downstairs to see the professionals. 

We had great seats, right up front. A waiter took our dinner orders and shortly after the lights dimmed and the show began. The live orchestra played a collection of tango and folk music. The dancers and singers were excellent. We were also pleasantly surprised with the folklore presentation which includes Andean musicians and a display of “boleadoras”, the dance of the gaucho.

Our other evening excursion was the Argentine Experience. This was our opportunity to learn about what it means to be Argentinian. We had a group of Argentinian 'guides' who showed us how to make empanadas and talked about traditional Argentine cuisine and culture. We learned how to properly order steak, make mate, and even made our own delicious alfajores. It was a fun evening with great food, wine, and conversation and we all left feeling a little more knowledgeable about this amazing country we were lucky enough to visit.