Small change

Tango in Buenos Aires costs between a third and a fifth of London prices. I’d sooner come here for my lessons and milongas and content myself with regular practicas at home in London. The price of group classes starts from around £3.50, if bought in bulk, to £7. Milongas cost about the same, but then drinks and empanadas have to be factored in at prices comparable to ours. I haven’t yet been to Escuela Argentina de Tango, this time around, where classes are always more expensive than everywhere else, though not necessarily any better. The enormous detail that goes into the teaching of tango technique in Buenos Aires, or should I say techniques, for there are a variety of different approaches, is beyond compare. Your £3.50 buys you mini-tutorials for your head, neck, shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists, palms, fingers, thumbs, ribcage and intercostals, various abdominals and dorsals, hips, buttocks, thighs, knees, ankles, heels, balls of the feet, big toes, little toes and all the ones in between. Just about every milonga hosts exquisite shows by top notch performers and live music played by world famous bands is included at the regular price. For instance, I went to only two milongas this week and saw Otros Aires perform their new stuff and Virginia de Uva dance. The average porteño is fit and there is an abundance of good dance partners. I don’t know what it is that lubricates their movement, but this italic flow is well worth the hundreds of pounds you have to pay to get here.

Tango apart, Buenos Aires is getting expensive. Bread, less delicious than blotting paper, costs over a pound, so we bake our own, which is rather good. Fruit and veg can often cost considerably more here than back home. My verduleria (green grocer’s) charges the equivalent of a pound for four bananas, but I won’t be growing my own. Prepared salads and oranges for juicing are good value and are my fave staple foods. When I first came to Buenos Aires, I used to wake up dreaming about the totally affordable filet mignon I was going to have for breakfast. Been there, done that. Now I’m a muesli muncher and nuts and dried fruit are pretty expensive.

Public transport is still very cheap, and at long last, there is no longer any need to have monedas to pay your bus fare. There is now a pre-pay e-card, like an Oystercard, if you can lay your hands on one. I’m using someone else’s at present, but can’t wait to get one of my own. The subte has more than doubled in price, but London’s lowest fare is still over ten times more expensive. However, the subte stops running ludicrously early, around 22H, which seems pretty incongruous for a city famed for its all-night partying. It could be the government’s intention to safeguard the trade of BA’s immense corps of taxi-drivers. I favour colectivos myself, but I’m told taxis are still very affordable.