Tango con El Gordo

Carlos Gardel watches over the dancing couples at La catedral del tango

I can't be unbiased when it comes to tango, but I'm difinitely not the only one who's obsessed with it.
 Every month, hundreds of tourists from everywhere around the globe go to Buenos Aires looking for the original mystical experience of being taken to a milonga and getting lost into the embrace of the bandoneón. Probably cheesiest line I've ever written, I apologize.

So one night, we dressed up (read: I wore flats instead of worn out sneakers, and Chey wore jeans and a neat black T-shirt) and took a bus through some of the ugliest parts of the city to get to the local tango haven: La Catedral.

We had some beer, caught up with a friend and watched the dancers. La Catedral is not a modern, fancy, well kept place; but  a shabby old warehouse with old chairs and tables, a dimly lit wooden dancefloor and a giant tarp heart hanging from the ceiling. Plus the tiny skeletons of a mouse and a pigeon in a frame to honour the humble origins of the dance. I find it rather romantic.

Tarp heart hanging over the bar

At some point between our drinking and chatting, we noticed this one middle aged chubby guy who was dancing with pretty much all the women in the place. He was a skilled and elegant dancer, and there was a serious lack of males on the floor. Girls started actually going to him and asking for a dance,.. an absolutely modern view on the tango traditions. And both Chey and Guido started pushing me to go dance with him. "El Gordo", they would call him.
 "Go, dance with El Gordo!"

"Come on, we all know you want to dance, go dance with him!"

So finally I gave in to my dancing urge and approached El Gordo and had three or four beautiful dances with him, to the boys' delight. He flirted with everyone, told me that Chey was a very fine looking (and apparently scarily tall) gentleman, he gave me a few life lessons and complimented my moves and fire as a dancer, all while humbly showing that he was highly more skilled than I.

El Gordo was not only a lovely dancer, but also hilarious.

Happy times.

We left the place with a happy feel, and walked by the 24 hour flower shops (one of the most surreal sights in Buenos Aires' night) to get a taxi back home.




Edit: Further down the road, I'd get Chey to try tango and discover his hidden dancer conditions. There might be a plan involving lessons.

Edit: The pictures that night were taken with a phone, due to that little thing all argentinians complain about: Not carrying your valuables at night because of the always possible scenario of getting robbed.