We arrived at the Retiro Bus Station in Buenos Aires at about 8am, only 2 hours late and disembarked to discover that it was as cold outside as it was on the bus! We quickly collected our bags and headed inside the terminal and found a spot where the sun was streaming through the glass to sort our bags out and warm up a little. Once sorted we found our way to the Metro station a few blocks away and scrambled on with our bags to get off at a stop conveniently near the hostel we had booked. Arriving at Hostel Sol we weren't surprised by the misleading name, it appears to get no sun at any time of day and consequently is a rather chilly place to reside, but at least it had lovely hot showers (even if they were just a pipe in the wall!) and the actual dorm rooms were a bit cosier than the common areas. We had to hang around a while before we could dump our stuff as check-in technically wasn't until 12 and as it was only 9 our beds weren't ready yet, we amused ourselves on the computers until 10.30 when we were allowed in to the dorm and then set off out to explore. Our first goal in mind was to find a laundry and a cash machine, so with directions from the girl on the reception we headed across '9th Julio' the largest avenue in the world, which frequently takes 2 changes of traffic lights to get all the way across, then down Av San Juan which runs all the way down to the docks. These old docks are split into 4 giant rectangular berths and along either side of the 2 mile stretch they cover are new buildings, apartment blocks, offices, restaurants etc showing how much improvement has been made to the area in recent times. It is all spotlessly clean and clearly the place where the fashionable, elite and business personnel hang out as the prices we saw for some of the restaurants were sky high! Still not having found a cash machine let alone a laundry we came across an old restored frigate, The Sarmiento, which is now a museum and a very modern looking bridge across the docks (one of several that span it and have various methods of allowing ships to pass) called the Puente de la Mujer or the Bridge of the Woman. We crossed over here and walked along until we finally found a bank and were able to get some money out before continuing a little further along to see some of the boats in the Yacht Club as well as several of the huge, impressive cranes which sit astride some of the bridges, I'm guessing to physically lift ships out of the water and deposit them the other side?!! It being past midday now and us not having had anything to eat since the small dinner on the bus the night before we decided to get some brunch and started making our way inland towards the centre. We passed in the distance the Casa Rosada, the Government house which is painted a dirty pink sort of colour and eventually found ourselves on a pedestrianised road where we took a left, heading back in the direction of San Telmo, the district our hostel is in. Finally we found a little coffee shop, apparently Buenos Aires is famous for them, so we went in and had a delicious coffee served the 'proper' way with a small glass of water and 3 'medialuna's' which are basically any of several types of small pastries, in this case little croissants and are eaten at pretty much any time of day. After we had satisfied our hunger we went on in search of a laundry whilst looking round San Telmo which is an old district, rather 'bohemian' and is made up of small cobbled streets, reasonably priced restaurants, antique shops and the most fabulous little square where all day there are various Tango performances that you can stand and watch. That is if you can put up with being hassled by the many touts trying to get you to come to their pub/restaurant where you can sit at one of their tables and watch the performances instead! We managed to decline gracefully and by keeping moving were able to see our first live, street tango show, which in the afternoon sun and in this lovely setting was perfect, exactly how anyone would imagine Buenos Aires too be! You could have been in any Europaen city, Paris, Florence etc where people have time to sit and relax with a coffee or cool beer and watch the world go by whilst street performers vie for your attention and tips, just that here the entertainment is so much more interesting than jugglers or mime artists...the dancing was superb and we soon decided we were in love with Buenos Aires!! Tearing ourselves away we continued in the direction of the hostel but taking in a couple of shops on the way...tango shoe shops!!! Unfortunately there was nothing that I particularly fell in love with and they were all rather pricey so that it would have made no difference buying shoes here or back in the UK when I wouldnt have to carry them round for another 6 weeks. Slightly disappointed we went back tot he hostel after buying some bits to cook for dinner and lazed around for a while having walked quite a distance today already and wanting to save some energy for tonight. We discussed where we were going to go to dance Tango tonight and after several suggestions from other people, decided on a place we'd seen an advert for in a random window as it was close by and we wouldnt have to worry about taxi's etc to get back afterwards. We had dinner and headed out at about 7.30 and found where we hoped was the correct place in time for the advertised lesson at 8 and so going inside and up some stairs we entered a kind of bar/restaurant where a couple of people were setting up tables around the edge of a dancefloor. After enquiring if this was the correct place, we found the teachers Gerry and Lucia both spoke English and that in fact Gerry was from Ireland and had come here many years ago to learn tango, had since married Lucia and had a daughter and so lived here permanently now. Gerry was exceptionally helpful, giving us several guides to the tango available in Buenos Aires and suggesting which lessons and Milongas he thought we might enjoy once he found out we wanted to dance as much as possible while we are here. A little later the lesson started and there were half a dozen or so of us at varying levels of competence but the lesson was very good as they showed us the first half of a move then came to everyone in turn to help work it out and iron out any problems. There was plenty of time to practice and perfect it before moving on to add the second half of the move which once again was explained thoroughly before giving it a go. We found that although we could remember a bit of tango from our lessons with Salim back home, our technique was lost as we hadnt danced it in 9 months and it took some time for things to start working as they should, but we got there in the end! By the time the lesson had finished quite a few more people had shown up to the venue and we found out that this was in fact the last night at this particular venue where they had been for a long time and so a large turn out was expected as well as a show and live music later on! Good luck and timing on our part then!! We spent the rest of the evening cautiously dancing what little we could remember, trying not to look like we didnt know what we were doing and watching everyone else who looked amazing. Clearly Buenos Aires is different to the rest of South America in that when people say it is THE place to go to dance tango and that the people are very good at it, it is actually true unlike so many other places we've been for salsa and been disappointed! Later that night a couple from Paris gave a show to 3 very different pieces of music to much applause as they were exceptionally good and after that there was the live music. This consisted of a lady with the most beautiful voice accompanied by a guitar and a guy doing the percussion performing various folklore type songs to which there are clearly specific dances that some of the people there knew. We enjoyed watching the traditional dancing but before long it was 2 o'clock and time to go home, saying thank you and goodbye to Gerry and Lucia we made our way back to the hostel where we collapsed into bed, shattered after a long day and several nights without much sleep!