My “Tango Lessons” excursion was mostly a tour. We started by visiting a local artist in the La Boca neighborhood. I recognized the name of the neighborhood as it hosts a famous Argentinian soccer team, Boca Juniors. As it turned out, the artist, Marjan Grum, was only two blocks from the stadium.

He lives in a large former tenement building with his wife. There are many studios and open patios within the building. There is a roof now, but originally the patios were in the open. We sat down and were surprised by a pair of tango dancers who were literally hiding in the rest rooms. This was not the tango lesson – that’s at the end of the tour. I should have expected something when the artist’s wife had her phone out ready to record. They were great, and paused for posed pictures.

Afterward we walked within the studio. The artist works most in metal, sometimes with scrap.

We drove some more, and I started recognizing landmarks. Sure enough, we returned to the same tango place that I have visited on each of the two prior days. Yet we were in a new room. This building was just renovated last year, and they have done a wonderful job. Excuse the chairs, but here is the marble bar. I don’t even drink and I want that in my house.

We were served empanadas and then the dance instructors arrived. They were two of the dancers from the show two days ago. The female spoke decent English and they taught us a modified box step. In ballroom dancing there is a basic four-step box, in tango they used a six-step box as an introduction. Things to remember:

• Social dancing is different from stage dancing -no crazy legs kicks or lifting your partner
• Dance counterclockwise
• Try not to lift your feet from the floor, in tango you glide
• There’s a whole ceremony for inviting someone to dance; they must mean it, as three different tango couples spent time talking about it over the three days we’ve been in Argentina

<start bullshit excuse>My walking shoes aren’t the right shoes for dancing, but I still came away with some knowledge <end bs>. We ended with a few minutes of them dancing.

I have not been able to take the on-board dance lessons this cruise due to scheduling conflicts. The gentlemen hosts are usually teaching during the same time slot that a lecture is offered. My cruise priorities are:

• Lectures
• Water Volleyball (not this cruise)
• S.A.L.T. kitchen lessons (new this cruise)
• Dance lessons
• Team Trivia

I hope to get to dance lessons a few times in the near future.

Tomorrow – Uruguay.