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The
Flick of A Leg, The Tug of A Hand, The Tap of A Foot, The Arch of An Eyebrow…
Enjoy a Sensuous, Sophisticated,
and Passionate
Journey…
Learn to Tango in Argentina
April 28 - May 7, 2007
"The tango is a
feeling that you dance. A story you tell in three minutes.
It's passionate,
it's melancholic. It's tender, it's violent. You dance it
with somebody
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but it is so internal,
you dance it by yourself. Further, the tango
represents more
than just a dance -it is also
a music,
a culture, a way
of life."
-- Luis Bravo, Creator & Director of Forever Tango
Dear Traveler,
The flick of a leg, the tug of a hand, the tap of a foot, the arch of
an eyebrow… the tango provides an unspoken language, a window to
a world where the subtleties of movement speak volumes.
 Sensuous, sophisticated, and passionate, nothing else represents Argentinean
culture so intimately… or so accurately.
That's why we've put together a one-of-a-kind Tango Tour to Buenos Aires,
to introduce you to Argentina in a way no ordinary tourist sees it.
You'll not only learn to dance the tango, but you'll explore the city
in a way you never could if you came on your own.
Together
with our Argentinean friends on the ground in Buenos Aires, we've designed
a private introduction to both the tango and Argentina. You'll go
to the places our friends take their own visitors… eat at their
favorite haunts… and do those special things only the locals know
about -- like a must-experience antiques market and a wine tasting under
the guidance of one of Argentina's premier sommeliers.
This is the kind of trip you'll be telling your grandkids about a decade
from now -- a once-in-a-lifetime excursion. Whether you're already a tango
enthusiast or you've just got an itch to learn how it's done, this trip
will suit you just fine. The instructors we've lined up will adjust easily
to your skill level. So you're guaranteed an enjoyable, entertaining,
educational, enthralling week.
Sophisticated, Genteel Buenos Aires
"Gracias, thanks, wow, what a week! I loved every minute… thanks
for providing a slew of handsome Argentineans to hold my hand (ahem, I
mean dance with me). I loved all the people on our trip and was pleased
with your low-key but through planning. -- Sondra B.
We'll be based throughout the program in Buenos Aires. The city has a
sophisticated, genteel Latin American influence… but it's on a cosmopolitan
par with New York or Paris. Large boulevards, expansive parks and plazas,
tall trees…
It's such a nice walking city with a very European feel.
Here people use all the community green space. Stroll through a park,
and you'll see people reading, picnicking, talking… and even dancing
the tango.
As Travel + Leisure puts it: "Buenos Aires isn't the Paris of South
America anymore. Paris, we hear, is the Buenos Aires of Europe."
A Distinctly Non-Touristy Trip
Throughout the week, we'll not only enjoy daily tango lessons given by
some of the city's most respected dancers , but we'll also --
- Take in famous tango shows…
- Mingle in the evenings at Milongas -- the traditional places where
the tango is danced in town. These aren't tourist sites, but the spots
local tango enthusiasts enjoy… the kind of place you'd never even
hear about if you came on a typical excursion.
- We'll dine on fine Argentinean beef and seafood in excellent local
eateries, chosen with care and insider's know-how by our Argentinean
friends. In other words, we'll be eating where they like to eat.
- And we'll also meet with an accomplished sommelier who will teach
us about Argentinean wines as we sample many of the nation's best offerings.
Not only do Argentinean wines enjoy a reputation for quality, but they're
also an excellent value. You'll be able to pick up a few bottles to
take home, too, if you like.
Unique Accommodations in Buenos
Aires'
For All the Details About Pricing and What's Included
This really is a trip like no other…
We'll stay for the week at the best Tango hotel in the city. The Mansion
Royale Dandi. This 15 room mansion is a themed residence for Tango dancers
from around the world. It is very unique in its artistic presentation
of the Tango art. Each room is decorated with murals portraying tango
scenes and original art.
Staying in this unique hotel in the heart of San Telmo invites you to enjoy
the magic and seduction of Tango. It is a journey through time with
100 years of history, when Tango was danced in every corner.
Most of our afternoons will be free for you to explore on your own, shop,
visit nearby museums, or simply relax. You'll find San Telmo a perfect jumping-off
point for whatever activities you spend your afternoons enjoying.
An Enjoyable Day-by-Day Itinerary
 We'll
begin our trip with a Saturday evening departure from either Miami, Houston
or Dallas. We'll arrive in Buenos Aires Sunday morning and stop by the hotel
for breakfast and to freshen up and drop our luggage.
Then it's on to a specially guided tour of the city. You'll learn about
its history, culture, architecture, and more. And you'll have a chance
to orient yourself and get some ideas about what you'll want to see and
do during your free afternoons.
We'll stop at a famous antiques market in the bohemian San Telmo neighborhood,
a must-do in the city on a Sunday. Here you'll begin to get a sense for
the warm and welcoming Argentineans and a taste for the beauty of their
capital city. As you wander, you'll see crystal chandeliers, copper pots,
antique jewelry, and more (for -- I should point out -- a fraction of what
they'd cost up north).
Your Day-by-Day Itinerary for a Highly Enjoyable
Journey
Click Here
We'll also visit La Boca -- the neighborhood where the tango was born. Settled
by Italian immigrants, today this riverside enclave is home to artists. On
the Caminito, you'll find them selling their canvasses alongside vendors
hawking souvenirs and dancers performing the tango. (It's the best place
to go to catch a free show.) The streets themselves are lined with murals,
sculptures, and engravings… the buildings slapped with a rainbow of primary
colors.
For lunch we've made reservations at one of the famous steak houses, where
you'll enjoy fine Argentinean steak and we'll sample excellent local wines.
Of course, Argentina is renowned for the extraordinary beef it serves. They
raise their own cattle, in fact, which graze in the pampas without commercial
feed. They produce a kind of beef you just don’t get here at home -- perfectly
marbled with less fat and more flavor.
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The Romantic Image of a Tango Dancer:
Slim, Angular Chin, Long Hair Knotted in a Ball
"Sondra! I want to feel you!" The dark, handsome man in
my face was speaking with authority -- not seductively -- in a thick
Spanish accent. I was terrified. He was the Tango Master, and he wanted
me to hold my partner firmly, so as to feel his moves and follow his
lead.
I must have had a ladylike, wimpy hold of my partner instead of pressing
my hands against his hand and shoulder to sense his intent. And I was
not responding well. My foxtrot-trained feet simply would not obey
the complex patterns of the feminine steps of the Tango.
There were three professional teachers and many male advanced students
to dance with us for our class lessons, two hours every morning.
"Sondra! Why you not cruziar?" I was on the verge of tears.
But once I realized that attention to the clues of balance and twist
in my partner's torso dictated my response, my problem of steps disappeared.
I submitted, and my gentle partner paused and approved as I unwound
myself like a puzzle in intimate moves that brushed across his leg
and back to lean against his torso. He knew I wanted passionately to
look elegant. He made it possible, saying, "Sondra, I understand
you."
Argentina has a passion for the Tango. And one of the class assistants,
the image of a romantic Tango dancer -- slim, angular chin, his long
hair knotted in a ball -- explained that it is not the technique that
we are taught that is the key to dancing the Tango, it is, in fact,
that "passion."
Every night at about 11:00, after a 9:00 dinner, we went to a different
milonga or Tango Club. They are all over the city, in old ballrooms,
every night and some afternoons -- always packed with dancers. The
male Argentineans from our dance class were always there to save us
a table. They would try to talk to us, and they were faultlessly protective.
(They would stay until the last of us women would ask to leave -- not
everyone wanted to stay until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. -- and get us into
the waiting van or taxis back to the hotel.)
One day after morning class we were invited to go to a demonstration
that our lead teachers were giving at an afternoon milonga. We all
-- teachers, students, translators, bartender -- piled into taxis and
found a table near the stage of a huge ballroom filled with two hundred
people. And there, as part of the "in" group, we celebrated
the performance of our own heroes.
-- Sondra Boliek, Participant in our Tango Tour 2004
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And the wines… ah, the local wines. The fruit of Argentina's vineyards must
be one of the world's best-kept secrets. You'll find the wines here infinitely
quaffable -- and an excellent value. (We'll include wine (our treat) with
each lunch and dinner included on the tour.)
We'll head back to the hotel in the late afternoon and enjoy an evening
cocktail reception. Dinner is on your own this evening, and you'll find a
wide selection of excellent restaurants and cafes within walking distance
of the hotel.
Let the Dance Begin
The next day we'll have our first morning tango lesson -- and then the
rest of the day is yours to do with as you like.
We'll meet up again in the evening for dinner and a tango show.
The rest of our days in Argentina will follow much the same pattern --
dance lessons in the mornings, lunch and the afternoons on your own for
you to relax, shop, explore, and then evening activities.
Plus Evening Milongas, Wine Tasting,
Cooking Lessons, and More…
We'll head out each night to "milongueando" on the town --
dance and watch the tango at local, traditional spots -- the places where
the tango was born.
In addition, one night we'll enjoy a special dinner and wine tasting with
Andres Rosberg, the president of the Argentine Sommelier Association.
Here Andres Rosberg, Argentina's premier sommelier, will host a special wine
tasting for us. His opinions are regularly published in national media,
both in Argentina and abroad, including Argentina's most important food
and wine magazine, Cuisine & Vins, the internationally respected Wine
Spectator, and others in South America and Asia. He runs a weekly wine column
on a local TV channel and is co-host of Buena Cepa, a radio wine magazine
broadcast weekly. With Andres, you are guaranteed an enjoyable evening spent
learning about and sampling Argentina's wines in the company of an expert
you'd never meet on your own.
We've also asked a long-standing contact of ours in Buenos Aires -- Paul
Reynolds of Reynolds Properties -- to meet one afternoon with anyone who
is interested in real estate here. You'll find good-value properties on
offer. And, if you're anything like the participants we traveled here
in the past, you'll fall in love with this elegant city. Paul will give
a quick crash-course in the real-estate market in Buenos Aires (and beyond)
and arrange to take anyone who's interested to see properties on offer.
We've Taken Care of Every Detail
"A highlight of the trip? The small restaurant where
an oval plate, 12 inches long, filled with French fries, salad, and a small
steak cost $2.25. My carafe of wine cost more -- a mere $2.40. It was about
a block down from the hotel. The waiter doesn't speak English there, but
for that price it is worth playing charades and pointing a lot! There are
lots of places like that… I just didn't have the time to try them
because we went to wonderful restaurants with you."
-- Olivia S.
Throughout the program, an excellent breakfast is included every day and
yours to have at your leisure. Most dinners are included as well. Plus, of
course, the many extras I've mentioned.
We've taken care of every detail so you can simply come, relax, and enjoy.
We've designed this program to provide same care and attention we would show
our own invited guests, and you'll sense that. This is no cookie-cutter "tourist" trip.
It's a private introduction to the heart and soul of Argentina.
We have room for only 18 people, so you'll never feel you're being herded
about. Quite the contrary, in fact. There's lots of free time in the schedule
for you to do your own thing. Yet at the same time, you are sure to enjoy
the company of a small group of like-minded travelers.
The price for this extraordinary journey is just $2,997 per person, based
on double-occupancy. The single-supplement is $400. That includes International
airfare from Miami, Houston or Dallas, your transfers to and from the airport,
seven nights' accommodation,, all breakfasts, 2 lunches, a cocktail reception,
four dinners, a fun and entertaining cooking and Tango night, a professionally
guided city tour, a trip to a fabulous antiques market, a lesson in wines
with a tasting, two hours of tango lessons each morning, and excursions to
Milongas to dance.
I assure you, this trip will be a relaxing, enjoyable, luxurious week, unlike
anything you could arrange on your own. Come, please. You're invited to be
our guests.
To reserve your place, call (800) 926-6575.
Sincerely,
Barbara Perriello,
Director, Opportunity Travel
 P.S. Because we can only accommodate 18 guests, and because we've already
had such an enthusiastic response to this program, I expect it to fill
up quickly. So if you're interested in nine extraordinary days of tango,
good foods, and fine wines -- all enjoyed from a luxurious base in the
heart of Buenos Aires' ritziest neighborhood -- then click Register Today
below or call (800) 926-6575 to save your spot before you miss out.
P.P.S. I should mention, too, that this is an excellent time to travel to
Argentina. You'll find extremely good values wherever you go. Tango shoes
that would go for $100 here at home sell for $50. Some women on our trip
last October filled entire suitcases with them. The handmade leather goods
proved a hot item as well and bargain handbags, shoes, and jackets found
their way back to the States as well. And you can eat like royalty for the
price of a mediocre meal back home. You'll sit down to a gourmet dinner with
a glorious steak (cooked perfectly) and endless bottles of wine, and not
spend more than $30 per person. I stopped in a little diner-cafe and enjoyed
an excellent lunch (with wine) for $5.00. To save your spot for this trip,
call (800) 926-6575.
Day-by-Day
Itinerary
Argentina Tango Tour
Buenos Aires ~ April 28 - May 7, 2007
Day 1 -- Depart USA on an evening flight
out of Dallas or Miami or Houston.
Day 2 -- Arrive in Buenos Aires and
our tour operator on the ground will pick you up at the airport and
take you to the Mansion Royale Dandi in San Telmo, where we'll be
based. We'll drop out bags, freshen up, and enjoy breakfast before
heading out for a guided city tour and an excellent lunch at one
of the famed steak houses. In the afternoon, we'll return to the
hotel, check in, relax, and then gather for an evening cocktail reception
with plenty of food. B,L, D
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A City that Smells of Roses
We began our days with tango lessons and spent the afternoons
embarking on the many adventures the city offers. We wandered
down Florida Street, window shopping along the way... stopping
in the Galerias Pacífico to ogle the merchandise and
the architecture. We visited museums and plazas filled with
native Incan and Patagonian handcrafted items of leather, silver,
and wood.
We immersed ourselves in the rhythm of Buenos Aires, a city
that smells of roses, delighting in the French and Spanish
architecture. We challenged our taste buds with the Argentine
herbs in churros and empanadas, staples in a land where beef
is king. And always we listened to the cacophony of happy Porteños,
natives of Buenos Aires, talking around us. All week, we felt
alive with the warm touch of a people generous with their hugs
and kisses.
-- Olivia Skorky, Participant in our Tango Tour 2004
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Day 3 -- Breakfast at the hotel, morning
tango lessons and then enjoy lunch together before going shopping
for shoes and leather. B, L.
Day 4 -- Breakfast at the hotel,
morning tango lessons and then lunch on your own. The afternoon is
free for you to do as you like. We'll enjoy dinner as a group and
be treated to a wine tasting led by Andres Rosberg, one of Argentina's
premier sommeliers. Then we'll head out to milongueando on
the town. (Every night, you're invited to attend a different milonga --
the traditional places where tango and milonga are danced. We
have prepared a selection of our favorite places for dancing and
watching -- not tourist sites!) B,D.
Day 5 -- Breakfast at the hotel,
followed by a full city tour. The afternoon is free for you
to do as you like, we can set up a private Tango session. We'll
have dinner together at Piazzola Tango, where we’ll will enjoy and
incredible Tango show. B, D.
Day 6 -- Breakfast at the hotel
and then a morning free for you to shop, visit a museum, tour the
nearby cemetery where Eva Peron is buried, or simply relax. Lunch
is on your own, and then we'll have an afternoon tango class today.
After class, you're invited to attend an afternoon milonga at
a beautiful historic building. Dinner is on your own tonight. B.
Day 7 -- Breakfast at the hotel, morning
tango lessons, and then lunch on your own. The afternoon is free
for you to do as you like. This evening will be very special as we’ve
arranged to have dinner and dancing in one of the private residences
in Buenos Aires. We will even learn how to cook a bit with
some lessons from our chef. B, D,
Day 8 -- Enjoy breakfast at the
hotel at your leisure. The morning is free to do as you like. We
will have our final Tango session in the afternoon followed by our
farewell dinner and then out for our final milonga. B, D.
Day 9 -- Enjoy breakfast at the hotel
at your leisure. Then this day is free for you to do as you like.
Shop, visit the cultural center, museums, or simply take a stroll
and relax. We'll have an evening flight home to the States. B.
Day 10 -- Arrive home in the States.
Extend Your Stay: If you want to extend
your stay to visit Iguazu Falls, southern Argentina, or the Mendoza
wine region, please let us know and we can assist you with these arrangements.
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Pricing
and What's Included
Argentina Tango Tour
Buenos Aires ~ April 28 - May 7, 2007
Price: $2,997 per-person, based on double-occupancy
Single-Supplement: $400
Includes:
This program includes International Airfare from Miami, Houston,
or Dallas and transfers to and from the airport, 7 nights' accommodation,
all breakfasts, 2 lunches, a cocktail reception, 4 dinners, a professionally
guided city tour including a trip to a fabulous antiques market,
a lesson in wines with a tasting (led by one of Argentina's premier
sommeliers), two hours of tango lessons on 5 days, and excursions
each evening to milongas to dance.
Protect Your Investment:
We strongly suggest you protect your investment by purchasing
trip-cancellation insurance, and we would be happy to recommend
a policy to you. Please ask us about it when you call to register.
Cancellation Policy:
The tour is completely non-refundable. If you cancel due to medical
reasons that are covered by your purchased travel-insurance policy,
we will advise the insurance company that your travel and conference
or tour fees are non-refundable.
CLICK
HERE for our full TERMS AND CONDITIONS |
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