Well, it's very strange - it seems like an age that we've been here (ChCh seems so far away!), and yet it only feels like moments since we arrived. I'm sure that in two and a half weeks we should have

1. been to every milonga

2. tried out different teachers and picked some that suit us

3. learnt the most fashionable new moves

4. bought three pairs of news shoes each

5. booked a tango show to come back to ChCh with us

Alas! There seems to have been a time vortex, or maybe we were abducted by aliens on the plane; we've ticked off none of the above listed items. We're so crap!

Although in A's defence, she is two-thirds of the way to her three pairs of new shoes. For my own part, I have bought a pair, but they're not even dancing shoes!

But feeling stunned and overwhelmed (and I'm feeling rather confused, coz I never know quite what's going on - must really learn some more spanish (I have been watching the Simpsons in spanish; that's gotta help)).

We've been to a few milongas, but are still recoiling a little from early bad experience - one of the first nights we went out, the first milonga was clearly for those Porteños who are both retired and single. It was more like Bingo night than Tango night.

I was happy to watch the dancing - they all danced with the 'milonguero' rhythm that P taught when she came to ChCh. Unfortunately A felt like we were wearing a neon sign that said "tourists who don't know what they're doing". Admittedly, during the one tanda we danced, every eye I happened to glance at was looking straight back at me. So we beat a hasty retreat and tried another milonga. Unfortunately, the floor was at about 120% capacity and I was just starting to slip into a strange delirium that turned out to be sunstroke, which smote me down for about four days. That'll teach me for getting up on 2 hours' sleep and walking around in the sun all day.

We've met J at another milonga, and he's been full of handy tips. But so far nobody's been interested in dancing with either of us, which is a relief to me, until I get some crowded-dancefloor skills, but A's getting a bit sick of it, so we've decided we need to find some tango-buddies, so that A doesn't have to sit at a table by herself to get asked to dance (she can sit with her lady tango friend), and we can get the low-down on classes, milongas, etc.

From what I've seen in the milonga's so far, you see some nice stuff, but all of the worst dancing I've seen anywhere happens here too, and worse. Just about everybody is back-stepping, people are trying out their big sweepy moves. Basically for me it's the same as anywhere, you quickly learn who's your friend and who's your enemy on the dancefloor. The difference is that in NZ, I always had one tango enemy on the dancefloor. In Baires, there are five or six, and half as much room to escape.

Outfits vary quite alot too, from cargo pants and sandals to skimpy sparkly little dresses. There seems to be a thing at the moment for thin white pants and really dark underwear (?!).

Other than tango, we've done a bit of trudging around the city, gaping at grandiose architecture, trying to figure out how to eat (it's difficult to buy anything other than steak and chips here), where to eat (in one confiteria, we accidentally sat in the dessert section of the restaurant - spot the ignorant foreigners!), when to eat, how to speak (got a looong way to go on that), how to travel hither and thither - I quite like the rustic underground system they've got here - wooden carriages with open windows, 70 centavos a ride. It gives Antoinette the shits.

Unfortunately taxis give us both the shits - while they do paint lines on the road, the real lanes seem to be the subject of constant personal negotiation between drivers, who communicate with each other with a complicated system of horn toots, light flashes, eye contact, and the occasional sign of the cross. Buses we may try one day, when we're both feeling alert and courageous.

Anyway tonight we're trying another milonga - La Viruta - J particularly recommended that we don't go to this one, so it should be interesting. We've finally got our hands on BA Tango and another tango magazine (el tangauta), so we're getting to grips with what's coming up - there are some milongas with Color Tango playing, Los Hermanos Macana dancing (the two guys who dance together), and Gavito - A wants to go to workshops with him, but I'm not so sure - he looks like a dirty old man to me.