Carole Edrich Weblog

different rhythms

It's so difficult to understand the Argentine view of time. In Buenos Aires an ‘hora’ is simply an hour, but in the rest of the country an ‘horita’, which translates directly as a ‘little hour’ can be anything including exactly 60 minutes, several hours, or in extreme cases days.

Over lunch at Finca Las Nubes in Cafayate; Salta, Señora Mounier; the Dueña, explained; “It’s not really possible to expect people to arrive at a precise time. Distances here are huge and depending on weather conditions and the state of the road, a journey might take an hour or it might take three. It would be silly for friends to travel for hours to meet us for a meal if they arrived and found out that we had already eaten and there was nothing left. So we have had to adopt a more elastic approach."

Vineyard of Bodega Etchart, Cafayate
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2006

Her explanation makes a kind of sense although I'm sure it's not the whole reason. Argentina is a big country and distances are huge. It's also another culture where its inhabitants unsurprisingly have their own priorities, habits and rhythms.

I’m feeling the difference even more as my time in Argentina draws to a close. Salta, Cafayate and Colomé are spectacular, I’ve been really privileged, have seen so much, have sampled the best wines and food of the country, have met some fascinating and lovely people and what I’d like to do now is consolidate my notes and rest for a few days. But I can’t. My time in this stunning, wonderful country is running out. With only a few more days left there are still so many people to talk to, so many notes to make and photos to take that I’ll be lucky to fit it all in.

The terrible rain in the North delayed my flight this morning, reporting the theft of my money to the police ran into the late afternoon (it’s a story in itself), and everything overran to such an extent that I completely missed lunch with Alejandra Sagesse of the Panamericano Hotel where I am staying tonight. I wasn’t to discover that Roberto Ferrari had arranged for me to have a tango lesson with the Escuela Argentina de Tango until I had tea with her around 5:00pm.

I was thrilled! I had been so busy trying to fit everything in that Roberto’s promise had entirely slipped my mind. I had originally planned to do a couple of private tango lessons at the end of my time in Argentina, but had accepted that they were not to be after my money was stolen. I had been planning to buy shoes, and when I told Alejandra she arranged for Andy Maroglio; the president of Escuela Argentina de Tango, to take me tango-shoe shopping on the way to my lesson.

An evening lesson at Escuela Argentina de Tango
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2006

Andy is a very interesting character. He runs Escuela Argentina de Tango with his brother Octavio (who manages the day to day stuff) and I hope to write a feature about him and his wife Natalia as they seem to live a very interesting life.

I watched the end of one lesson and started the last lesson of the night but it was very slow and I didn't think I'd learn enough. Since I want to make the most of my present I've arranged to take a lesson tomorrow instead.

Posted by carole at March 31, 2006 07:39 PM