It takes two…

When we had our goodbye party, our family and friends brought many gifts that we could use on our trip. We received so many helpful things that we were also given the advice to get out of our comfort zone every once in a while.

In the zone

So, we went hiking, we went camping, we spent time in tiny villages and we try to have as many conversations in our less than basic Spanish as possible. We work out in parks and order food when we don’t really understand what it is. Still, we feel happy and safely within our comfort zone. I guess it’s just a pretty big zone.

The end of the zone

Then we went to Buenos Aires. We ended up in a beautiful old house with cool housemates and an awesome room. Buenos Aires brought us good coffee, great pastry, amazing grilled meat and besides that, enough people speak English to keep the conversation going when our Spanish runs out. Still, this is the spot where my comfort zone ended. It ended in a Milonga outside the city centre. It ended on a dance floor, while receiving instructions in Spanish on how to tango.

Don’t get me wrong, I like to dance and Thomas does too. But it felt like everybody understood what to do, while we were still stepping on each other’s toes. After the class, the dance night really started. The room quickly filled with great dancers and there was live music.

Our instructor said that this was our chance to practice but to be honest, we felt so intimidated that we just sat, watched and drank beer for the rest of the night. We had a blast looking at the dancers whirl around the room though.

Bye bye zone

So, it was safe to say we chickened out. And we don’t like to be chickens. We gathered our courage and took a second Tango class at a different place, la Catedral, famous for their daily Milongas. We didn’t get any better, but we did get a better understanding of the basics. After a few drinks and some peer pressure we even participated in the dance night. Briefly.

Time to go

Right now, we are in a grubby hostel in Copiapo, Chili. It’s a stop between the awesome city Valpariso and the national park Pan de Azucar, where we are going to camp for four days. We also have new pictures online, of Buenos Aires as well as Valparaiso.
♥ Dagmar