Portenos are known to party hard from Thursday night until the wee hours of Sunday morning. I decided to check out the night life for myself to see what everyone was staying up for...
It's ten o'clock on Saturday night and my first stop after having dinner with my homestay family is Jazz & Pop in Microcentro (downtown) to see my World Music professor, Juan Raffo, jam with his band from years ago called "El Guevo". The door is left slightly ajar by a man smoking outside and music wafts out enticingly into the street. Winding stairs lead us down towards a small darkened room where umbrellas line the ceiling above the band (for acoustics perhaps?) and the people seated at the small dining tables surrounding the stage are packed tightly together to make room for the burgeoning crowd. And here I thought we were early?! During the break I chat with other students who have come to see our professor in action to see what their plans are after the show. Apparently, we are all headed to the same place...
El Guevo plays until about midnight and we climb the stairs to the street level to hail a few taxis to barrio Balvanera where Jacob & Jared from our group live in a shared apartment with other international students. Their landlord hosts two large parties every year...this evening being one of them. After passing the door to their building the first time, I ring the doorbell and a young man peers at me through the glass. I ask if Jacob and Jared live there..."Cuantos?", he says without pause. I know I've only had one glass of wine, but did he just ask me how many? He opens the door and asks me again,"Cuantos?" I look at the group of people I had behind me and say,"Seis." He steps aside and nods his head towards the top of the stairs.
And wow...rooms surround an open air square patio where the majority of the people are milling about with drinks and cigarettes in hand. Music is playing somewhere in the background but conversations in various languages subdue it. Chatting it up with students visiting from Colombia, Germany, Switzerland, France and local portenos hanging out on a Saturday night, I find myself not wanting to leave. Around 2:30am my roomie, Romina, warns me the clubs stop accepting people after 3am. I do the rounds to bid people farewell then go downstairs with my group to hail a taxi to Crobar, a boliche (dance club) in Palermo.
The Buenos Aires electronica scene is alive and well and Crobar is one of its most popular spots. Two hours of dancing and my feet need a rest. It's 5am and my group heads out...for a little snack. A vendor outside of the club is selling hamburgers, superpanchos and choripan. I leaned against a concrete divider on the side of the road waiting for them to finish. We then ventured towards the main street to hail a cab...
Going to bed as the sun started to rise that Sunday morning, I realized the porteno night life is a true religion...one I was not ready to commit to.
Photos courtesy of DK
Left: the crowd at Crobar at 3am
Right top: David, me, Romina still fresh at 3am on the Crobar dance floor
Right bottom: David, Sarah C, Sarah A, and Crystal at Jazz & Pop
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