While walking around in Buenos Aires, I encountered many tango street performances. It's always great to watch such great shows for a few pesos donation. I did not have too much time while there to take extensive tango lessons, but I did try it a couple of times in my hostels.. the basic steps and beat isn't too bad.. but I am sure combining them together to look gracious is a whole another story :)
While I was in Lima, Lia took me to a Pena Show - a traditional show featuring the culture, dances and different costumes from all the different parts of Peru. I really enjoyed the show and the dances. At the end of the show, the MC went around and asked people where they were from and got representatives from each country present in the crowd on stage and got everybody a flag of their country.. but of course they would not have one for Mauritius.. Then, he asked to perform a dance featuring their traditional culture !! I told them that we don't dance in Mauritius.. but he insisted and got me to dance to some Brasilian tunes on stage :)
Cholita Wrestling is very famous and popular event in Bolivia. The modern day use of the name Chola and Cholita in Bolivia applies to women dressed in traditional clothing which includes a massive skirt with petticoats, a blouse and shawl or blanket all topped off with a bowler hat. Usually you won't expect these traditional women to be wrestling with each other and/or with men, but that's what Cholita Wrestling is about.
They have special seats and tickets for tourists in the front seats, but it's very popular with locals too and the stadium was very packed. It happens every Sunday in El Alto and is WILD !! Same as WWF wrestling, most of it seem pre-staged, but entertaining nonetheless. Difference is that the crowd throws stuff at the wrestlers - orange peels, empty bottles, chicken bones, fruits, popcorn, etc..But, the crowd also takes a hit. The wrestlers don't hesitate to come at the crowd, throw stuff at the crowd, water, coke, popcorn, whatever they can get their hands on or just forcefully take the crowd's stuff - water/drinks etc... I got a good throw of coke on me while there and stayed sticky the entire time.
Even though I had to work on the 4th of July, I managed to catch some fireworks later that night at the Aquatic park close by the Fisherman's wharf. It was spectacular as usual and they had two exact displays of the fireworks a few hundred metres from each other, one at the Aquatic park and another at Fisherman's wharf, all of it accompanied by a choreagraphed music.
Check out a video I made of the fireworks. Was too big to upload by email to posterous. So had to upload it to flickr separately.
