We had a short nap and then dressed up and found our taxi to go to the Colon Theatre. The taxi was pretty reasonably priced which kept our days budget nicely in check.
At the Colon theatre we stood around and ignored the stares of the very well dressed locals at our jeans and bright warm jackets approach. Once the crowd started moving, we waved our tickets under the nose of a few guards until they pointed us in the correct direction to our door. We did not buy the expensive tickets and so the door steward said to us "join the queue to take the elevator to the fifth floor.. Or you can take the stairs (snigger)"... We looked at the stairs go up and up and up and took the elevator instead.
We finally got the correct entrance to the "nose-bleeds" seats and took our places in the steep dark close rows. And then noticed the massive room we were in.
Wow.
The Colon Theatre is something out of a movie. Glittering lights and a huge chandelier and Gold gilding and curly patterns on the plaster, paintings of scenes and famous actors, opera boxes with individual privacy curtains (a mild R1000 per seat).
The place was completed in 1908 and my assumption is that the economy of Argentina was doing very well at that time to build such an ornate theatre. The outside even has tall roman columns and marble stairs and fancy pants window grills.
After everyone was squashed into the cheap seats and everyone else glided into their expensive seats and the prohibited surreptitious photographs taken, the orchestra warmed up and La Sulphide - the ballet began.
We were very very impressed. The costumes were amazing and the dancers, world class. We enjoyed the first act of the show very very much besides our cramped and tired legs... But by the second act I was feeling the stuffy air and the warmth of my many layers and my eyes started to flicker closed. i confess I did not follow much of the second act. But i understand the dancing was on par with the excellence of the first act. Culminating with the tragic end of the hero and the wood nymph and the victory of the wicked witch.
After the show, feeling very cultured, we wandered from the theatre and flagged a taxi. Back at our room we kinda fell into bed and left the packing for the morning.
After 3 hours of sleep, we leaped out of bed and ran around crazy throwing our stuff into our luggage and checking and rechecking for things lost and trying to figure out how much to wear for potentially climbing off the flight in -5 degree weather.
Now we are at our boarding gate and hour early after a snack of AR$25 coffee and AR$5 croissant. We are hoping to see the Andes mountains as we fly towards El Calafate. And perhaps some of the glaciers that we will be visiting tomorrow.
Our flight was moved from this afternoon to this morning so I think we have a free half day once we arrive... Or else half a day to figure out what rather quite very really really really cold actually means.
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