At some point you start wondering just how the old milongueros do it. How do they ‘keep it up’ all night – so to speak – especially if they are still working during the day. I realize a passion, an obsession, can be extremely motivating but the body just can’t physically endure extended periods of sleepless nights, nicotine, alcohol, a heavy diet and dancing.

I’ll tell you how they do it: cocaine.

“It’s so cheap here,” my American friend said, “For 50 pesos I can buy enough coke to last me from Friday’s milonga until Tuesday’s milonga.” A recent Tuesday night’s milonga, for this organizer, happened to be 12 hours long. That’s a lot of work. Already suffering from a heart condition and a myriad of other health problems including a current sinus infection, he was in no shape to be going out that night. But having a (perceived) responsibility to others is one of the only things that keeps him going these days. A combination of cocaine, fernet and cola, nicotine and sheer determination got him through one more night – and a good time was had by all.

How many times a night do those milongueros get up from their seat at the bar to go to the bathroom? Prostate problems? Maybe that too. One milonguero telling me some of these stories excused himself from the table three times during the four hour dinner party we attended.

In the past month the tango world has lost two well known milongueros. One was only 46. Both had pre-existing heart conditions. Both had ‘nose problems’. Both died doing what they loved to do best – by cocaine-induced myocardio-infarctions.

My dear American friend almost died once from a heart attack and had a close call a year later. With several stents keeping the physical gateways to his heart open, he still experiences pain regularly and doesn’t receive enough oxygen rich blood to his heart at times. Still, he insists on getting a regular burst of ‘feel good’ to keep him going at the speed that he’s used to. Cocaine (along with everything else considered an unhealthy lifesytle) constricts his already compromised blood vessels. It’s just a matter of time (and one more bife de chorizo) before he just shuts down completely.

Already having surpassed his expected life span by over a dozen years, my friend is lucky to have had the time he’s had. I’ve been fortunate to share some of that with him. “I just want to make it until 2012″, he tells me, “I want to see how it all goes down – at the end of the Mayan calendar.” I hope he makes it that far.

One more night, one more milonga, one more tanda. Live hard and fast, tango on.