My Photos

Liz and Christy in front of the Obelisco.One where you can actually see them!
Bridge into Colonia, Uruguay. This town was adorable and charming and lovely, a great place to spend a day relaxing.
Baskets in front of a store in Colonia.
We three at the top of the lighthouse. Actually we went all the way to the top, this was just a stop in the middle. At the top they asked to see our tickets. ???Did they think we snuck up there???
In front of a statue in town.
Typical street in Colonia.
My favorite shot!!! On the docks in Colonia.
Street corner in Colonia.
Cars on the street. The first one has actually been converted to a table and you can eat in it, it is parked in front of a restaurant. The other one is, um, a planter?
Yay for Uruguay!

Liz's Pics

Liz and Christy on the plane on the way to Buenos Aires. Their flight was delayed 11 hours. Once they got there we were ready to party!!!
Liz and Christy in front of the Obelisco, the landmark in the center of the city. We were about to go into the Confiteria Ideal to watch tango dancers.
Liz and Christy experiencing the Subte. It's hot down there and a little smelly, but the best way to get around town.
Here we are at the Plaza de Mayo. Behind us is the Casa Rosada, or main government building, famous for it's rosy hue.
We also visited El Caminito in La Boca, a street famous for the colorful houses. Now it's a giant tourist attraction. The area of La Boca, or the mouth, is called that because it is the port at the mouth of the river. It is also home to a million tchotchky shops and we saw them all.
Then we went to Uruguay on the Buquebus! We are so excited!!!
Here we are at the top of the lighthouse in Colonia. It was really high up there!
The lighthouse with the ruins around it. Beautiful!
Colonia from the top of the lighthouse.
It was a tough climb to the top, and dizzying on the way down!
At the end of the day it started to rain, and was raining really hard by the time we needed to rush back to the ferry. We were drenched, as you can see, and I got totally yelled at by the customs official. My ticket had been ripped by the guys on the way over and she scolded me, telling Liz and Christy that it was "Horrible!" that I had a ripped ticket, then gave me the look of death. And we were soaking wet! I guess the manners stop at the Argentine border!

Christy's Photos

So here we are on Sunday, the day after Liz and Christy arrived. We went for a mate in the park to celebrate their arrival and give our feet a break. We were walking everywhere and the girls weren't used to it! They tried mate, a strong tea drunk out of a special cup with a metal straw, and ate facturas, or little cookies ad sweets. Davin joined us and we cooled down for about an hour before hitting Plaza Serrano for a little more shopping. Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Parliament house and sight of many political protests. I think this is an awesome picture.
On our way to the Recoleta cemetery for a tour, we saw this dog walker. There are roughly 15 dogs here. They walked down the street and it looked like a sea of dogs coming toward us. At the light they all just dropped, exhausted.
To cool off from the ubelievable heat of Buenos Aires we decided to find a pool and take a swim. We found one at a hotel in Microcentro. It cost us 25 pesos. We arrived at 6 pm. The pool was the size of a hot tub, there was no sun, and by the time we left we were in the middle of a thunderstorm!
I got talked into taking a dip, but to get all the way under we had to bend out knees. That's right, the pool was about 4 feet deep. Hilarious!
At the Recoleta Cemetery we were able to catch a free English tour with this girl as our tourguide. She was hilarious and such a character!
We headed to Uruguay one day and were out on the docks when it started to rain.
At the cemetery
Christy before eating lunch in Uruguay. Behind her is the River Plata which we crossed by ferry. It is an interesting brown color and eventually flows to the Atlantic Ocean.

100th Blog

A is for Argentina, alfajores, Anna, Amanda, the Abasto, Alto Palermo, ABS, Atento

B is for Boludo, Bolivar, Boca, Beliches, broken sidewalks, Bossa Marley

C is for Carajo!, colectivos, Chinos, Café con leche, Coto, El Caminito, cucarachas, chinchulines, choto, choclo, Corrientes, Córdoba, Concha y Toro, Colon, Che

D is for Despedidas, Davin, dancing, driving like maniacs, DesNivel, Depilación (profundo y más profundo!)

E is for Empanadas (especially the dancing ones!), Evita, El Calafate

F is for Fiestas, fried food, (papas) fritas, fart smell on the subte, fútbol, frutilla, Fernet

G is for Guanacos, Gardelito, Gancia

H is for Hot and Humid, humitas, Helado, Havana

I is for Intercambios

J is for Jumbo, Juanes, Johanna

K is for Kirchner, Kayaking, Kea

L is for Levi, locutorios, El Lamámbre, Linea D, lightning storms, Lumfardo

M is for Mate, Manolos, milanesas, Malbec, Maradona, Miranda!, Mendoza, Munchi's

N is for Nicaragua (and Thames, our first address), Nueve de Julio

O is for Oliva (y balsamico, the only type of salad dressing)

P is for Patagonia, peatonals, Palermo, Puerto Madero, parillas, poo! (on the sidewalks...), plazas Italia, Serrano, de Mayo, piqueteros, palta, Persicco

Q is for Queso (fundido y de maquina)

R is for River, Recoleta

S is for Saturdays in the park, San Telmo, steak, Subte rides, the 60, Santa Fe

T is for Taxis-insane, death-defying taxis-, Tango, Tempranillo

U is for Ushuaia, umbrellas

V is for Vanessa, Vino Tinto, Veinte Cinco (25) de Mayo

W is for Wind (Patagonia), the WB, wine

X is for Xalapa (best Mexican food!)

Y is for yarnerias, Yesica

Z is for zapatos, zapatillo

The Visit

So Liz and Christy arrived 11 hours later than expected, but we get down to business in no time flat. We dropped off the bags, changed and headed out around 2 AM Saturday night (Sunday morning!) for a few drinks in Palermo. We stopped first at a bar in Palermo Hollywood, just a few blocks from our new place, then headed over the tracks to another bar in Plaza Serrano where we were approached by a guy wanting to be in Liz's photo with us, then to have us email it to him, telling us all this while still holding the squeegee he was using to wash car windows at the red lights... So we sat down to people watch, because it was like insanely busy at now three in the morning, and met another guy who chatted us up for a bit then went off to find his friends. Around 5, after a long day of travel etc. we headed home.

The next day we went to the fairs at Recoleta and Palermo, where they bought a few things to bring home, had some mate in the park with my friend Davin, and at night went out to dinner and met up with friends at Manolo's, our favorite parilla, for steak. It was great. Next day was a shopping day. We went to Cumana for lunch, where they met my friends Nic and Julieta, then we wandered down Santa Fe street to 9 de Julio, then down Lavalle to Calle Florida where we finally stopped for cod drinks before heading to Plaza de Mayo to see the Casa Rosada and catch the subte back home. On the way we stopped at the Jumbo, which is our new closest sumpermarket, picked up the makings of tacos and headed home. We walked in and Levi was just finishing making the meat for tacos. Without talking all day we had separately gone and bought the exact same things for dinner. Isn't that weird? Total ESP.

Yesterday we went to a tour of the Recoleta Cemetery where we took a free english tour. Our tourguide was a really funny girl who is a psychologist but wants to be an actress. Or, Liz thinks, maybe an underwear model, as her skirt was too big and falling down, and her underwear were way up on her stomach sticking way out and giving us all quite a show! Anyhow she was a real character, called everyone by the place they were from, and when the three of us slowed down for a minute to rest on a bench she stopped the tour and came and got us so that we wouldn't miss anything!

Then we headed to La Boca where we walked down the Caminito, saw the colorful buildings, looked in every tchotchky shop then headed back to Palermo on a 64 bus. Liz and Christy had a really good time, they were amazed by the recklessness of the drivers and wondered out loud what people who get carsick do in this city! Then we went home to rest before heading to Xapala, our favorite Mexican restaurant, where we proceeded to laugh hysterically and have one of the best nights yet, making quite a scene for our fellow restaurant-goers! Then we went to Confiteria Ideal where we watched a tango show, listened to a tango band and coveted some glittery shoes one of the dancers wore before crashing out for the night.

Today we have been taking it easy, slept in and had a late lunch and are about to head to a pool for a little swim and laying out. Tomorrow we are going to Uruguay for a day trip to Colonia, which should be really fun. It is crazy to me that I live somewhere where I could take a day trip to Uruguay, but there you go. Another stamp in the passport and adventure for the four of us. I can't believe it's already almost Thursday and the girls leave Friday night, this week has flown by! Still, it's not over yet and I will have pics to put up very soon! In the meantime we are just trying to stay cool (it has been unbelievable hot here), relaxing and catching up on the last six months. Will update again later this week, in my Centennial Blog, the 100th posting of Alexis in Argentina!!!

Mendoza Pics and Highlights

So we are finishing up our stay in Mendoza, and we have to say that by far this was our least favorite place. The food was, in general, awful, (I got a very hairy lamb-we are talking clumps, people- the other day) the city was kinda boring, and in general we were not overly impressed with the place. That being said, we did manage to make our own fun. One day we went to the water park, where they supposedly had thermal spas. This actually meant very dirty, tepid water that lots of people crammed into. But, what the hell, we joined them.The water park in Cacheuta. That water? Yeah. Not hot.
Levi liked the foliage.
I don't like this blogger sometimes, it took me five tries to get this picture up, then it put it up twice, and now it won't let me erase it!
Foxy
Again, the program...ugh! Anyway for Valentine's Day we went on a tour of a couple of bodegas, and this is from the second place we went wine tasting, totally out of order...more in a sec.
Levi enjoying a super pancho at the thermal spas. I took a bite...Newsflash: it's a hot dog.
Mendoza is known for its wine, especially the production of Malbec which can be found in bountiful plentitude throughout Argentina. There are 960 wineries in Mendoza, and 114,000 hectares of vineyards, but, get this, not 1 wine bar in all of the city where you can actually try the wine! See why we were, like, not impressed by Mendoza? I mean, come on!!!
Levi showing off his wine tasting skills. "I smell a hint of chocolate, maybe some cinnamon, and, could that be raspberry? Or tobacco?"
Wine
Fruit crusher-blender thing
Wine in the tasting room
Very important lady here, the one we all pray to for good crops and decent wine. This is the Virgin of the vineyards.
Last but not least we ended our Valentine's Day with a romantic dinner, and halfway through the power went out, so we had a really romantic dinner by candlelight. Ah Mendoza...
So this wraps up our trip (sigh). As we tried to pay for our room today, where we owed 600 pesos, the lady insisted-insisted-that we only owed 500 pesos, even after we got out the calendar, explained that she had miscalculated and counted on our fingers. She finally got out the receipt and wrote in giant letters PAGADO and underlined it, would not take our money, so I guess they are having an unadvertised promotion, stay 5 nights get the 6th one free??? Crazy. Last night kicked off the big yearly festival so we got to see that, lots of beauty queens wearing their crowns hoping to be named Miss Mendoza 2006, lots of booths with food and crafts, but, again, not more than 2 with wine. Isn't that nuts? The mayor needs a trip to Napa or something, see what they should be doing... Overall the whole thing has been amazing, we have seen so much, met so many people, tried so many new things and even found a new favorite animal! We are definitely ready to be back in Buenos Aires,though, with a home and a closet, not just a backpack that has this smell...you can't describe it but you can't get rid of it either. We have had many adventures and I am ready to start on a new one soon, but after a little rest. In a few days Liz and Christy will be here, and I can't wait to have them visit, then it's back to work. Well, all good things must come to an end, but for me this was definitley a great adventure and for Levi, hopefully the start of a lot more adventures and travel.

For your viewing pleasure...

This was the sunrise as we came into Mendoza. Wow!The next trip we take we want to be with this company, which we pronounce "Dumb-Ass Cat."
Our favorite children's store...
Soda for women?
From the rafting trip, a girl from the other raft, Renato, Miguel, me. Miguel was the one I didn't save. Levi and me at the end of the raft trip.
Me, Anna, Lisa and a lady they met.
The infamous beer I owed at the end of the rafting trip.