Again, Michaela was the first up and she soon made sure we were both up. While both of us wanted some more sleep, we can't get mad when Michaela wakes up in a good mood and is so playful. We ended up missing breakfast, which ended at 10am.
We went to a travel agency to make our arrangements for our trip to Iguazu, where a great waterfall is situated in the north of Argentina near the border with Brazil. Michaela got noisy and cranky, so I left the agency and walked around with Michaela in the nearby shopping area. Michaela loves being in places with lots of people and things to see. She points at things she sees, waves to people, and generally has a good time. We basically walked around the block after stopping in a few stores to window shop and at a newstand to see if I could find some Spanish comic books to read to her. It seemed like I was gone a long time, but when I returned, Margarita was still making arrangements.
After the travel agency, we returned to the hotel briefly before we thought we would make our way to see Gladys for lunch. Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling well, so we agreed to meet later in the day for tea. Meanwhile, I took care of exchanging money, but by the time I was ready, the agency was closed, as it is everyday between 12:30 and 3:30. And most businesses seem to close for some period of time in the middle of the day as well. As a tourist, I find this very annoying.
Meanwhile Michaela had fallen asleep soon after we returned to the hotel from the travel agency. After Michaela woke up from her nap at about 2pm, we made our way out of the hotel and looked around for a place to eat lunch. Unfortunately, the place across the street was closed, so we made our way to where we had eaten lunch with Gladys when we first arrived in La Plata. Margarita had a steak sandwich and I had a milanesa. Michaela ate little, but she is finally getting good at drinking water through a straw. Earlier, she would end end up coughing as she sucked water into her lungs or spit out a bunch of water, but she's doing both of those a lot less these days.
After lunch, we made our way to Margarita's former elementary school. It occupied an entire block and the building nearly occupied one entire block. In the area where there was no building, there were chain-link fences topped with barbed wire. Most of the windows were covered with bars (oh the thoughts of a fire....) and all of the outside areas of the building are covered with graffiti. Of course, I took a couple of pictures of Margarita outside the school. Elementary school children at public schools wear white smocks in Argentina. The teachers wear them as well. To me, it looks like everyone is in a lab, which is the only place I remember wearing a smock in school. Margarita didn't seem interested in going into the school, which I wanted to, even suggesting that some of the same teachers are probably still there, 20+ years later. So we continued walking around the school. At one end was where the really young children were located. Unlike the older kids, the girls wore pink smocks while the boys wore blue smocks. I find it hard to believe that such things are still the norm, especially in a country where a woman was one of the candidates for president (so what if she was a commie).
As we were walking away from the school, Margarita got in an argument and she headed to the hotel, while I headed to the travel agency to pay for the tickets. Unfortunately, something wasn`t ready, so I agreed to come back at about 5:30. Then I basically walked around until it was time for tea with Gladys. As I approached her apartment, Margarita and Michaela re-appeared and we both met Gladys for tea. We had sandwiches de miga, which I find very amusing. They remind me of sandwiches that parents make for their small children, with the crust of the bread cut off. They consist of buttered pieces of white bread (no crust) with cheese or ham and cheese. They are good - I like them, but it would be nice to have some more variety: mustard, perhaps mayo, different cheeses, etc....but so far every time I have had them they have been pretty much the same. It is the most consistent food I have had in Argentina.
Since we have been visiting with Gladys quite frequently, Michaela is finally comfortable with her. She will go to Gladys, let Gladys help her walk, and even let Gladys pick her up. Today, and in the last day or so, we have noticed that Michaela is spending more and more time on her feet - rather than crawling around. She is getting better and more confident with her abilities and today twice made walks of about 7 steps. Five steps are no problem at all. I predicted she would be walking by the time we left Argentina - we're getting close. Michaela is also getting much more confident in her climbing abilities and is trying them out all over the place. Trying (and succeeding) in climbing onto the bed, and trying to climb onto and up pretty much anything. Margarita and I joke that we are merely objects to climb onto or to use to climb onto other things - which is pretty much how our cats see us as well.
After tea, I went to pay for the travel arrangements, which included not only the tickets, but the hotel and transportation to and from the airport in Iguazu, which is nice. Since breakfast and dinner are included in the price of the hotel, we only need to pay for lunch and transportation to and from the falls. If we get robbed, we can still have a decent trip :-) I came back with the arrangements and then we arranged for a taxi to take us to the Aeroparque airport tomorrow. We also found out from the TV that Alfredo Bravo had died. Very sad. He was an Argentine legislator well-known for his support of human rights and president of the Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos (Permanent Assembly for Human Rights).
We headed home too full to eat dinner and Michaela was sleepy by this time anyway, so we are calling it a night.
Tommorow we head off to Iguazu.
Chau.
Posted by mike at May 26, 2003 08:46 PM