June 8, 2003
Once again itīs Margarita blogging. Itīs our last night in Argentina, and I hope between Mike and I we can finish the blog. Hey, we are only 5 days behind.
As it has become our MO, Sunday morning we woke up quite late, Connie la Vaquita was on TV which meant that it had to be close to 11 AM. Connie la Vaquita is a very cute cartoon on Discovery Kids, the channel that shows all the PBS children shows in Latin America. We wonder where itīs from originally, the names of many of the producers-writers seem to be Eastern European, though who knows, maybe they are Catalan. Anyway, Mika doesnīt care much for it yet, she is much more interested in shows that have puppets or children. So far she digs Barney, the Tele Tubbies, Sesame Street and Elmoīs World. I donīt know if Mike has blogged about it, but we only discovered Elmoīs World after we came to Argentina. I imagine they must have it in the US, though probably on cable. Anyway, she knows and likes Elmo.
We did our morning stuff and then headed out, once again skipping breakfast as it was so late. We decided to head to the flea market on Plaza Rocha. On the street we met with Marina (she lives about 1/2 block away from the hotel) who told us her mom was making meat empanadas for dinner that night. My aunt had sworn she had retired from the kitchen, but I guess she made an exception for us.
The flea market was small but pretty cool. There were a number of small stands selling real flea market stuff, semi-antiquities, old books and magazines, knick knacks and old coins. Mike was amused by a Pope bottle opener, while I favored a street sign saying that by municipal order it was forbidden to spit on the sidewalks (there should be more of those signs around, specially in the US). We imagine that e-bay hasnīt arrived to Argentina, or at least Mar del Plata, as otherwise it would be selling for more online. In any case, we didnīt find anything we couldnīt do without though Mike bought an old Argentine coin for A$5. He likes coins, he buys those stupid, over-priced proofs whenever he can get away with it, but this time he restrained himself.
We then took Mika to the middle of the plaza where there was a statue of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a former Argentine president and the ĻteacherĻ par excellence. Why there was a statue of him in Plaza Rocha (presumably named for our first president) will remain a mystery, but the plaza was divided in several sections, so perhaps that was the Sarmiento section.
Mika played a bit on the steps and did some walking. She had been walking more and more since we left Iguazu, but in Mar del Plata she really started doing more walking than crawling. Pretty cool and about time! Sheīs almost 14 1/2 months after all. She gave her first steps about 2 months ago and I really donīt understand why itīs taken her so long to walk altogether, I heard most kids go from their first steps to walking in just a few days. Oh well, I guess we have a unique child.
After a while we decided to head back and have lunch as we were getting hungry. We first tried going into a tenedor libre but it was full and there was a 20 minute wait, so we ended up in a nice restaurant in front of the plaza. Mike had the house specialty, some kind of white fish baked with spinach (or actually acelga, a spinach-like vegetable that is often substituted for spinach here, supposedly because itīs much easier to clean) and a white sauce, he really liked it. I had scallopini a la marsala, which has become my de facto dish of choice in the last couple of weeks. Iīm actually tired of so many steaks and vacio and crave different flavors. Plus the marsala sauce is really good, Iīm going to try to make it when I go back home.
Mika behaved herself well enough in the restaurant, though as usual, as she gets more tired, she becomes more restless and more difficult to control. While itīs wonderful how patient Argentines are with children at restaurants, Iīm tired of eating out with her. Eventually she wants to get out and go walk around, and then sheīs bound to get on someoneīs way. Ágain, Iīm looking forward to going back home, cooking and eating at home.
We finished lunch very close to the time we were supposed to meet my family, so we hurried out stopping at a bakery for sandwiches de miga. They didnīt have as many as I wanted of the types I wanted, but I was able to get a good selection. Later, when we ate them, I was happy to hear that my cousins really liked them.
At my auntīs apartment we met with my aunt and both my cousins Marina and Betiana. We decided to go to the port to see the sea lions, and there we headed. It was a long bus ride, but allowed us to see some of the ritzier parts of Mar del Plata, I can only imagine how much some of those houses cost.
The stroll through the puerto was a little bit rough as there wasnīt a sidewalk all the way and we had to go underneath a broken wire mesh in order to reach the sea lions, but it wasnīt too bad. We started seeing single sea lions almost from the start, lying quietly below between the docked boats, but werenīt really prepared for the sight of dozens of sea lions right on the sidewalk!
First of all, you have to realize that these animals are HUGE. They are not the small, seal-like sea lions we saw in Ushuahia, no sir. These things are enormous, and kind of fierce looking. They also smell horribly! I canīt imagine how they can stand their own stench.
We were able to get within a couple of feet of them (well, we could have gotten even closer, but we are not /that/ stupid), which Mike and I found cool, my aunts and cousins found disgusting and Mika found terrifying. She actually started crying when we approached them! This is the second time she shows this type of fear, the first one was when we saw the exhibit of animatronic sea monsters at the Buenos Aires Zoo. For some reason Mika seems to be instinctually afraid of large sea animals! She has no problems with elephants, rhinos or other large land animals, and I can only wonder where this phobia comes from. Maybe she was a seal in another life.
With time Mika got used to the sea lions and eventually she stopped crying. We were able to take a couple of pictures with her and Mike close to them, which of course weīll post in the future.
After seeing the sea lions we headed back home and Mike and I went with Betiana to see her apartment while Beatriz went to pick up the sandwiches that we had left at her house. We then all met at Maritoīs new apartment, which is nice, large and heīs turned into a real bachelor pad (save for a pink bathroom). He barely had chairs for everyone (and only because Marina hadnīt come with us), and didnīt have more than one tea cup, so we ended up having tea in his 3 beer mugs. Just like a guy!
Again we had a great time talking and so forth, and we continued on the conversation at Beatrizī house while she prepared the empanadas. My aunt and uncle are social workers who have worked with former prisoners and people on probation for several decades, and furthermore my aunt works in a school in the slums, so it was great to get their perspective on what type of alternative punishments work or donīt work, and what it will take to get people out of the slums.
The empanadas were great as was the camaraderie and it was really hard to say goodbye to all of them. My aunt remarked how Michaela wonīt be this little, cool baby when she sees her again, and this reminded me once again of how I missed all of Betianaīs childhood (I left when she was about 4). Itīs sad to see how quickly time goes by.
So we went back home, making plans to see Betiana for lunch the next day, and I talked with the hotel owner about letting us stay in the hotel until noon the next day (I knew weīd wake up late). We went to sleep and another day was over.
Posted by mike at June 11, 2003 04:27 PM