June 9, 2003
There isnīt much to tell about the following Monday as we spent most of the day in a bus - or so it seemed. We woke up late (at 11!), and spent most of the following hour getting us and our stuff ready to go. We then went down, payed, left our luggage behind the counter and took Mika across the street to look at some cute puppies in a pet store. They had some darlying basset hounds and I reminded Mike of how we said weīd get a basset hound some day. He had forgotten completely. We returned to the hotel and sat around for a while waiting for Betiana.
Once she arrived we headed to a restaurant close by and had a nice, simple lunch. I talked more with Betiana about her plans and her views, though of course, much of the time was consumed by Michaela (it always is). After lunch we got out luggage and took a taxi to the bus station, where I procured a couple of bus tickets for La Plata leaving at 2:15 PM:
While we waited for the bus to arrive, I bought Milk and a couple of drinks for the journey. Woo, how exciting. The bus, as most buses in Argentina, was on time and we started our journey to La Plata.
The bus journey was all in all pretty good. We were sitting upstairs again, though these time we didnīt get the confy coche camas. Still, there were plenty of empty seats, so Mike and I could spread out over two seats each. Mike took a couple of naps with Mika, and I spent quite a bit of time reading my book about the wives of the disappeared. I hadnīt given much thought before at how difficult it must have been for them and had no clue how ostracized they feel. Many talk about how much social recognition is given to the mothers and even children of the disappeared, while nothing is given to them, as if the links between a husband and wife were somewhat looser and softer than those between mother and child. I will certainly be thinking more on what we can do for these women.
We got to La Plata after dark and headed back to the hotel were weīve been staying, the Howard Johnson Corregidor. Itīs kind of expensive, but itīs very confy, nicely located and, more importantly, has internet. So here we are :) As youīd expect, I immediately called Gladys and we agreed that weīd pick up dinner and join her.
We stopped at a store selling pies and empanadas, where we got a bunch of different things and then went to Gladysīs. We had a good dinner together (though Mika, again, didnīt eat much), told her about our trip and so on. We left rather late, came back to the hotel, and I put Mika to sleep while Mike came down and blogged. He was here for a LOOOONG time, and even when he returned he couldnīt go back to sleep, so he stayed up very late. Poor baby.
And speaking of that, Iīve been here for over 1 hour, I should go and check how my babies are doing. Ta ta.
Posted by mike at June 11, 2003 04:42 PM