So we haven't finished packing or all of the other things we need to do. Oh well.
I’m Margarita. I’m 34 years old (that many? already?!) and was born in La Plata, Argentina. I’ve lived in the US for the last 20 years, most of them in the San Francisco Bay Area. I studied Egyptian Archaeology and Law, and I am a human rights activist. I’ve been married to Mike for 10 years and we have a beautiful daughter, Michaela (“Mika”).
Mike is 35, he is American and an Air-Force brat. He lived in several places in the US and England, before going to college at Berkeley (where we met). He is a network security engineer and a happy dad.
Mika is 13-months old, not-yet (but very-soon) a walker, a wonderful girl with a very happy disposition who is not shy to show what she wants by loudly screaming.
I fell in love with traveling when I was a kid, growing up in Argentina. In this vast, mostly flat country, with good roads and services, car trips where de rigeur and my family was very much into packing the car and hitting the road. My parents took me in such a trip to Mar del Plata when I was only 9-months old, and many more trips of the sort followed. The ones I most remember are to Mendoza, when I was 5, to Bariloche and the Patagonia at 8, Tandil and Ayacucho, for the "Calf Festival" at 9, Uruguay and Brazil at 10 and Iguazu Falls at 11. These were intersected by weeks at the beaches in San Clemente del Tuyú, Villa Gezel and Mar del Plata.
When we came to America things changed quite a bit. We didn't have much money and my sister was in dyalisis, which made traveling difficult. Still, we did manage a trip to San Diego and Tijuana and a few to Disneyland ☺
My love of traveling resumed when I had the opportunity of taking a year abroad during college. My major was Egyptian Archaeology, so I predictably decided to go to Egypt. My parents very generously offered to pay for a week in Europe on my way to Egypt, but I figured that money would buy me six weeks in the Middle East so I went off to Syria and Jordan instead. I was 20 and this was my first trip alone and as a budget traveler. It was scary at first - I remember crying on the plane from Paris to Damascus, knowing that I was getting there late at night, I spoke no Arabic and had no idea how I'd get to town - but soon I became a traveling aficionado. Knowing that I could negotiate my way around a very foreign country was extremely liberating.
That year, I traveled throughout Egypt (though I never made it to the Oasis), and spent some time in Greece and Turkey as well. I went back to college, and the following summer I got a gig with the now defunct Berkeley Guides writing the Yucatan chapter for their new Mexico guide. I got to spend 11 weeks traveling throughout the peninsula and had a blast (though also discovered that traveling solo, specially when you are working, can be quite lonely).
Time went by and I re-acquainted myself with Mike, we were soon going out and it didn't take long before we got married. Mike had traveled a little bit on his own as well. He'd been an Air Force brat and he lived in England until he was 8. His mother took him throughout Europe when he was little, but he doesn't remember anything of the trip (I, on the other hand, have vivid memories of my trip to Mendoza at 5). The summer after his freshman year in college, he went to visit his dad who was stationed in England again, and traveled quite a bit throughout England and Europe. However, other hobbies (motorcycling, parachuting) had become much more important to him than traveling. That was about to change.
We had our honeymoon in Guatemala and started a tradition of going abroad almost every year. As Mike was working and usually he didn't get more than 2 or 3 weeks of vacation, our trips were of necessity short, which meant that usually we moved very fast. We spent our first anniversary in Spain, where Mike joined me after my solo sojourn to Morocco, and discovered the wonders of the Basque country and Basque cuisine and the delights of the Andaluzian sun (specially, after the wind and rain pushed us out of San Sebastian). The following year, we did an apartment exchange with a French travel writer from Paris, and got to pretend to be Parisians for a month. Every morning we went to the boulangerie for bread and pastries, before walking to the metro and in a discovery adventure of yet another part of the city. We did a few day-trips to other parts of France (wine-tasting in Beaune was a particular favorite) and in all had an unforgetable experience.
Later trips were sometimes linked to "work" related issues. I did an internship in Lima one summer, and then Mike joined me for a trip to some of the most interesting sights of Peru (Nazca, the Puno and Cuzco regions, Trujillo and Chan-Chan). Another summer, we had a fateful trip to Nicaragua (we got mugged!) after I did a 2-week course in San Jose Costa Rica. I also spent a couple of weeks in Ecuador, and got to see a little bit of Italy (mostly Rome, Milan & San Remo), Geneva, Germany (Nuremberg), Holland (The Hague & Amsterdam) and Rwanda, while attending conferences there.
We also got to visit our "pet" countries. Mike had been interested in Cambodia since he had work in the Amnesty International South-East Asian co-group in college, and we finally go to go there after I graduated law school. We visited the amazing ruins around Angkor Wat and the terrifying remains of the Khmer Rouge regime in Phnom Phen, and then spent a week hanging out at the beach in Ko Chang, Thailand, followed by a few days of shopping in Bangkok.
I had always wanted to go to India, and in 2001 I decided to take a sabbatical from work and hit the sub-continent. I spent about a month and a half traveling by myself through Northern India (including Sikkim and Kashmir) before Mike joined me for a trip to Rajasthan. I didn't like India very much, but Mike loved it. It was good that I did the trip then, though, as a few months after we came back I got pregnant - and India is not a place where I would take a small child.
Our most "unusual" trip, was probably the cruise we took to Alaska, 6-days aboard the mega-ship Vision of the Seas. To our amazement (we are budget travelers after all) we had a great time. The food was good, the ship huge and interesting, and the knowledge that we didn't have to do anything (no searching for hotels, restaurants, sights) but hung out extremely relaxing. I certainly want to take another cruise again.
And this puts us here. All these trips were done while we were childless. But now there are three of us. Our beautiful daughter Michaela Libertad was born April 1st, 2002. We have the whole traveling thing down when it's just the two of us, but how will it be traveling with a baby? Stay tuned.
We are about to embark in a 6-week trip through Argentina with our 13-months-old daughter, Michaela (“Mika”). We are going to Argentina primarily because I want my 85-year-old favorite aunt to meet Michaela. My aunt has been asking me to have a kid for years, and she’s extremely happy that Michaela was born. Of course, she is greatly looking forward to meet her.
I also want Mike to see the country, and I want to reacquaint myself with Argentina. Go back to the places I visited as a child, feel the pulse in the veins of my country, figure out ... I don’t know what, something.
This trip is going to be a bit different from our usual ones. First of all, because we are seeing relatives, we are going to spend time in places we wouldn’t otherwise have gone: La Plata (my home city) and Mar del Plata (where my cousins live, a wonderful town but best enjoyed in summer). Still, most of our time will be spent as tourists in Buenos Aires, Bariloche, El Calafate, Ushuahia and the Iguazu Falls.
We are also significantly changing how we travel. If we were traveling on our own, or if Mika was older, we would probably travel mostly by bus. It would give us an opportunity to see the vast pampas and the arid Patagonia and go to out-of-the-way places. However, I don’t think a child Mika’s age can or should sit in a bus (or a car, for that matter) for long periods of time. She needs to move around, crawl (or walk if she’s that old), explore and so forth. We are therefore going to fly from place to place, and try to keep bus journeys to a minimum (there will have to be some, however, and you’ll be able to read how we fare in them here).
We are also likely to be more conservative in what types of local transportation we take. We are already planning on taking a remis (a type of taxi) from the airport, rather than a minivan or, the much cheaper public buses. We’ll probably rely more on remises than we would if we were traveling without her.
As backpackers, we usually stay in the cheapest available hotels (though during our last trip to India, we tried the luxury of staying in havelis). This time, we’ll be aiming for the 3-star, “family” hotels that abound in Argentina. For one, we want to make sure the place we stay is safe, we are willing to take risks by ourselves that we are not with our baby. Secondly, we need a refrigerator (even if it’s a mini-fridge) in our room, so we can keep Mika’s milk cold. Thirdly, we need places that offer double or queen-size beds, as we co-sleep with Mika. And finally, Argentina is cheap for us right now, so why not?
Rather than staying for a night or two in a town, and then go off to the next, we are planning to stay in several major cities, and go day-tripping from there. The locations in Argentina lend themselves to that, but we also figure that this will be easier on Michaela, as being always on the go can be terribly tiring for both babies and adults.
Where we go will also be affected by the fact that we have a kid. No trekking for us this year (it’ll be too cold in Patagonia anyway), and probably no tango-shows in Buenos Aires or plays in the Colon. We will go to special children attractions (zoos, parks, the Children’s Republic near La Plata) and probably sprinkle our strolls with stops at different plazas for a visit to the swings or the slides. That, at least, is what we plan. Come and join us.
I decided to start this travel blog because I think our experiences traveling with 13-months-old Michaela can be of great relevance to many new parents or parents-to-be. It's very usual to find in travel or parenting-related bulletin boards, messages from anxious travelers who wonder if their traveling days are over now that they have children. Usually they are reassured by more experienced parent-travelers, but I think is one thing to be told that it's going to be OK, and another to see what it's really like.
Of course, every trip is different, just as every person and eery child is different, but I think that whatever we learn in this upcoming trip can be potentially useful to other sets of parents.
Enjoy!
Preparations for the Trip/Gear
Since I started thinking about this trip, in August or September of last year, I've been trying to figure out what gear to take with us. This is not an easy decision, as I want to make the trip as comfortable and safe for all of us. This means, I want to be able to carry all the stuff we need ourselves, but not do without important stuff.
I figured I needed to take 3 main pieces of equipment: a car seat (for taxi rides), a stroller (to walk around town) and a backpack (for hikes). I thought long and hard about whether I did indeed need both a stroller AND a backpack, after all, they have a similar function, take the baby around. However, they each have their own big advantages. The great thing about a stroller is that it allows the baby to sleep comfortably. This means that we can continue sight-seeing without having to worry about getting Mika back to the hotel so she can take a nap. It's true that babies can fall asleep in a backpack (Mika has already), but I can't imagine that it's very comfortable (it looks horrible) or that she is getting the good quality sleep she needs in one. Strollers, however, are can be hard to use when going hiking and can be hard to maneuver in small spaces.
Carrying three pieces of equipment can be rather daunting, so I researched the possibility of getting some two-in-one items. There are no car seat/stroller/backpacks combinations that I could find, but there is a car-seat/stroller and backpacks with wheels. In both cases, however, I decided against them. The Sit n'Stroll combination car-seat/stroller had a couple of serious problems. For one, it seats very low to the ground, and I didn't like the idea of Michaela being so close to the sidewalk. More importantly, it has really small wheels and friends from Buenos Aires recommended that I use a stroller with large wheels, given the sorry state of Buenos Aires sidewalks.
The combination stroller/backpacks had the same problems vis a vis small wheels. In addition, I couldn't find one that would recline so as to make sleeping on it comfortable.
I decided, reluctantly, that I would lug all three. The stroller we had was a full-size one, and I figured it'd be better to buy a smaller, lighter, umbrella stroller. My requirements were that it had large wheels and that it reclined almost fully. I settled on the Peg Pérego Pliko Trek stroller. I liked that it could fit an infant car seat (at that time, Michaela was still using an infant seat) and that it stood by itself. It's proven to be a great stroller all along. It has a wonderful rain shield, so I use it whenever it rains. I've already taken it in two short trips, and I was amazed as to how much stuff I could carry on it. It's expensive, but I've been very happy with it.
We just got the backpack, and we settled on the Evenflo Trail Blazer. We'll have to see how it works in action, but I liked it because it was very light, well padded and came with a sun/rain shield. Fortunately for us, it fits quite well on the handles of the stroller, so that we don't have to figure out how else to transport it.
The car seat was the most difficult choice. It would not have been a problem if we had gone to Argentina last Novembre (when Mika was 7 months old) as originally planned. We could take her infant seat/baby carrier, which nicely fit into the stroller. She has, however, long outgrown it and the regular toddler car seats are HUGE. Not only that, but they are uncomfortable to carry and they don't fit in the stroller. We figured that taking one is a nightmare. What I decided to do is take the Cosco Tot n' Go, a portable car seat that weighs only 4 lbs. Now, this seat hasn't gotten very good reviews, but I figure (I hope) that it will be better than nothing. I will, of course, write about how it works in reality.
Other than this gear we are taking one large suitcase on wheels and a little backpack. We may abandon one or the other in La Plata before we go to other parts of Argentina.
I'm planning to take two bags in the plane. One is the small diaper bag that I got from Similac when I gave birth. I figure it was free, so if I lose it it's no big deal. I'm planning to put the usual diaper bag stuff: a diaper pad, diapers, wipes, a towel, two changes of clothing for the baby and one for us (I'm hoping that both of us won't have to change our clothing!), as well as coolants, 2 or 3 bottles of milk and snacks (cheerios and some more sinful things like cookies, in case we really need to bribe her). I'm also taking orajel, children's tylenol and a decongestant (the poor thing has a cold :(. The other bag is a small backpack that zips into the larger backpack we're taking. That one I'm filling with toys and magazines for Mike and I.
The only other special preparations I've done for this trip (that I wouldn't have done for another one) is making a hotel reservation at our first stop (La Plata). While it probably wasn't necessary, I found a great rate in Expedia that I couldn't pass up. Other than that I've done the usual - read Lonely Planet, check out the thorntree and ask questions there, look at websites on travel in Argentina and check out potential hotels in other parts of the country. I decided to wait until I'm actually in Argentina to make the plane and other reservations as prices seem to be lower there.
Wish us luck!
It's the day before departure. I've spent most of the morning cleaning up the house so it's more or less clean for the house sitters. I still have more cleaning/packing/instruction writing to do, but I think it's all doable within a day. If, indeed, we are leaving tomorrow.
I called the airline earlier today and they said my reservation had been cancelled. It seemed that our travel agency had never ticketed and had let the reservation expired! This even though Mike called and gave them our cc#.
We're waiting now to hear from the travel agency again with a new confirmation number. But until I call United and find out if I'm indeed in the plane, I'm going to be a nervous wreck.
It's midnight. I've been cleaning up & getting ready all day. It's surprisingly difficult to get ready with a child. You just have to turn your back for a second and the area you just cleaned is a mess again. It sounds funny but it can become very frustrating, specially when you are in a hurry.
I wanted to give the housesitters a somewhat clean house, I think I've more or less succeeded. Then again, my standards now are pretty low.
But it's midnight and Mike still has a lot to do to get ready. That means he'll stay up half the night and I'll have to take care of Mika in the plane tomorrow. Fun, fun, fun.
I've read over and over that the most useful thing for traveling with a toddler is being well rested - that obviously is not going to happen.
At least it seems that we are going to travel.
Anyway, nighty night.