Argentina Travel

To Iguazu

May 27, 2003

We used a remise from La Plata to Aeroparque to catch our flight to Iguazu. We used Gladys' car service and we were driven by a man who has served Gladys for more than 10 years. The car was nice and comfy and the ride was smooth. He pointed out the area of landfill along the way that had been nicely covered by grass. He also noted some of the slums, shantytowns really, that we encountered as we made our way to Buenos Aires. The cost was 45 pesos plus the tolls, which added almost another 5 pesos.

Check-in was smooth and quick, but we were hungry so we caught a bite to eat at the food court at the airport. Meanwhile, Michaela found two young boys to play with and they all had a blast with Michaela chasing them around the tables. However, Margarita had ordered her food much after I did and it took much longer to prepare. By the time she received her food, it was time to leave, so she rushed and brought along her sandwich to security. Along the way, we noticed a children's play area in a store. Next time we'll make sure to arrive with more time so Michaela can play.

As usual, we boarded a bus at the gate to take us to the plane, where we boarded from the tarmac via a ramp. The flight lasted just over 1.5 hours. It was uneventful. Margarita had plenty of rest so she was awake for all of the flight, which made her a little bit more of a handful, but not much. As we approached Iguazu, I saw large plumes of smoke rising from fires on the ground and plenty of agricultural land. It was apparent that a lot of land that had been jungle was no longer. The approach to the airport was somewhat strange with what seemed like a sharp descent near the end. The airport was relatively new and we de-planed via a jetway. At the airport we were met by an omnibus to take us to the hotel (Orquiades Palace). As part of our travel arrangements, we had already paid for the hotel and transportation to and from the Iguazu airport.

On the way to the airport, I saw our first jungle wildlife. Unfortunately, it was roadkill on the side of the road and could not be identified. The first part of the road from the airport to the hotel was a relatively narrow two-lane road with fairly dense forest on either side. We arrived at the hotel, checked-in and dropped off our stuff in the room. It was a good hotel - nothing special, but dinner and breakfast were included and it had a game room and a pool.

Our first excursion was to town for milk since we were out and needed some soon for Michaela. We called for a taxi just to take us to a supermarket in Puerto Iguazu. The hotel was outside Puerto Iguazu, between the town and Iguazu Falls. At the supermarket, Margarita picked up cookies, sodas, and some alfajores while Michaela waved and smiled at a group of girls sitting on nearby stairs as she and I waited in the car with the driver. The driver returned us to the hotel for just 10 pesos.

Since it was still light out, but late enough that we didn't want to pay to go and get into Iguazu Falls National Park, we asked the hotel for recommendations and they suggested Güira Oga, a facility that cares for injured birds, which was a short walk from the hotel. So off we went with Michaela in the backpack to Güira Oga, the entrance to which was indeed very close to the hotel. The dirt road leading back to the entrance was about 750 meters and made for a very nice walk. Michaela fell asleep in the backpack along the way.

The entrance fee was a nominal 2 or 3 pesos per person. We spotted a wild monkey (barely) on the way in. We ended up joining a tour in progress just as they were headed for the area where eagles and falcons were recuperating. The eagles were kept in the open with a foot tethered to the ground via a stand, where each of them were perched. They were magnificent. From the crested eagles to the solitary eagles, they were all beautful birds. Unfortunately, there were some German tourists who just had to have some close-up pictures and despite the verbal warnings from the staff, they ventured too close and upset some of the birds. There were also a couple of peregrine falcons.

We met an Argentine guy of Japanese descent and his relatives visiting from Yokohama, Japan who were, of course, enchanted with Michaela, and especially her nickname, Mika, which means (if I remember correctly) beautiful in Japanese. There were lots and lots of other birds, most of which I don't recall, but most of which were very beautiful and interesting. Michaela showed great interest in those that moved or made noise. They also had a howler monkey, which was recuperating from a fight with another monkey that has made the area its home after its recovery at the facility. There was also another howler monkey outside the cage that appeared to be wild but we later learned had been rehabilitated at the facility. The parrots and macaws were Michaela's favorites, as they made lots and lots of noise and were very brightly colored.

As we ended the tour, a capuchin monkey appeared on the roof of the office, jumped to nearby sign and then to the ground before walking off, showing no fear of or interest in us. Michaela paid lots of attention to it. Before we started to leave, we bought a pin and made a donation of 20 pesos to support their work. As we left a young girl and boy showed up barefoot carrying a pot full of freshly-made facturas, so we bought a few at 25 cents each to enjoy as we walked back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, we checked out the pool, which was plenty large but there were lots of bugs in it and it was kind of cold. When Michaela saw a nearby cat, she motioned at it and made loud noise indicating she wanted to get close to it, so I picked her up and off we went. Unfortunately, the cat wanted nothing to do with us and off it went.

We stopped by the game room to play a game of pool since we could leave Michaela crawling around in the enclosed and relatively empty room. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the light switch so we had go to the front desk. They sent one of their staff to a small closet, where he turned on the lights. Then we checked out the tables, neither of which were in excellent condition and decided to use the one nearest the door. We put in one peso and then found that two balls were missing. The staff again helped by grabbing one ball from the other table and a cue ball. The cue sticks were missing the soft parts that you chalk and hit the ball with so I knew that the game would be long as neither Marga nor I are good players, plus the table and sticks were bad. Oh well. Michaela had fun, especially when Mauro's mom brought Mauro by and they played together for a while. Michaela also had a blast chasing a moth around that kept low to the ground and kept landing on the floor.

While waiting for dinner, which began at 8pm, Michaela met Mauro again, a 15-month old little boy and they had a fabulous time together with lots of playing and Michaela beginning to walk more and more. Before we began this trip, I predicted Michaela would be walking by the end of it, and she has certainly progressed while we've been here. Dinner was a buffet with lots of things Michaela could eat herself, like bread, shredded carrots, etc. It was nothing special, but it was included with the hotel, which was good, since it would have been a pain to go somewhere else to eat. Before dinner was over, Michaela was crawling around on the floor following Mauro, who could walk. As usual, everybody was very understanding and the staff seemed to enjoy them.

Tomorrow - off to see the falls.

Iguazu Falls in Argentina

May 28, 2003

After a decent breakfast, we waited at the entrance of the hotel for the local bus to the falls. There was a local guy waiting there as well and we asked him to make sure that we were waiting in the right place. We were. We got on the bus and paid 2.8 pesos each for the ride to the falls. Note: Spanish has multiple words for waterfalls: cascada for a smaller waterfall and cataratas for bigger waterfalls. Cataratas de Iguazu is where we were headed. The ride headed back in the direction of the airport until we turned left towards the falls. The bus stopped at the entrance of the park, where we had to pay to enter the national park: 30 pesos for foreigners like me and just 12 pesos for Argentines. Other national parks were 18 pesos for foreigners, so Argentina is milking foreigners at Iguazu. There were also different rates for Mercosur residents, residents of Misiones province and residents of Puerto Iguazu. After we paid, the bus continued on to the visitors center and dropped us off.

Margarita has visited Iguazu many years ago - more than 20. Previously, making the way from the entrance of the park to Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat) was a long arduous walk with lots of climbing and stairs. Now there is a train.

After showing that we paid, we walked towards the train station as we had decided to see Devil's Throat first. Michaela was safely in the backpack. After a navigational error by me and some additional walking, we got on the train and made our way to the first stop, where we had to get off and wait for another train to Devil's Throat. The train was a small scale train that sounded like it had a truck motor. The passenger areas were basically benches and both sides were open, so it was important to hold Michaela at all times. The view of the jungle was nice - especially all of the butterflies. which would occasionally distract Michaela from her desire to get down and move around.

After getting on the next train, we made our way to Devil's Throat. At the stop, the entire train exited and started the trek to the falls. We got Michaela in the backpack and joined them. Right near the train stop and along the path to the falls are many vendors selling handicrafts. There is a better and cheaper place to buy them that I'll tell you about later. Of course, we didn't know that at the time.

The trail to the falls is a series of steel bridges that seems very sturdy. There are no places to exit, but there are places to stop and rest. The path takes you over the numerous rivers and areas of land that separate the train stop from the falls. I don't remember how long it was, but it was an easy walk and could be done in a wheelchair - some people were pushing strollers. Michaela seemed to enjoy the walk, especially the butterflies, but she also wanted to go play in the water. In some of the areas where there was land, there were signs warning visitors about snakes, which were intended to frighten but we thought they were very cute. Besides the butterflies, the only wildlife we saw were some very cool spiders next to the trail.

As we approached the falls, we saw what appeared to be steam rising from an area in front of us, essentially forming what looked like a cloud. This would turn out to be the spray rising up from the bottom of Devil's Throat. The sound of the water also got louder as we approached. I thought it would be louder, though.

When we finally got to the overlook for the falls, we were suitably impressed. The sound was intense and the sight was even more spectacular. At Devil's Throat, imagine the shape of the letter U with water falling down all around the U except where it is open. OK, maybe that's not the best description, but it is really is hard to appreciate it unless you've seen it yourself. Pictures won't do it and I doubt that the video we shot will do it either. It's difficult to see the bottom of the falls because the spray is so dense.

At the overlook, photographers will take pictures of you that you can purchase. This makes sense in a country where many people don't own their own cameras or find it too expensive to develop much film. Anyway, one of the photographers was the same man waiting with us at the bus stop and we agreed to pay him 15 pesos for a picture of us at the falls. He used one of the many ladders at the overlook to get a good shot of us with the falls in the background.

In addition to the spectacular sight and sound of the falls, there were hundreds and hundreds of birds flying around in the spray from the falls to and from their nests, which were right next to or behind the falls.

An area of the overlook was drenched in the spray from the falls and we spent some time there as well, which felt nice, as it was warm enough - even as winter was approaching.

After what seemed like a short period of time, everyone was gone - on their way to catch the train. We didn't know what time it was or what the train schedule was, so we soon found ourselves alone at the overlook. I highly recommend that you don't leave the overlook for the next available train as it will give you a brief period of time at the falls alone (or at least with much less people) - at least it did for us.

Before we made our way back to the train station, we stopped and talked to a group of women, one of whom had a small child not much older than Michaela. They had been in Punto del Este in Paraguay and a group of people had attempted to rob them. Apparently, this is a fairly common thing and they had been warned, so they were not carrying anything valuable. The scenario is this: You are walking along the street and four people approach you - one from each side. One in the front prevents you from going anywhere while the ones on the side clean out your front pockets and the one in back takes care of your back pockets. I heard about this from an American guy from Santa Rosa we met in Calafate as well - but it happened to him in a different Latin American country. He said that the robbers were well-dressed. He didn't report it because he didn't think that his word would be believed against four locals.

Anyway, we made our way back to the train station, but not before we bought a blowgun with two feathered darts for 10 pesos. Later, we would find the same item for half the price. At the train station, I frolicked with Michaela in an area just outside the bathroom where hundreds and hundreds of butterflies were flying around and landing. There were small white butterflies with markings that looked like the number 88, black ones with a line of red at the back, orange ones, ones with beautiful shimmering blue, and many many others. Michaela and I both loved it - Marga filmed some of it. We took a bathroom break and then checked out more butterflies. Some even landed on us. Margarita also spotted a beautiful caterpillar on a nearby tree. The caterpillar had small colored tree-like branches all over it, giving it excellent camouflage.

After giving Michaela some time to walk and crawl around and get the very red dirt ground into her hands and clothes, we grabbed a train back to the middle station where we could begin the circuito inferior, which would take us to the lower areas of the falls. However, everyone was hungry so we stopped at a confiteria for lunch. We had sandwiches, which seemed fairly well-priced considering that we were in a fairly remote national park. However, after we had let Michaela down to walk around, a bug flew onto Margarita's drink and my attempt to swat it away ended up with it completely in her can. Scratch one drink.

We began to make our way to the circuito inferior with a brief and unsuccessful stop to get batteries for the digital camera. Just as we began the trail, there was a sign that tried to warn visitors of the potential for slipping but looked to us like a how-to sign. We took a picture in which I imitated the sign. The trail was fairly easy but there were lots of stairs. I was glad to have Michaela in the backpack as there was no way that a stroller could have been taken on this trail. There was plenty of lookout for the numerous waterfalls. We ended up stopping at a stand where you could arrange for brief (15 minute) boat trips to the base of the falls for 30 pesos or a longer trip that included a trip down the river and a truck ride back to the entrance (Gran Aventura, 70 pesos). Then we continued to the end of the circuito inferior at a lookout right next to a waterfall. This lookout was another opportunity to get wet, but we were in the shade, so neither of us wanted to get very wet. The overlook is near the very middle of a large wall of water. It makes for a great deal of noise and another impressive sight. Here, we ran into the Japanese tourists we enountered at Guira Oga.

We returned to the stand and decided to take the Gran Aventura at 4pm, which would give us time to explore the Isla San Martín. We paid the 140 pesos and made our way down the trail to where we could catch the free boat to the island. It was also the place where we would start the Gran Aventura.

The boat to the island was essentially a ferry service running every 15 minutes or so. We stepped onto the boat and put on life preservers. We noticed some members of the Argentine Naval Prefectura on the boat as well, but they were not wearing life preservers. They were also armed. I pointed this out to Margarita and she asked the staff why we had to wear life preservers and the Naval Prefectura guys didn't. I don't recall what the answer was, but Margarita told them that they weren't setting a good example.

The ride to the island was very short. I let Michaela onto the ground so she could play on the rocky beach while Margarita began the hike up the stairs to the top of the island. Michaela absolutely loved it. She grabbed rocks, threw them down, dug her hands into the rocky beach and had a grand time. After what seemed like a very long time, I put her back into the backpack and began the hike up to meet up with Margarita. Unfortunately, about a fourth of the way up, I miscalculated a low branch and it hit Michaela in the head and scratched her near her left eye. She started crying loudly as I got her out of the backpack as quickly as I could to calm and soothe her. Before too long, we were on our way again - this time preceding with much greater caution. Margarita was waiting at the top and we hiked the short distance to an overlook of the San Martin waterfall, the second largest waterfall of Iguazu. Again, it was an overlook that was drenched with the spray from the wall. This was nearly as impressive as Devil's Throat because here we could actually see the bottom, where the water seemed to bounce back up after it hit the bottom.

We made our way back from the overlook and took the next trail at the top of the island to an area where hundreds of condors (not andean) were resting, fighting, or sunning themselves by spreading their sizable wings in the sun. It was a peaceful place secluded from most of the noise of the surrounding falls and with wonderful areas that beckoned you to jump the barrier into the pools of water. We, of course, didn't. We made our way back on the trail, this time on the side that gave some nice views of Devil's Throat and the surrounding falls. Along the way we saw some lizards that didn't show much fear of us and I wondered if they had gotten used to being fed by visitors.

After making our way back down to the beach, we let Michaela out once again so she could play with the rocks and sand on the beach. Margarita took off her sandals and sat on a rock where she could get her feet wet. I thought Michaela would enjoy that as well so I took off her shoes and socks and handed her to Margarita for a while. We had time, so we didn't take the first available boat back from the island. I grabbed Michaela, dried her feet and put her sock and shoes back on and released her to play among the rocks again. Then we grabbed a boat back and waited for about 20 minutes for our trip to begin.

We grabbed life preservers and one was provided for Michaela as well. We had been told that we would be provided with something to protect us from getting wet, but we weren't. We were, however, given plastic bags into which we could place anything we didn't want to get wet. The bags were relatively small, however, so we couldn't just put our backpack into it - we had to pull out the cameras and clothing we wanted to stay dry. I also put my wallet and some papers into the bags.

We got into the relatively small boat with two other couples. I wanted to sit in the front but the staff said "Not with the baby" because the front of the boat moves up and down alot. There was a video cameraman at the front of the boat, a person controlling the engines and steering, and the guide. The guide provided us with a plastic poncho and helped us to cover most of Michaela. We first headed towards Devil's Throat. We approached some of the falls closely, enough to get a little wet, but nothing too interesting. Then we headed towards the San Martin falls. We headed in twice and made fairly close approaches, but they avoided going in too far because of Micheala. Even so, the boat moved around a lot with all of the water from the falls. After learning this, we said to go all the way in and we did. The woman in front of us screamed. We got drenched. It was fabulous! The boat moved all around, water and noise were intense. Michaela barely fussed at all. Shortly after, she was smiling and clapping. Then we headed back towards Devil's Throat and went right to the base of a waterfall (not Devil's Throat). Again, we were drenched. We did it again. Then we headed down the river skirting the rapids - this was a powerboat - not a raft. Michaela had a great time - she was smiling, clapping, etc. She only fussed a little at the height of bring drenched at the base of the waterfalls.

I highly recommend that you at least spend the 30 pesos to take the 15 minute boat ride to the base of the falls. It was awesome.

The ride down the river was fun, but not as much fun as whitewater rafting. The driver tried to heighten the excitement by making sharp turns and accelerating quickly, but the ride was more relaxing than exciting. At the end of the ride, we were informed that a videotape of the trip was available for 50 pesos. We inquired about the format (PAL/NTSC) and then whether a DVD could be bought. Yes, it turns out, for 90 pesos, we could get a DVD and avoid the whole PAL/NTSC issue. So we said we wanted one and he wrote down our hotel information.

The hike up from the boats to the truck was lengthy and we were last to make it to the top, where we could buy bottled watewr for 2 pesos - and we did. The trucks looked liked old army trucks and were just about as comfortable. There were rows of seats high atop the truck that were reminiscent of something you might use for a safari. The ride was bouncy but Michaela needed to be changed from her wet clothing into the dry clothing we had in the plastic bag. Fortunately, we stopped for a short period of time while the guide explained things. When we were done, the truck started on its way again. The guide showed us the trees from where heart of palm comes from and lots of other things that have already slipped my mind, including the numerous orchids and other plants and trees. The coolest thing I saw was a woodpecker right near the road as we went by. Just traveling through the secondary jungle was nice with vines and luscious vegetation all around.

At the end, we were dropped off at a place near where we could start the circuito superior, which would take us to the top of some of the waterfalls. First, though, I wanted to get batteries, and managed to do so, along with an alfajore for Margarita and some crackers for Michaela. By the time I loaded the batteries into the digital camera, it was nearly 5:30 and the park closed at 6 pm. At a somewhat rushed pace, we were still able to complete the circuito superior to our satisfaction. Along the way, Margarita pointed out a toucan, which was very very cool. I must say that by this time, I was overwhelmed by all the waterfalls and didn't spend as much time looking as they deserved. Michaela too, was tired. As we made our way to the exit, we passed parts of the trail we had just walked that were now closed as the staff tried to get everyone out. Even better, though, was now that it was getting dark, more of the wildlife, at least the toucans, were visible. There were lots and lots of toucans now and we saw many in the distance and about four or five pretty close. Michaela was even able to see them and took great interest in them.

The train was waiting for us and all of the stragglers at the station. We again let Michaela down to walk and crawl around and she, of course, made us nervous as she made her way to and from the train while it was still stationary. When we finally sat down, we briefly saw a cuy (basically a groundhog/guinea pig like thing) before it went back into its burrow. After we got off the train, we began the hike back to the park entrance. We had learned that we could have our tickets marked so that we could come back tomorrow and not pay full price (it was half, I think), so I found the tickets, which had been in my pocket and were now soaked. I made a futile attempt to dry them as we walked back to the entrance. Plenty of others had the same idea as well as we waited as tickets were marked. Because ours were soaked, we had to wait for them to gop to an office, get another piece of paper, and staple everything together.

As we exited, we ran into the photographer who we had agreed to pay for a picture of us at Devil's Throat. He had our picture so we took a look at it and paid the 15 pesos for the 8 x 10-inch picture. It was now dark, so we had to go to the entrance to see the photo.

Then we waited for the bus to return us to the hotel. We checked the schedule and we only had to wait a short time for the bus, which first made its way to píck people up at the Sheraton (which is inside the park). Meanwhile, Michaela found two young Australian kids to play with and I talked with their mother about their flight from Australia. The ride back was 2.8 pesos. As it was now completely dark, I couldn't really tell where we were so when I saw unfamiliar lights at the side of the road, I asked Margarita to ask the driver to stop at the hotel. Our timing was fotuitous because the hotel was only a minute or so away.

After a brief rest, we made our way to the buffet once again. Did I mention that they had deviled eggs each night we were there? They did and they were sooooo good. I love deviled eggs. When Michaela finished dinner, we set her down and she began playing with Mauro again. Later, she and Mauro began playing with Milena, who was about the same age. They all had a blast walking and chasing each other in the lobby of the hotel. Michaela walked a lot but also ended up crawling. Milena and Mauro were pretty strong walkers.

After they played for a while, we headed for the room for a good night's rest - and a trip to the Brazilian side tomorrow.

Iguacu Falls in Brazil

May 29, 2003

We had made arrangements the night before for a taxi to take us across the border to see the Brazilian side of the falls. We were told that it would cost 60 pesos.

So we got up early in the morning and met our driver outside the hotel. On the way to the border, we learned that he hadn't been told about the discussion the previous night and that such travel arrangements usually cost 100 pesos. However, he agreed to abide by the 60 peso price and we made our way to the border. We stopped at the Argentine side and he took our passports and disappeared for a short while. Then he returned, handed us our passports, and off we went again.

We crossed a bridge and breezed past the Brazilian border checkpoint.

Our first stop was another bird facility just outside the entrance to the park. We knew it would be different from the one in Argentina when we saw the ostriches as we parked. Michaela immediately started pointing to them and making noise, so I quickly got her into the backpack and went to the fence by the ostriches. The entrance fee was US$8 (a lot more expensive than the place in Argentina) which we paid with US dollars since we didn't have any Brazilian money. This facility specialized in breeding birds - and not just local varieties. There were all sorts of birds from Australia, Asia, etc. As before the birds that interested Michaela most were those that moved or were loud. Fortunately, there were plenty. The first area was a large open area with parrots in small cages at the side and a variety of birds in the open area, including a toucan that we were able to get very close to. Michaela's head kept moving around as she spotted another flying bird or something else made a noise. We ended up seeing plenty of macaws and parrots (including an African grey), including one that kept saying "Hola." We saw many different kinds of toucans and a variety of pigeons. We also saw a pool of caimans with an island of marmosets. There was also an aviary containing lots of hummingbirds and butterflies. Unfortunately for Michaela, the hummingbirds were difficult to spot and the butterflies weren't that noticeable either. In other aviaries, however, there were toucans flying from side to side, or other birds flying around or making noise. There was an aviary full of macaws and parrots and another aviary with just owls. You could enter nearly all of aviaries, except for the one with owls. There were also fenced areas containing two cassowaries. These are very large and colorful flightless birds (only the ostrich is larger) that immediately bring thoughts of dinosaurs to ones mind because of the large "helmet" on its head. They have large powerful legs and sport a large claw on one of their three toes. A very impressive bird.

At the end of walking through and seeing all the birds, there was a staff person waiting with two macaws that you could hold on your arm. Of course, when I got there, Marga was already holding one on her arm. I did so as well, which got Michaela's attention. I also got to old it while it laid on its back. It was a great experience.

After the bird park, we walked over to the entrance of the park so we wouldn't have to pay for parking. Margarita paid for the tickets (18.50 reals, 15.50 for Mercosur residents) with Argentine pesos, which are essentially equivalent to the real, while I supervised Michaela, who was crawling and walking around.

We got onto a double decker bus with Michaela and me on the top and Marga and the driver on the bottom. While on the bus, there were automated ads describing the food court known as Porto Canoas. It ended with thanks from Cataratas Iguacu SA. It turns out that the Brazilian park is actually a concession or franchise run by a private company. Odd.

When we stopped at the entrance to the trail (and the large hotel), the local coatis were ready. A group of about six met us. Coatis are mammals about the size of raccoons with large bushy tails, long noses and dark fur around their eyes. They are very cute. Although we received many warnings not to feed them and there were signs, it was obvious that they are fed by visitors because they swamped us. They were all over us, sniffing at us and our packs. A woman in front of us kneeled to get a picture and coatis grabbed the plastic bag she was holding that contained an apple. They shredded the plastic until one grabbed the apple and ran off to eat its loot. Other coatis were late to the party, and we saw a bunch more running up the trail to greet us. I had Michaela in the backpack and the sight of all these cute animals thrilled her. Margarita leaned down and soon had coatis opening up our backpack looking for food. I had to forcefully remove one coati's snout from the backpack in order to close the backpack and move on.

After all the commotion, there were probably about two dozen coatis around. Then Margarita motioned to me to look up at the view. Spectacular! From the Brazilian side, we could see nearly all of the falls. While we had been very close to the falls on the Argentine side, we could now see the bigger picture. It is very worthwhile to see the falls from both the Argentine and Brazilian side. We continued along the trail, taking pictures, filming, etc. Then we got an overlook of Devil's Throat where it was obvious we were going to get wet. Margarita had brought a towel to keep Michaela dry, but I thought a plastic poncho (5 reals) would be better. By this time Michaela was asleep and we were hoping she would be able to remain resting. Nope. The spray was too much for her to remain asleep and she cried and fussed as the cold and wet spray enveloped her exposed legs. The view was good and we got a good view of Devil's Throat but the view from Argentina was better.

We left the overlook and were greeted by a sign saying that the elevator was out of service. Wow. An elevator that takes you up to the food court. But alas, we would have to walk, and my calves were sore from having Michaela on my back nearly all day the day before and going up and down stairs. At the top, I was surprised that there was nothing more to see. I asked and the driver confirmed that we had walked the entire trail and seen everything. It wasn't even afternoon yet.

We walked to the food court area where Marga hit the bathroom while I walked towards the water where I could see the Argentina lookout at Devil's Throat. I let Michaela walk and crawl around while we waited for Marga to return and for the bus to get ready to leave. We got back on the bus - this time all on the bottom and headed back for the entrance.

At the entrance, Margarita bought some quick souvenirs while I watched Michaela as she walked and crawled around and the driver went to get the car. On the way from the falls, the driver stopped at a large tourist shop selling all kinds of tourist trap crap. It was all overpriced (we thought) which isn't unexpected because it looked like it catered to tour groups. The staff was nice, grabbing Michaela's hand to help her walk and then (suprising me) picking up Michaela and walking off with her to show to other staff and finally placing her in a stroller. Michaela and I strolled through the floor separately from Marga until Michaela saw the stuff animals. She had to have one. I would hand her a coati and she would then point at another one. She would grab that one as well and then reconsider. What was clear was that she wanted one and we briefly entertained not getting her one because they were 39.5 reals for the large ones. Finally, we decided to get her one, as we were unlikely to find stuffed animal coatis in the US. We gave her a choice of a couple of coatis and she picked one and we bought it with Argentine pesos.

We had told the driver that we wanted to eat lunch at a Brazilian restaurant and he took us to a buffet that catered to tour buses. Oh well. The buffet selection was not too appealing so I was a bit disappointed. What I didn't realize, however, is that the meat is brought to the table. At Argentine buffets, you approach the asador (the man grilling the meat) and ask for what you want. Here, they come to your table and slice off a piece for you. It was very good. However, when they came to the table with a brochette full of chicken hearts, I passed. The bill came to 57.5 for us and the driver (we invited him to lunch) and we paid with Argentine pesos.

We had seen roadside stands selling hammocks and Marga wanted to get one so we stopped on our way back to the border. We looked at some and asked for the price. 95 was the answer. Marga asked the driver for some help with what was a reasonable price as Michaela crawled around. The price came down to 55 after Marga asked him for his lowest price, which we thought was still too high, so we got in the car and began to leave. Then the price came down to 40, which we were willing to pay, although we knew that we probably still paid too much.

On the way back, we arranged with the driver to take us to a local semi-precious stone mine for an additional 50 pesos. The border was no problem and we stopped at the hotel to get milk for Michaela and to change her diaper.

Back in the taxi, we headed for Wanda, where we could tour a local mine. Neither of us had much idea what to expect, but someone we had met had told us about it and how they had given them some free semi-precious stones at the end of the tour. With time to kill, we decided to have a look.

The drive was interrupted by an immigration check much like the immigration checks in the US that occur within a certain distance of the border. Unfortunately, the trip woke up a sleeping Michaela, which ticked me off. Then the check took a long time, so I sent Marga off to find out what was going on. As she headed for the office, the driver and immigration official returned. There was no problem - once they checked the computer to see that we were in the country legally. The driver informed us that there up to 12 similar checkpoints on the road to Buenos Aires because the border area with Brasil and Paraguay is so porous. There were plenty of tree farms along the road as we made our way to Wanda.

There was a big sign clearly showing where to turn onto the dirt road for the mine. It seems to quite a large tourist attraction. Along the road were children selling crystals and rocks as well. The fee for the tour was 2 or 3 pesos each and was very informative. Basically, a family bought the land to farm and one day the woman reached down to pick up something she dropped and cut her hand on a crystal. While she didn't think much about it, her kids did some research and found that some mines had opened in Brazil looking for similar stones, so they decided to start mining it. Basically, the mine is the result of a lava flow from a Brazilian volcano that formed lots of geodes (basically hollow rocks inside which crystals grow). The tour guide told us that they didn't start mining right away because they had no money, but when we saw that all of the mining is done by hand, we wondered why they needed much money at all. They use an air hammer, drill, small explosives, and hand tools. We had expected to see a much more industrial operation, but there were about 4 to 6 people with hand tools - no heavy equipment. At the end of the tour, we were taken into the gift shop where we looked for a suitable earring for me but could only find ones that were very feminine. We spent a lot of time looking around and ended up buying an agate ring for Marga. I paid for the ring with my only Argentine pesos - a 100 peso bill for a 5 peso ring. This caused all sorts of commotion as the staff searched for change, which I found odd, because some of the stuff they were selling was priced at thousands of pesos. While they searched, Michaela and Marga played with a cat that had made its way into the store.

On the way out, we stopped at one of the places with children selling crystals. I wanted some crystal souvenir of our visit for Michaela and me that wasn't too big and I wanted Michaela to be able to crawl and walk around for a while nas well. The crystals the children were selling were cheap...too cheap....and they didn't even have change for a 5 peso bill. Plus, their crystals were too large. I didn't want to haul back a large rock or rocks all the way to the US. Michaela was very interested in the two youngest children who sat nearby but neither said anything to or interacted with her in any way. We ended up leaving, with Michaela crying because she wanted to be walking and crawling - not stuck in the car.

We stopped where the dirt road met the main road at another store selling crystals that I hoped would be cheaper, but ended up being part of the mine. Nevertheless, we looked around, and again, Michaela enchanted the staff. While Marga headed off to another artesan stand, one of the staff pocked up Michaela and played with her. She set her down next to two of those giant cups that are used to drink mate. Michaela promptly crashed one of them onto the floor. The staff said not to worry. Marga returned from the other store and said that they had small crystals that I was looking for. Marga took Michaela while I checked out the other store. I ended up selecting a couple of stones and again, no change was available. So I paid for the three stones with a US$1 and off I went. I found Michaela and Margarita with a guy who had a pet toucan that Michaela was able to touch and feel its beak. Very cool. Except for the toucan, of course.

The drive back to the hotel was uneventful. We paid the driver and gave him some extra and repeated our previous pattern of dinner and then playtime for Michaela with Mauro and Milena.

Tomorrow - to Tres Fronteras, where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet.

Tres Fronteras and back to Buenos Aires

May 30, 2003

After breakfast, we hooked up with two couples - Milena's parents and their relatives from Spain who had a 4-month old baby. We decided to walk with them to La Aripuca, a place that was advertised on the back of the flyer for Güira Oga. The walk was farther than any of had thought and one of the men asked some locals who pointed out the road to the entrance, which was not too far away. Michaela was in the backpack of course, Milena was in an umbrella stroller, and the baby was in a stroller/carriage.

Aripuca is a name for a trap that the local natives use to catch animals and the biggest thing at Aripuca was a huge replica of an aripuca. At the entrance, there was a large tree and next to it was an office built entirely from trees: the doors were hollowed out halves of a tree, the furniture was made from roots, and the walls and everything else was made from unfinished trees. It was very cool. And it only cost a few pesos.

We had already set Michaela down and she was making her way around. We headed outside past a sign showing itemizing the price of yerba mate (the farmer gets .03 out of 2 pesos) to a model of an aripuca. Michaela quickly made her way to the aripuca. I thought she would set it off, but the guide prevented her. From there, we made our way to the other areas: the very large aripuca and the places where we could buy local crafts.

First, we checked out the large aripuca. I helped MIchaela slowly walk over to it and then set her down to play in the dirt. She has learned (I think) not to eat dirt and rocks. Anyway, Milena's mom took Milena out of the stroller and set her down nest to Michaela, and they played together in the dirt. This continued for a while until Milena's father saw his daughter getting dirty, picked her up, and tried to brush off all the dirt. Milena was not happy. She cried for quite a while as Michaela continued to play. I later found out that many things we consider normal for Michaela are considered by Milena's parents to be signs of a problem child.

Remember when I said not buy crafts at Iguazu? The reason why is Aripuca. They have two places to buy handicrafts and they are cheaper than in Iguaza by about 50%. We bought lots of stuff - blow guns, a rattle for Michaela, a little coati and toucan, and some other stuff. We also looked at wooden furniture and more "practical" things but decided against buying the homemade dulce de leche, local jam, or candies. We did however, buy a bag of round bread thingies that had cheese and other stuff in them from a local for 1.5 pesos. Of course, I only had 2 pesos and he didn't have change so I told him to keep the extra. We shared them with the other couples. They were quite hard and at first seemed unappealing but they grew on me. They kept Michaela working her mouth on them for quite a while.

Then we all piled into taxis that had been called for us for a quick trip to Tres Fronteras, where Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil meet. The actual location is in the water, but you can see all countries and the rivers that separate them. There is a monument and a grassy area with benches - along with a line of little stalls selling tourist-oriented goods. This is when I noticed that all of the other couples smoked. It seems that most people in Argentina smoke. Again, I set Michaela down to crawl around and Milena joined her for a while until her dad took her away again. Michaela soon found a cat and was chasing it around the monument area. Fortunately, two women having lunch were feeding the cat, so it was willing to stick around while Michaela grabbed at it and chased it. Margarita spent most of her time talking to Milena's mom as I kept watch over Michaela. On the way out, Margarita stopped to picked up a souvenir and then we were off to lunch at a parilla. We only had an hour so we had to make it quick.

We were first to the restaurant and then were joined by the other couples. Lunch was nice - we had meat (surprise). The other two fathers split a parillada for 4 and the moms had pasta and chicken. After they had finished eating Michaela and Milena spent a lot of time playing with each other at a window that had a full-length curtain. They seemed to love seeing each other intermittently as the curtain moved around. They also chased each other around the restaurant a bit. We had to split early to catch our ride to the airport from the hotel so we bid our farewells and caught the taxi to the hotel.

The bus for the airport was waiting for us at the hotel, so we quickly grabbed our things and got onto the bus. This time, we would be picking up another couple along the way at the Sheraton hotel in Iguazu. Michaela quickly fell asleep along the way in my arms. However, I wanted to check out the view from the Sheraton, so when we stopped, I handed a sleeping Michaela over to Margarita and rushed into the lobby of the hotel to check out the view. It was a spectacular view of the falls. I filmed it with a video camera, in case you're curious. I rushed back into the bus before they were done loading the luggage and we were on our way again.

Things went smoothly at the airport and we had an uneventful flight back to Buenos Aires. We didn't have a hotel for the night at it was kind of late, so Margarita checked prices and availability and found a suite for 100 pesos that included transportation from the airport, so we ended up there for the night. It was close to Avenida 9 de Julio and the hotel we had stayed at previously. As a suite, it had a living room and a full kitchen, which was nice, but it was only available for one night so we would have to move the next morning. Oh well.

Tomorrow - a new hotel and Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires Zoo

May 31, 2003

After a decent breakfast, we packed up all of our stuff and headed for the new hotel. It was owned by the same company but it was a four-star hotel, and we got the same price since they had to move us out, which was nice. They also provided us with transportation. The hotel is on Corrientes less than a block from Avenida 9 de Julio and the obelisk. What a great location! And it is very very nice. It is also a suite with a living room, but the kitchen is just a sink, microwave and fridge. Still, it is very very nice.

Our plan was to hit the zoo and then the Japanese garden so we took a taxi, which left us right at the entrance to the zoo. At the entrance were small ponies and a llama where you could take a little ride or get your picture taken. We didn't. We did, however, buy two comprehensive tickets, which included the aquarium and the monsters of the sea exhibit. When we entered, we first encountered a line of park photographers taking photographs that you could come back later to purchase. Then there were the ducks and geese. They were all over the place expecting you to feed them from the bags of food you could purchase for 2 pesos or the buckets you could get for 6. We first bought a bag and then decided to get a bucket.

We first took a look at the monsters of the sea exhibit. Here, we saw Michaela scared of something for the second time. There was a large sea monster in the dimly lit room that moved a little bit and made some noise. Michaela cried and wanted nothing to do with it, even after Margarita and I showed her that it was harmless. I guess some fear must be instinctual because she had no reason to fear it and has never shown fear of snakes or any other animals. We rushed through the rest of the exhibit as Michaela made clear that she wanted out.

From there, we made our way to the sea lions, which you could also feed, after paying for a box containing fish. Neat idea for a zoo that probably isn't well-funded. Unfortunately, the sea lions didn't have much room to swim around - but they were well-fed. Then into the aquarium, where I set Michaela down since it was free of the bird droppings that plagued most of the open areas of the park that we had seen. She mostly enjoyed watching and listening to the other children and didn't pay much attention to the fish. She did pay some attention to the penguins though. What she did is show so much interest in what one little girl was eating that the girl's mom ended up giving Michaela one of the crackers as well. Very nice of her (she asked me first). This would not be the last time that Michaela managed to beg for and receive food from strangers.

We saw what appeared to be a rented stroller and decided we wanted one too so we rented one near the entrance for 2 pesos. Then we made our way to a pond where there was an island of monkeys and attempted to throw food to them without much success. I think I made one or two and one of the monkeys actaully picked up the food and ate it. Then Michaela led us to the carousel where Margarita took her for a spin for one peso.

After the carousel was another petting zoo with sheep, goats, pigs, and small horses. We had plenty of food and the animals swamped us and Michaela. She was overwhelmed but she seemed more annoyed than scared and had no problems grabbing hold of an animal's head and moving it out of the way. Margarita and I also fed the animals by hand, but once again, some of the more aggresive animals made it less fun that it might otherwise have been. I also fed one of the pigs by hand. Yech, what a mess. One of the goats managed to escape from its enclosure and followed us around for a while.

By this time, Margarita wasn't feeling very well, so we sat down by a tree with a huge base that lots of children were climbing on and set Michaela free. Most of the kids left but one boy who was maybe 3 or 4, kept telling Michaela to follow him, which 1) she didn't understand and 2) she couldn't physically follow him although she tried. Margarita was hungry and wanted to go so we decided to head for the exit. We handed our bucket of animal food to a family that had brought their own lunch with them and they thanked us as we headed out.

We ended up at a nearby tenedor libre (buffet) where we enjoyed an edible lunch for 5.5 pesos each plus drinks. Plus, they had free internet access, but someone was using it the entire time we were there. Michaela had fallen asleep on the way to the restaurant, so I took off the backpack and we decided to stay at the restaurant as long as she was still asleep.

After lunch (a very late lunch), we took a taxi back to the hotel for a brief stop before heading over to a friend of Margarita's for a meeting. However, we had decided that after I met everyone, I would take off with Michaela, so she wouldn't be a distraction. Unfortunately, before we could leave, Michaela began emptying his bookshelves and ended up ripping the cover of one of his books. We apologized profusely and the host assured us not to worry. He called for a taxi, warning them that I would need change for a 100-peso bill.

The taxi showed up relatively quickly and we were on our way. However, when I tried to reconfirm that he had change for a 100-peso bill, he nearly stopped the car and said no. Obviously, the taxi company had failed to tell him. Oh well. We headed for the hotel and I hoped that they could provide change. However, the ride turned out to be cheap enough that I had the 5 pesos in change and could pay for it.

Back in the room, Michaela fell asleep and I woke her up later so we could get some milk and some food. We shared a ham and cheese empanada for dinner. Margarita returned late at night and she hadn't eaten either but we decided to call it a night. However, she had managed to arrange for me to attend the Boca Juniors vs. River Plate "superclasico" soccer game that would be held the next day! How cool! I had wanted to attend a soccer game in Argentina and this was the game to see. People waited for days to get tickets to this game and Margarita managed to arrange my attendance the night before! I would be paying for a friend of hers to attend as well and he would escort me. The tickets were 80 pesos each. If the peso were still on par with the dollar, I might have thought twice, but at the current exchange rate, there was no question. Margarita would head to La Plata with Michaela while I was at the game.

I can't wait for tomorrow!

Boca Juniors vs. River Plate

June 1, 2003

After a late breakfast, I basically waited for Margarita's friend to show up at about 10:30. The game didn't start until 3pm, but we had a few stops to make. We had a brief panic when we realized that Michaela had taken the phone off the hook and we might have been unavailable. However, after waiting downstairs and returning to the hotel room, I saw Margarita's friend approaching the hotel and left just before 11am or so. Margarita and Michaela would be heading to La Plata for the day to visit her aunt and other relatives. She did not want to take Michaela to a soccer game because of the potential dangers - which I later learned to be very real.

We took a taxi to a friend's house and chatted for a while before heading down to the Boca Juniors headquarters (or maybe it was the HQ for supporters). We hung around for a while until we talked to someone who told us to come back in a while so we went back to the friend's apartment and had a lunch of rolls with cheese, ham, and mayo. After lunch, we headed back to the Boca Juniors HQ, past a group of men smoking pot, and waited...and waited....and waited. Finally, we were told that the tickets were for 60 and 80 pesos and were for different areas. I didn't care. I paid for the tickets and again we waited some more.

Finally, we headed out for the walk to the La Bombonera stadium. There were groups of supporters walking toward the stadium singing, chanting, rattling their noisemakers, and taking over the street. I knew this would be a great experience unlike any other and it started about a block from the stadium, where police had blocked off access and were performed pat-down searches of everyone on their way to the stadium. I had to show the police my camera and palm pilot that I was carrying - but not a ticket, yet.

After the pat-down, it was a short one-block walk to the stadium, where there was a huge line of people. Our group was allowed to bypass the large crowd and this time our bags were subjected to searches before we were allowed to enter the stadium area. Once in the building, we found ourselves in another line where this time where the tickets had to be entered into a machine that read the magnetic stripe and we could proceed to walk up the stairs towards our seats. We bypassed a line that I later learned was for a general admission area that I would not have wanted to be in.

At the point where we went from underneath the stadium to the outside where our seats were, our tickets were checked once again. Finally we made our way to our seats and I found that the teams were already on the field playing. I found that odd since the game wasn't supposed to start until 3pm. Then, when the Boca team scored a goal against River, the crowd roared it approval, but it seemed kind of muted. That is when I learned that the two teams on the field consisted of backup or second-string players for the two teams. It was a warm-up!

There was a brief break before large plastic tubes emblazoned with the Pepsi logo that lead from the underground team areas onto the field were inflated. The stadium was packed and each balcony was draped with various banners. We were situated at one corner of the field. To our right was the section for the visiting River Plate fans, which were located behind one goal line. To our left was the main section of the stands and further to the left were the big Boca Juniors fans behind the other goal line.

The fans had been singing songs and chants at each other since we arrived. I wasn't able to decipher most of what the songs or chants said, but many of them included the word "puto" in them. When the River Plate players appeared the River section went wild, with flags waving and lots of yelling, etc. However, that nothing compared to what happened when the Boca players appeared. Yellow and blue smoke bombs, explosions of blue and yellow confetti and the appearance of a huge flag that covered one of the entire sections of Boca fans. I was impressed. It took a while for the smell of sulfur to go away.

River Plate controlled the early part of the game, spending lots of time on the Boca side of the field. They scored early with a well-executed goal about 10 minutes into the game. About 30 minutes later, Boca fouled River in the penalty area and River scored on the penalty kick. This quieted down the Boca fans.

At halftime, nobody left their seat. I wanted to go to the bathroom, but my host hadn't given me my ticket, so I waited in my seat. Again, when the players took the field, streamers were thrown from the stands and confetti and blue and yellow smoke were all around. This time, the River fans had literally covered the bottom areas of the stands and the field with the white paper streamers.

About halfway through the second half of the game, Boca scored a goal and the crowd came alive. Boca was now controlling the game and looked like they were on a roll. Less than 10 minutes later, they scored again (actually Barros Schelotto) and the crowd went nuts. People hugged the people next to them, raised their arms to the sky...some cried. I kid you not. I saw at least two men crying tears of joy (I assume they were of joy since they were seated in the Boca area). I have never seen anything like it.

For the rest of the game, it seemed like Boca might score at any moment, which had the crowd on its feet. I can only imagine what would have happened if Boca had scored a winning goal because the game ended tied 2-2.

Which brings me to the dangers I encountered at the game. Remember the paper streamers I told you about. During the second half, someone decided to light them on fire. While that surprised me, what surprised me even more was that the stadium was ready for it. At each of the field, there was a water cannon with firefighter at the ready. The streamers were on fire on a balcony where police were situated in front of the River crowd and on above the general admission Boca fans. Some idiot (I don't know if he was a staff person or not) tried to put out the fire by moving the streamers around and not only helped the fire grow, but managed to send burning papers onto the crowd below. It was a short while before the water cannon came to life, soaking some of the fans as it put out the fire. It would come to life at least three or four more times to put out similar fires.

Another possible danger were the fireworks emanating from the Boca fans, which went off for about 10 minutes during the second half of the game. They were shooting little balls of red and green light all over the place.

Finally, as the game ended, Boca and River fans spent more time throwing things at each other. While during the game there had been the odd plastic soda bottle or cardboard tube, now we were subject to beer bottles (I saw at least two) plus sizeable pieces of wood that had been broken off from some larger object. I only had to duck one piece that looked like the leg of a chair. Unfortunately, the idiot near me threw it back at the River fans! Just what we needed - supply them with ammunition and a reason to throw it. Of course, I still had to keep my eyes open for other flying debris, although only the one piece came close.

The River Plate fans were allowed to leave/escape first while the Boca fans remained in their seats. A smart move which I'm sure helps to eliminate some violence. We waited a long while before we left. After saying many thanks to my host for getting us the tickets, we headed out onto the crowded streets and walked a long way in a futile attempt to catch a taxi. We ended up catching a bus (80 centavos) which dropped us off about 4 or 5 blocks from the hotel.

Margarita didn't return until late with Michaela, but since I didn't know when they were going to return I stayed at the hotel after getting some food to eat.

Tomorrow - another day in Buenos Aires.....

Marga´s Sunday in La Plata

June 1st, 2003

Once again, this is Marga blogging. Mike & Mika are sick today so I´ve left them to rest in our hotel room while I came to read e-mail and do a bit of blogging. Not much ´cause I want to see if my babies are ready to eat something before my meeting in about an hour.

Anyway, while Mike had an exciting Sunday at the soccer game, I had a family day in La Plata. Before we left for Iguazu I´d told my aunt that Sunday would be the only weekend day I´d have free to see my family so if anyone in either side wanted to organize an asado, I´d be available. My cousin Barullo was the one to take on the task. He wanted to do one for dinner, but as I´d be going back to Buenos Aires that night I thought that would make it difficult. So we settled on a 2 PM asado.

After Mike left with Pollo I got a few things together and then I hailed a cab to the street near Retiro bus station where buses leave for La Plata. I took with me our small backpack with supplies for Mika and as much dirty clothing as I could fit. I would have wanted to also take the bag with the hammock that we got in Brazil or Mika´s baby backpack, but I knew I wouldn´t be able to handle it. She´s still not walking so I have to hold her most of the time.

We got a ticket and spent a little bit walking on the grass before the bus got there. Once it arrived, it was very quick to depart. Mika and I were the only passenger but it picked someone else up at another stop before leaving Buenos Aires. Mika was fussy at first, but soon she drank her bottle and fell asleep in my arms, she slept the whole way to Buenos Aires.

This bus didn´t go through the autopista (freeway) and instead took the old route through Quilmes and Camino Centenario. It was nice looking out the window and recognizing some of the old sights. We´d take camino centenario to our weekend house in City Bell. It´s changed quite a bit, but the army base is still there - and so is the sign saying ¨prohibido parar o detenerse¨ (it´s prohibitted to stop) next to a picture of a soldier aiming a rifle. I remember looking at that picture as a kid and being afraid that if we ever had to stop by accident, we´d be shot. The sign was rusty but was still there, I hope it doesn´t mean that anymore.

Mika woke up just as we arrived at the bus station, and then it was just a quick taxi ride to Gladys´ house. She´d told me on the phone that the elevators weren´t working, which would have been a huge problem as she lives in the 3rd floor and would have to go down to open the door, and then go back up to the apartment. She´s not walking well, so 3 floors up and down would be extremely difficult for her. Fortunately, once we arrive there were people holding the door open, so I went in. The elevators were working so I didn´t have to climb upstairs either.

We hang out in Glady´s house for a while, I washed the dirty clothing and we talked about redoing Gladys´ 3rd bedroom into a bedroom (it´s now a storage room). Finally time came to go Barullo´s so we took a taxi there.

My cousin Barullo lives with his wife Ana, his mother Tota and a 10-months old Labrador retriver puppy named Simón. As Mike might have mentioned Mika LOVES dogs, so she had a great time playing with Simón all day. Simón was a little bit too eager and a little bit too rough, but she held her own. My family was amazed at how she wasn´t in the least afraid of the puppy (she is afraid of huge animatronic marine monsters, though), and how he would kiss her (he doesn´t kiss anymore else, it seems). Anyway, they had great fun together, at one point she was crawling around, and he´d crawl behind her gentlybiting her pant leg. They´d also look out the window together and she´d try to pet him.

The asado was great. I particularly liked the grilled chicken. Mika ate a lot of chicken and meat, which always makes me happy. We had ice cream for dessert which she also loved.

The afternoon went very well, talking with my family, looking at pictures and remniscing about old times. At one point Mika had a very nice long nap in the couch. I got to see my cousin Mariana again, though my cousin Esteban was a no show! I hope I get to see him before I return to the US.

When Mika woke up around 6:30 PM we went back to Gladys´s, where I quickly picked up the clean clothing and Mika´s stroller (we hadn´t taken it with us to Iguazu as we knew it´d be in the way, but we needed it for Buenos Aires) and headed to the bus station.

I wanted to take a bus to downtown Buenos Aires, and bought a ticket for one, but after waiting for 1/2 hour or so I found out they didn´t have any going downtown on Sundays so I had to take one to Retiro. The bus trip was fine, Mika again fell asleep and woke up just as we arrived. I had to take a taxi back to the hotel, which I did and then met Mike.

Oky doke, my Sunday is done now. I´m off to see my babies and pick up something to eat. See you soon!

Puerto Madero

June 2, 2003

Breakfast at the hotel we're staying at in Buenos Aires is always good. Sometimes you do get what you pay for - at least we're not paying the full rate :-)

Anyway, we began the day by taking a walk to Puerto Madero, which was basically right down Avenida Corrientes from the hotel. It was a little windy and cold, but Michaela was bundled up pretty well and seems to enjoy a little wind. When we finally reached the water, we sat on a bench and let Michaela walk and crawl around a bit. She saw a pigeon and gave chase, but she's still mostly crawling - not quite walking yet.

We saw a tall buildings nearby with "Microsoft" and "Sun" in big letters at the top of each. Funny how some parts of the world just seems eerily the same. We also saw a building that looked a lot like the opera house in Sydney. So we walked towards it and sure enough, it's an opera house. We both thought it would be better for the opera house to have its own unique design. We soon found ourself by the ferry to Colonia, Uruguay, and in an area which is more conducive to trucks than walking tourists so we headed back to the more pedestrian friendly area.

In this area, we spotted the Fragata Sarmiento, which is now a museum and we crossed the water over a beautiful white suspension footbridge but skipped the museum as we had Michaela in the stroller. Instead we continued walking and looking into the expensive-looking restaurants that lined the waterfront of Puerto Madero. These restaurants included (I am not making this up) TGI Fridays and McDonald's.

Later on in the day, we met with one of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo at Vesuvio, a little cafe close to the hotel. I must say this about the staff of Vesuvio (and of nearly every eatery we've been to in Argentina): they are great with Michaela. We have never been made to feel unwelcome or that Michaela is an inconvenience or somehow unpleasant, no matter how loud she has been or how big a mess she has made. Now we have never traveled anywhere else with a 14-month old, but Argentina has been absolutely great. When Michaela cries or fusses, instead of nasty stares, people nearby ask her what's wrong - or, as Michaela has learned, they might give you a cookie. At Vesuvio, first the waiter gave her a little cookie. Then a gentleman at a nearby table. And then the waiter gave her another one. And they never seemed to mind when she was crawling or walking in their way as they waited on tables. In the US, nobody has ever said anything, but their faces usually say it all: shut the kid up, get her away from me, etc. At first it was a little bit weird for me to have strangers touching her face and hand, but it has been great....really.

US Embassy and a harsh night

June 3, 2003

I don't know how people in Argentina can eat so late and still get up at a relatively decent time. We've been getting up anywhere from 9:30 to 11 am.

Margarita had been somewhat concerned about an upcoming trip to Europe after our Argentina trip because her passport had no more space for entry and exit stamps. Yesterday, I had tried to call the US Embassy, to no avail. So I looked it up on the State Dept. web site and found that the printed phone numbers we had (from two different sources, no less) were both wrong. With the correct phone number in hand, I called the embassy and they said to come down by 12:30 and it would take just a few minutes to add a few more pages.

So off we went in a taxi to the US Embassy. We took the stroller, because we planned on going to the Japanese Garden afterward. The taxi driver took us for a ride and we ended up paying nearly nine pesos for a ride that should have cost about six. How do we know? Because the US Embassy is right across the street from the Buenos Aires zoo, which I find most amusing. One of the streets in front of the embassy has now been closed (perhaps a post 9/11 thing) and there was a police van or bus and something that looked like an armored personnel carrier - both of them Argentine, parked in that area.

Anyway, at the US Embassy, we showed our passports and entered via a small building controlled by local security guards - these were not US Marines and my English was useless. We had to leave our camera and palm pilot in the building while some, but not all, of the rest of our things were screened by x-ray. We also had to pass through a metal detector. It seemed ominous at first, but it was unorganized enough that I don't think it was secure. Then off to the citizen services area, which is the same area (but a different window) where people from Argentina try to get permission to come to the US. This time, a local security guard pushed a button to open a door and let us in after we told him what we were there for.

Margarita got in line while I let Michaela out to roam around the waiting area. There were quite a few people sitting down but only two other people waiting to also have pages added to their passport. Michaela had a great time walking around, but usually went straight for the exit door, from where I would have to retrieve her. We met a woman from Oregon who had her kid with her and with whom Michaela was playing. The woman was from the central coast (very rural, small-town) and did not like Buenos Aires at all. Bummer for her. I've known other people who don't appreciate big cities like Buenos Aires as well. Too much noise, light, traffic, people, whatever. I like Buenos Aires. It reminds me of New York. While I might not want to live her forever, I'd like to try it for a while. After a few minutes, Margarita was called back to the window and she had her passport back with added pages.

After collecting our camera and palm pilot, we exited the embassy court yard through the little building and were on the sidewalk. I grabbed the camera and took a picture of the embassy - a small souvenir of our visit. Then what appeared to be an Argentine policeman approached and said that I couldn't take a photo. I asked, "Why not?" I wasn't in a controlled area. He didn't know that I already had taken the photo, so I just nodded, smiled, and put the camera away. Then Margarita laid into him with legal arguments and questions. :-) Meanwhile, I noticed that nearby apartment buildings had much better views of the embassy from above than I did and wondered why the policeman or guard even bothered. Oh well, best to keep up appearances I guess.

Then we made our way to the Japanese Garden - or at least in the direction of where I thought I had seen it when we left the zoo a few days ago. Unfortunately, I took us to the nearby botanical garden. Whoops. By that time, it was time for lunch so we went across the street to Estancia, a nice-looking restaurant. Michaela ate quite a bit, which made us feel a bit better (we always feel inadequate as parents when she doesn't eat much). I only remember that I ate a particularly soft and red chorizo that I shared with Michaela. The bill came to 38 pesos, including drinks.

At this point, we had taken a bus (or collectivo) and a taxi, but not the subway, so I suggested we take the subway back to the hotel, since Margarita was feeling sleepy and Michaela looked ready for a nap as well. Keep in mind that we had no idea how to use the subway. So into the station we went, bought two tickets and entered through the gate. Then we determined that we needed to go in the other direction from the one in which trains on our side were going. Well unlike on BART in San Francisco, there was no way to pass to the other side once you entered through the gate. This, of course, frustrated Margarita as we would now have to pay again and walk up and down another set of stairs. It frustrated me as well, but who was I going to complain to? I was responsible for the screw-up.

So we found the correct station, paid the fares again (70 centavos each) and got onto a very crowded subway. The 70 centavo fare gets you into the gate and then you can go as far as the train goes, which seems like a bargain to me. As I was carrying Michaela, I was quickly offered a seat, which was nice. I have seen this on buses as well. People with children are always offered a seat. While we enjoyed the subway ride, people came through the train selling various items: headphones, batteries, chocolate, and finally, Piñon Fijo items. Pretty convenient, if somewhat annoying to hear the various pitches.

After making our way back to the hotel, Margarita decided to take a nap with Michaela while I went to see Matrix Recargada (Matrix Reloaded) at a theater on Avenida Lavalle, one of two large pedestrian malls in downtown Buenos Aires. As fortune would have it, the movie started just about 5 minutes after I bought the ticket. And it was only 4.5 pesos to see a first run major film. That's less than US$2 at the current exchange rate. Before the movie started, there was just one commercial for Volkswagen (in English with subtitles) and no previews. Then a well-dressed man offered candy and drinks as he walked up and down the aisle. Again, very convenient.

After the movie, I returned to the hotel and found Michaela and Margarita still sleeping. Later Margarita went out with her friend Pollo while I entertained Michaela at the hotel until Margarita returned late in the evening.

That's when the fun started. After getting Michaela to sleep, she suddenly sat up and began crying. While I attempted to soothe her back to sleep (Margarita was in the bathroom), she vomited all over the bed....twice. This was not the little spit up that she sometimes did when she was much younger. This was a full fledged flowing from the mouth and through her nostrils vomit consisting of partially digested milk and what little food she had been eating. We cleaned up as best we could, removing the sheets and pad from the bed. Michaela seemed to be better and was smiling afterwards while Margarita called the front desk for a new set of sheets.

With the new set of sheets (but no new pad), we went to sleep once again. Michaela seemed in need of soothing and comforting to get her to sleep, though, so I placed her on my chest, where she fell asleep. Sometime later, she sat up, started crying, and then vomited all over me and the bed. Yech! I'm not sure if it was a good or bad thing that I wasn't wearing a shirt. Again we comforted her as she and I got into the shower to clean the vomit off of us both. It was worse for her, since there was vomit all over her - in her ear, hair, and coming out of her nose again. I felt so very bad for her. We discussed going to see a doctor but Michaela again was smiling and seemed to feel much better after throwing up, so we decided not to see a doctor...for now.

As we resigned ourself to a long night, Michaela only repeated the sequence once more. Though this time, after getting yet another set of sheets from the hotel (thank you thank you thank you), we were prepared with a towel when she sat up, cried, and then vomited a bunch of pale yellow liquid, signaling the end of her stomach contents. She dry-heaved a couple of times, but again seemed quite content and happy once she was done. Then she slept through the rest of the night. Our poor baby girl.

Mike gets sick as well

June 4, 2003

We woke up late and missed breakfast after not getting to sleep until sometime after 1am. I joined Michaela in feeling sick. At first, I didn't feel well, but I soon followed Michaela's lead and was praying to the porcelain god.

Throughout the day, I slept on and off and vomited until I had nothing left. Of course, Margarita took care of Michaela most of the time.

We went through all of the stuff that Michaela had eaten than Margarita had not. We came up with the chorizo that we had at Estancia. It seemed to fit. And it made sense that Michaela was affected more quickly than I as her metabolism is quicker.

My entire intake for the day was some water, which I later threw up as well.

That sucked - an entire wasted day in Buenos Aires. Oh well, at least we're feeling better now.

Madres de Plaza de Mayo and off to Mar del Plata

June 5, 2003

Today was Thursday, the day that the Madres de Plaza de Mayo turn out at the Plaza de Mayo to remember their "disappeared" childen and family and to demand their return. We were staying in Buenos Aires long enough today to witness this event.

After breakfast, we headed out to do some shopping - at least window shopping if nothing else. We headed down Avenida Lavalle and then on Avenida Florida - the other main pedestrian mall. We stopped in at Galleria Pacifico, a small (by US standards, anyway) upscale shopping mall where Margarita had lunch at the food court. Getting a steak at the food court here was no problem, unlike in the US. After lunch, we found the bathroom, as Michaela needed to be changed. First, Margarita headed into the womens' bathroom, but returned when she found the changing table broken and not enough space on the counter. Fortunately, 1) there was a changing table in the mens' room and 2) it wasn't broken. I changed and her and off we went.

We walked to the end of the Avenida Florida that ends at a nice plaza. We crossed the street and sat down on benches next to a children's playground. This is another nice thing about the many plazas that one finds in Argentine cities - many of them have play areas for children. Some even have carousels (not this one though). And this one had baby swings and sand (instead of hard dirt or broken-shells, as with some others). We set Michaela free and she had a blast, especially when there were other children nearby. She still has problems walking in sand though so she spent most of her time crawling. I swung her in the swing a couple of times and walked around with her while holding her hand.

During the time Michaela was playing, I saw a group of three well-dressed military soldiers make their way to the other side of plaza. Since Margarita thought that the other side of the plaza was the port area, she wanted to go as well, so we headed to the other side of the plaza. After realizing that the other side was not the port, Margarita lost interest while mine remain piqued. It increased when another 3 well-dressed soldiers walked up the stairs towards us. I handed Margarita the camera and grabbed Michaela as I planned to intercept the soldiers to take a picture. (Kind of ironic for me, who has worked as an activist against the Argentine government and military to take a picture with the soliders, but it's for Michaela, right?) I asked in my best Spanish "Senores, un foto, por favor," and they kindly obliged. Then I tried to get Margarita to walk down with me to see what the soldiers were "guarding" but she wouldn't budge so I made the short trip alone. It turns out that they were guarding a memorial for those who died in the Malvinas (Falklands) war.

After I rejoined Margarita and Michaela, we headed back onto Avenida Florida to make our way to the Plaza de Mayo. First we stopped at a shop where Margarita saw a poncho/shawl that she liked. It was about 90 pesos, much less than the one we saw for something like 300 pesos when we were in Calafate. So we bought it and headed back to the Galleria Pacifico because we both needed to use a bathroom and thought they had a decent chance of being...not nasty. They were decent...and they even had toilet paper.

When we got to the Plaza de Mayo, there were a few mothers around, including the table set up by the Association selling t-shirts, books, CDs, etc. There were also plenty of tourists waiting for the Madres de Plaza de Mayo to begin walking around the Plaza de Mayo, as many have for more than 25 years. The walk begins at 3:30pm and lasts until 4pm. Many people outside of Argentina are unaware that there are two groups of Madres de Plaza de Mayo: the Linea Fundadora and the Association. Most people know the Association and its outspoken leader, Hebe de Bonafini. It has evolved into a powerful political organization and today was sporting a sign supporting non-payment of Argentina's foreign debt. The Linea Fundadora, on the other hand, has stuck with its original purpose, is less flashy and therefore, tends to get less international attention. It's sign merely said "Madres de Plaza de Mayo - Linea Fundadora." There were also people walking in smaller groups or by themselves, some carrying pictures of those who had been disappeared. We asked one of the mothers of the Linea Fundadora group if we could join them and she agreed. She also introduced to some of the other mothers. We fell in behind them and walked in quiet contemplation for most of the 30 minutes. Meanwhile, people would quietly join and leave the procession or meet and greet some of the mothers. During the walk, I contemplated the thousands of people disappeared by the Argentine military and police and the effect it had on their families.

Afterwards, Margarita talked to some of the people she saw holding pictures of people she recalled from the Disappeared Project (http://www.desaparecidos.org). One was a sister whose brother had been disappeared. She had promised her mother that she would continue walking at the Plaza after her mother died. She was there with her father. We continued talking with some of the mothers and were invited to join them at the cafe at which they meet afterwards. We walked the few blocks up the street from the Plaza and joined the mothers for tea and sodas. One thing I immediately noticed is that only one of the mothers present smoked. I later learned that the other mothers give her grief about it as well. I spent most of the time entertaining or watching Michaela. A few of the mothers were surprised and concerned by Michaela's fondness for ice. One tried to convince Michaela that it was too cold while Michaela reached into the container of ice cubes I had ordered for her. Unfortunately, we could not stay as long as we wanted because we had to catch a bus to Mar del Plata and we still needed to get our bags from the hotel and get a taxi, so we left, but not before we paid the bill for all of the mothers. Of course, they refused, but we left the money and said to use any extra for the organization - or all of it, if they prefer.

So off we went to the hotel, where they called a taxi for us and retrived our luggage, which took f...o...r...e...v...e...r. We apologized to the taxi driver and made our way to the bus station. The bus station is huge - and pretty nice. It's not the usual sleazy and grimey looking area I'm used to in the US - have you seen the bus station in Oakland, for example? Margarita found us tickets for 40 pesos each while I watched over Michaela and tried to prevent her from killing herself on the stairs. We stopped at a confiteria in the station and had a bite to eat before Margarita made sure we had milk, drinks, and snacks for the 5.5 hour bus ride.

Fortunately, the bus was cama coche, which basically means that the seats almost completely recline. Very comfy - for a bus. I wondered why the bus ride was going to take so long - that was, until it took us what seemed like an hour merely to get on the freeway. The ride was uneventful and Michaela slept most of the trip.

When we arrived in Mar del Plata, it was nearly midnight. I only remember seeing some large neon signs for Havanna, the famous maker of alfajores, and Balcarce, which also makes alfajores, but doesn't seem to have franchised out across the country like Havanna has.

The staff at the hotel was ready for us when we arrived. It seems that Margarita's relatives in Mar del Plata know the proprietors of the hotel so we were treated quite well and the rate was good - 35 pesos a night. When we finally got into the hotel room, we found out why. While it was clean and would suffice, it was a big step down from where we had been staying in Buenos Aires. That was OK though, since it was a block from where Margarita's aunt lived.

First Day in Mar del Plata

June 6, 2003

Once again it´s me, Marga, blogging. I always say this because Mike has become the de facto blogger for the trip, mostly because I´m too lazy or tired to go and blog. We´re staying at the hotel in La Plata that has internet, so I can make an exception.

These last days of our trip are, I think, more boring because they are mostly about meeting relatives rather than seeing exciting things. Not that my relatives are not exciting, far from it.

Anyway, though our room in the 2-star hotel in Mardel was lacking, we managed to have a good night. We doubted we could at first, given that the bed was the smallest double bed we´d ever encountered, but perhaps because of the lack of space Mika didn´t move too much at night and she didn´t wake Mike up. The room was also cooler than most rooms, which means that we could snuggle underneath the blankets. Usually hotel rooms in Argentina are so heated, that all we can bear have on us is a thin sheet.

We woke up a bit late and after the usual morning routines (cleaning up, putting on contacts, getting dressed, getting Mika changed, etc. etc.) we headed downstairs for breakfast. We heard that my aunt had stopped by the hotel and got directions from the hotel owner on how to get to her office. Breakfast was quite good for that type of hotel. Coffee is almost universally good in Argentina, but there is often quite a variance on OJ. The cheaper hotels often have Tang or another bottled OJ, while the more expensive ones usually have freshly squeezed OJ, often served in the tiniest of glasses. This one not only had freshly squeezed OJ, but they brought us a little jar of it. It was probably no more than 8 to 10 oz. but still more than what we usually get. Breakfast included little cookies, facturas (pastries) and bread. We really liked the medialunas (croissants) filled with crema pastelera, and when the owner noticed that, he brought us some more! All in all it was a good breakfast.

We returned to our room to get ready to leave (which involves preparing the bottles, the diaper bag, etc.) and were in the process of getting everything together when someone knocked to tell me that my cousin was there. I went down with Michaela and saw my cousin Marina for the first time in 20 years!

Marina was the youngest of my generation of cousins. You see, my mother has 7 brothers and sisters, all but one of whom have had children, so I have a plethora of cousins. I divide them in two generations, those who were children when I was a child, and those who were born when I was already a pre-teen. In other words, those who were close enough to my age to play with and those who were not. Marina is about 6 years younger than I, but we still played together when we were little. I remember always looking forward to when my cousins Marito and Marina would come from Mar del Plata, as would inevitably happen around holidays and school vacations.

I had seen pictures of Marina grown up, but it was still hard to reconcile this tallish woman with a coarse voice, with the little, soft kid I remembered. It was great seeing her and we talked for a while before she had to go to work. She also got to see Mika, and see how well she was walking. Mika has been making great progress walking in the last week and by Friday she was walking alone on command. She also got to meet Mike for a few minutes.

We then got the stroller and went off to my aunt´s office. I didn´t have the exact address but the hotel owner had given me what I thought were fool proof directions. Little did I know. The directions were right (go left at the shoe store, it´s a little office with a sign saying ¨Fiscalia¨), but the sign was so small that we missed it both while going and returning on the street. We had to go back to the hotel to get the exact address, and only then I saw the door with the stairway going up one floor. Mike stayed downstairs with the stroller while I went up to look for my aunt.

I found her in an office off the reception area and we recognized each other right away. She was blonder than last time I saw her (though she died her hair the next day to her usual light brown), and a little bit older, but mostly she looked the same. Like all of my aunts and cousins (but not my mom or siblings) she is terribly thin. That seems to be the fashion in Argentina. Why I couldn´t inherit those genes, I´ll never know.

We talked for a while and made plans for meeting that evening. Then I asked her to come downstairs where she met Mika, whom of course she thought was beautiful. After a short time she went back to work and Mike and I headed down Avenida San Martin towards the beach.

We went by the plaza and saw the calendar which I remembered from my childhood, and then on to the pedestrian mall. Mike stopped to look at some music and I went to a book outlet store where I found two books for A$5 each that interested me. One is a book of testimonies of wives of the disappeared and another a history of the SIDE (the main Argentine intelligence agency).

We made it to the beach and pushed the stroller all the way towards the seashore. Mike had fun looking at some dogs that were playing, and playing with the sand. We stayed for quite a bit doing that, until we all started to get too cold. We made our way back to the hotel, stopping at a confiteria (cafe) for a bite and some drinks. Mika had a great time playing with the stairs, us a less great time trying to control her. Finally her whininess won over and it was time to leave.

On the way back we stopped at a children´s store to buy her some warmer clothing. It was pretty cold in Mar del Plata and we had left all her really warm clothing in La Plata. I got her a beautiful red coat for A$22 and a warm sweatshirt for around A$15. Good deals in US money. They are both big enough that she should be able to wear them next winter.

We went back to the hotel where Mike and Mika had a great nap. I can´t quite remember if I slept with them as well, or read or watched TV. Not that important anyway. After the nap we went out again, we visited the Los Gallegos shopping mall (not too different from any regular galería), but I did remember how Los Gallegos used to be this big department store we always used to go to when we came to Mardel. We walked down Rivadavia, found a supermarket and got some milk for Mika. I wanted to get her some bananas, but didn´t realize I had to have them weighed, so I abandoned them at the check out stand. I then had a little spat with Mike about feeding Mika (who hadn´t eaten much all day and I was convinced was hungry) and we went off to a confiteria/snack bar where I had a tasteless chicken sandwich and Mike had a couple of empanadas. I´m not sure how much, if any, Mika ate.

We walked some more and talked about going into a play center, but decided instead to look for a hair salon where Mike could have his hair cut and died. They weren´t as easy to find in downtown Mardel as we would have imagined. Finally we found a hole in the wall where they could cut his hair but not die it, so he had that done. Mika was impatient so I spent most of the time he was having his hair cut going around the block again and again, and stopping by the pet store so Mika could look at the very cute puppies. Finally he was done and we went off again... for a couple of blocks. We then found a place were he could get his hair died and after talking with the girls to make sure they knew what he wanted I returned to the hotel.

I´m not sure if Mika went to sleep or almost went to sleep, but I basically just read and watched TV and tried to put Mika to sleep until Mike returned with his golden tresses. He looked so funny, the hair was much more fake looking than I thought it would look, but I thought that was probably good. We didn´t have time to talk about it much, though, because it was already past 8 PM, the time we were supposed to be at my aunt´s appartment.

So off we went. I didn´t think my aunt would necessarily notice Mike´s hair color, given that she´d only seen him that morning for a little bit, but it was almost the first thing she mentioned. It seems she had been describing him as this dark-haired man, which he no longer was. Anyway, we went up and I saw my cousin and god-daughter Betiana and her boyfriend Chulo. I was afraid for a second that Chulo could be my cousin Marito, he didn´t look at all like what I remembered, but indeed he was not. I also saw my uncle Mario, who all in all looked quite good. My cousins Marito and Marina came back later, we talked for a while and then went off to a tenedor libre for dinner to celebrate Betiana´s recent 23rd birthday.

Dinner and being with family recalling old times and getting to know each other again was very good. My cousin Marito reminded me of several things we´ve done as children, such as holding a seanse to invoke the spirit of my departed step-grandfather, and it was bittersweet thinking back of those times. I had such a great childhood, all in all, with so many cousins and places to play with. I´m so afraid that I won´t have the same to offer my daughter. And it´s so sad that we weren´t able to share the rest of our lives as teenagers and adults with my cousins. I wish I had more to give them. I do hope my coming here will help to re-start these relationships. Anyway, obviously basking in family love was great.

After dinner we returned to the hotel and we watched some TV before going to sleep. Nighty night.

More beach and Marina´s apartment

June 7, 2003

Well, it´s very late at night (12:30) and I want to go to sleep so I will make this day quick. After all, one can write as succintly or as extensively as one wants about any one event.

After the late night we woke up pretty late, and we didn´t get out of the hotel until about 11 AM. We decided to skip breakfast as it was pretty close to lunch time anyway. Mike was hungry, but we decided to go towards the beach and walk around first. Again we went towards the beach through Avenida San Martin, but this time we headed south and walked by the now closed Hotel Provincial and on. At one point we went down to the beach again so Mika could play in the sand and when she seemed bored we returned back to land. We took the obligatory pictures with the statues of the sea lions (a very Mar del Plata thing to do), had a very relaxed lunch in a cheap sidewalk restaurant by the beach and walked on towards the rocky area where people were fishing (and catching all the same type of small fish). When it didn´t seem there was anything more interesting to see we went back and then on to the hotel where we had only a little bit to relax before going to meet my relatives.

At 3 we went to Beatriz´s apartment where Betiana came soon after, and we talked and looked at picture albums and so forth until we decided to go walk. As we had headed south from the La Popular beach that morning, we headed north in the afternoon, also stopping to play in the sand and take a look at the Navy hotel where I´d stay in my last trip to Mardel.

We then headed back, stopping at a bakery for some facturas, before going to my cousin Marina´s almost new apartment. We saw the place, which looked very nice (apparently it was a mess when they bought it and did a lot of work on it) and then had tea and drinks with the facturas and a great cake that Chulo, Betiana´s boyfriend, had made. Mike tried to fix Marina´s computer, but was unable to, and all in all we hang out in the apartment for quite a long time. Later we went to my aunt Beatriz´s apartment where she cooked some fried fish for all of us (quite good) and we stayed on talking until very late. It was then time to go home and go to sleep. As it is now for me as well. So nighty night and see you tomorrow.

Sunday with the sea lions

June 8, 2003

Once again it´s Margarita blogging. It´s 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 it´s from originally, the names of many of the producers-writers seem to be Eastern European, though who knows, maybe they are Catalan. Anyway, Mika doesn´t 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 Elmo´s World. I don´t know if Mike has blogged about it, but we only discovered Elmo´s 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 hasn´t arrived to Argentina, or at least Mar del Plata, as otherwise it would be selling for more online. In any case, we didn´t find anything we couldn´t 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 ¨teacher¨ 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! She´s almost 14 1/2 months after all. She gave her first steps about 2 months ago and I really don´t understand why it´s 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 it´s 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. I´m actually tired of so many steaks and vacio and crave different flavors. Plus the marsala sauce is really good, I´m 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 it´s wonderful how patient Argentines are with children at restaurants, I´m tired of eating out with her. Eventually she wants to get out and go walk around, and then she´s bound to get on someone´s way. Ágain, I´m 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 didn´t 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 aunt´s 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 wasn´t a sidewalk all the way and we had to go underneath a broken wire mesh in order to reach the sea lions, but it wasn´t too bad. We started seeing single sea lions almost from the start, lying quietly below between the docked boats, but weren´t 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 can´t 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 we´ll 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 Marito´s new apartment, which is nice, large and he´s turned into a real bachelor pad (save for a pink bathroom). He barely had chairs for everyone (and only because Marina hadn´t come with us), and didn´t 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 Beatriz´ 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 don´t 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 won´t be this little, cool baby when she sees her again, and this reminded me once again of how I missed all of Betiana´s childhood (I left when she was about 4). It´s 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 we´d wake up late). We went to sleep and another day was over.

Back to La Plata

June 9, 2003

There isn´t 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 we´d 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 didn´t 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 hadn´t 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 we´ve been staying, the Howard Johnson Corregidor. It´s kind of expensive, but it´s very confy, nicely located and, more importantly, has internet. So here we are :) As you´d expect, I immediately called Gladys and we agreed that we´d 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 Gladys´s. We had a good dinner together (though Mika, again, didn´t 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 couldn´t go back to sleep, so he stayed up very late. Poor baby.

And speaking of that, I´ve been here for over 1 hour, I should go and check how my babies are doing. Ta ta.

Last days in Argentina

June 10-11

We´re about to leave the hotel and therefore our opportunity to blog so let me quickly reprise the last two days in La Plata.

Tuesday morning we started our foray by going to the Natural Science Museum (after getting the right directions from people at the hotel). The museum is the pride and joy of La Plata, and we couldn´t leave without seeing it. As with everything else, I found it much smaller than I remembered it. They had some new, cool exhibits downstairs, but much of it was old and drab, which has quite an appeal for me.

After the museum we came back to the hotel for a nap (for Mike & Mika, I read), and then it was off to a quick lunch at the Munich cerveceria in front of the hotel and then to visit my aunt Cuqui who is living at my grandparent´s home.

My grandparent´s home is a huge house in front of the Estudiantes club, with tons of rooms and places for little children to play. We loved going there when we were children and the house still has an enormous appeal to me. Still, it hasn´t been taken care of since my grandfather died in the mid 70´s, and I had already seen how drab it looked from the outside. The inside was worse, though the floors and marble still looked good, and it was nice seeing the house one last time. It´s finally being sold, I hope the family that buys it will bring it back to its old glory.

Seeing my aunt Cuqui was nice, as was meeting my cousin Daiana. When we were leaving, I got to see my cousing Luisito for a while, he was a bit younger than us but still a playmate when we were kids.

We then went off to Gladys´ house for a bit before going to my aunt Stella´s. She had organized a get together with other relatives I hadn´t seen, including my aunt Pipi and my uncle Anibal. It was very nice seeing them all after so many years and we stayed until very late.

Back at the hotel I blogged for a while and then it took me forever to go back to sleep. I was really tired when Mika woke me up the next day and I skipped breakfast.

Finally I got up and we all headed to Gladys´ house. From there we went shopping for Argentine handicrafts (didn´t find any we wanted) and then for some cups and glasses for Gladys. We finished off with a quick lunch at Confitería Paris (it´s non-smoking!) and then we were off back home.

We hang out at her house for a while, and later Mike, Mika and I went shopping downtown. Again we didn´t find anything we wanted, though we did find the Havanna store and got enough Alfajores and habanets to last us for a couple of weeks when we return. Then it was back for tea at Gladys´ with some of the great masas finas (pastries) we´d gotten at the Paris, and finally it was time to go back to the hotel, rest for a bit, blog and then go to sleep.

And so it´s now. We just checked out, and now we are headed to Gladys´. I imagine we´ll hang out there, maybe get some lunch, go to the supermarket and buy the vegetable stock my mom wants, and finally leave for Ezeiza this afternoon.

It´s been a great trip, but we are read to go home.

The trip home

The taxi ride to the airport was uneventful, if somewhat slow. While in the US it seems that everyone on the freeway is going faster than the speed limit, many people on the autopista in Argentina go slower than the speed limit in order to get better mileage. At other times, I've seen drivers shift into neutral to coast downhill and shift into higher gears at very low RPMs in order to save on fuel. So while the speed limit was 130 km/h, we did the entire trip at 90 km/h or less. Michaela was in the car seat and fell asleep soon after we started. Because the car seat has her in a non-reclined position, we held her head so she could be more comfortable.

The autopistas in Argentina don't function as well as toll roads in other places because the toll booths are in the middle of the freeway. You end up waiting in line to pay tolls a few times, which somewhat defeats the speed you gain by taking the autopista in the first place. They should have them at the exits and entrances to the autopistas instead. On the other hand, they are one place where it is easy to get change. In fact, we paid one of the tolls (1.9 pesos) with a 100-peso bill, despite the sign stating that they don't have change for 50 or 100-peso bills.

At the airport, we found out that when I had made flight arrangements with United Airlines, they had given me a round trip ticket while they made one-way flight arrangements for Michaela. Perhaps they thought I intended to abandon her in Argentina? Anyway, it caused us to spend nearly an hour at the counter and we ended up having to spend another $136 for her - and she doesn't even get a seat! Meanwhile, Michaela found a little Argentine girl and was having a blast following her around while the little girl was trying to give Michaela a kiss (at the behest of her parents) and helping Michaela up (which Michaela didn't want). When she and her family left to go elsewhere, Michaela, took off walking after them. I had to chase her down a number of times.

When we finally got the tickets, we discovered that the airport at Ezeiza required an airport tax, which was annoying not included in our purchased tickets. So we paid our US$18 per person and $0 for Michaela, but in order to document that Michaela didn't actually have to pay, they made a copy of her passport. The US$18 per person is for international flights. It is less for domestic flights.

On the way to the gate, we had to pass two security checkpoints complete with metal detector and x-ray screening. When we arrived at the gate, the flight was already boarding.

The nine-hour flight form Buenos Aires started at nearly 9pm and was painful for Margarita and me. We were seated in the economy section of the Boeing 767-300 and the seats were very close to one another. The flight was packed, but for all of our trouble with Michaela's ticket, they left the center seat empty, so at least we had a little space. Michaela spent most of the flight sleeping on Margarita or on the seat. She also walked around some, including an odd episode in which she suddenly started crying for no apparent reason when she was 4-5 rows away. The women behind us congratulated us on what a quiet baby Michaela had been.

When we arrived in Miami, we discovered that, unlike every other previous flight, the baby backpack we had gate-checked in Buenos Aires would not be returned to us at the jetway. Instead, because it was not a baby stroller, we would have to pick it up at baggage claim, which defeated the whole reason behind gate-checking it. Sheesh!

Immigration was easy because people with kids were directed to a separate and shorter line. No stamp in the passports though. After we got our luggage, we went through customs (what kind of food? How old is your daughter? How long were you in Brazil....er Argentina?) which was no problem either. Then we were directed to a line where TSA personnel checked checked luggage for explosives. The man screening ours opened the backpack and swabbed the little white fabric circle all over the place, but when he tried to lift our very heavy suitcase, he decided just to swab the outer zippers. He also ran into a problem with our stroller, which was encased in a plastic bag. He ended up cutting a hole in the plastic, swabbed the fabric circle, and then taped up the hole. Afterwards, a porter was given the luggage to take somewhere where it ended up on the plane.

Margarita and I spent most of the time at the airport arguing with each other. It was the equivalent of about 3am for us and neither of us had slept, so we were cranky. At the security checkpoint, we were forced to take off our shoes, which I thought was odd, since it had never been a requirement any other time we had taken flights in the US. I guess the TSA still hasn't managed to ensure a consistent standard. Also, airline personnel didn't have to take off their shoes. So if you dress like airline personnel with a realistic-looking badge (they don't check it, so it doesn't have to be perfect).....

At the gate this time, we asked about gate-checking the backpack to make sure we could pick it up at the jetway when we got to San Francisco, but the agent said to take it on the plane, since the flight was relatively empty. Indeed it was, I was able to give Margarita and Michaela an entire row of three seats to themselves while I took over a row of two seats. Margarita and I each managed to get about two hours of sleep while Michaela was awake for most of the flight. Fortunately, there were some other little kids nearby, and Michaela spent a lot of time playing with a younger baby. She also woke up the guy sleeping in the next row back as she moved around the back area of the plane.

We arrived in San Francisco quite tired and glad that the trip home was almost over. After a bus ride to BART, a BART ride, and a short walk home, we returned to find our home wonderfully clean and inviting. And then....some lunch.....and most importantly, sleep.