Antarctica- Buenos Aires!

I know! It has taken me FOREVER to get this posted. We've only been home for a week and a day. What else do I have to do but blog?

First impressions of Buenos Aires...

Argentina is a 3rd world country (which is not necessarily an impression, but a fact)... I knew, from Mike's conversations with Zachariah, that car seats were not always used there. Actually, Z said that they would probably let the kids drive there...(just sorta kidding) We decided to only take Jack's car seat and a booster seat (Paige's booster seat) for Jonah. Feeling neglectful and a bit guilty, we didn't take a booster seat for Paige. Here it would be illegal for her to ride in a car without a booster seat and I don't believe that Jonah is big enough for a booster seat here with all of the regulations. Anyway, we got to the Buenos Aires airport and then needed to find a ride to our hotel, about 45 minutes away. Mike, in his very broken but functional Spanish, found a shuttle company with a van to take us. Good! There is room for everyone and our stuff in a van, right? So, we get to this "van," that I can compare to something like a Subaru Forester. No third row. 2 seats in the front and 3 in the back. That's 5 seats! And there are 7 of us, including the driver. There wasn't any question by the driver or the company or anything whether we could all fit in the car, so we just got in. Remember, we couldn't really talk to anyone with our toddler-level Spanish acquisition. At least Jack was buckled into his car seat. Oh, but wait, there aren't any seat belts! Jack is in his car seat, but nothing is holding it to the seat. I wonder who had the good idea of cutting off the seat belts. I can understand if there aren't any seat belts or if they're broken, but geez, why would someone purposely do that? Anyways, Jonah is on my lap, Paige is on Mike's lap, and Mom got to be the copilot. This was the first pretty shocking thing that happened that revealed how safe we are here in the states and just how lucky we are. Our country really values our children and their safety. Of course, we can afford car seats and booster seats, our own cars... unlike many/most in a 3rd world country. But I can tell you one thing. It was sure easier to catch a taxi without worrying about car seats! I still feel a little guilty about that... Okay, enough of that.

Here we are in Buenos Aires! It is HOT and HUMID. Just look at how Paige's hair poofed out! Just kidding. We had just taken her 2 french braids out... I'll try not to post any of Nana with superduper frizzy hair, although it may be hard. Sorry Bubba.

We had a couple of days to walk around Buenos Aires before our big cruise. Buenos Aires is a big city with lots of beautiful old buildings and churches and some not so beautiful things, like garbage all over, most sidewalks were crumbling, and nudie magazines displayed front and center on newsstands on every block. Paige is always such a trooper and walked MILES with us around the city. The boys spent a lot of time in the Ergos (which also served us as chair strapper-inners, since there were NO highchairs here), which meant Mike and I usually had an extra 25-30 pounds on us. Hot and heavy. Places looked a LOT closer on Mike's custom Google map... Here is some of the city...

The following is a famous bridge, the Puente de la Mujer, with water underneath that the kiddos so lovingly call "chocolate milk."

This statue was on the top of a church. We thought the running man/woman was cool.

This is the Metropolitan Cathedral. We never checked out the inside because the kids needed to get back to the hotel for a little down time.

Another church...Don't remember which one.

When we saw a park in the city, we jumped at the opportunity to let the kids play. Jonah and Jack needed to get some wiggles out and I especially could use a little back recuperation time. Mike's back is freakishly strong. This was my first time seeing a wooden slide. Paige was the first one down and I was so nervous she would get a sliver in her tush. No injuries though. The other thing to note was that this slide is pretty high and a kid could easily fall off the top platform if they weren't careful. Again, safety doesn't take precedence like it does in the states. The nice thing about that though is that you could actually find things like teeter-totters in parks in South America. Apparently they are too dangerous for our North American kiddos...

And now, more of the city...

This is the Obelisco. It is the most famous landmark of Buenos Aires, says Mike, but I hadn't heard of it before we went there. Hmmm...It's good that we like traveling so much and I am learning so much on our adventures. I feel pretty ignorant not knowing stuff like this.

The street below is Avenue 9 de Julio. I think there are 19 lanes (there is more lanes going each direction behind the trees that don't show in the picture), but with the way the Argentinians drive, it has like 23 lanes. They like to make their own lanes...

This is the San Ignacio Church, built in 1730. It is the oldest church in Buenos Aires.

We took the subway one afternoon. It was really a fun experience after Mike figured out how to get where we wanted to go. The subway is really fast, efficient and super busy. Oh, and HOT! Mike made sure to route us so that we had to take the original 'A' line, where the cars are from the 1920's, still wooden on the inside.

Below is the Casa Rosado- the presidential government building most famous for where Eva Peron spoke to her people.


Here is the cemetery that we walked 12 blocks to. I am telling you, the blocks in Buenos Aires are really long! It wasn't a big deal really, but we walked up to this cemetery, where Eva Peron is entombed, and it was CLOSED! It was a bummer! But, oh well. It looked neat even from the outside.

And here the kids are, playing in a tree, near the closed cemetery. I sat down with my mom in the grass resting my weary back and legs while Mike played with the kids around that tree. He didn't tell me until later that someone was living in there. Lucky for the kids, they had a ball climbing around and Daddy did watch closely and asked them not to go inside the center of the tree, where camp was set up. Just so you know, no one was home at the time.

Below is a picture of 5 of us at the best ice cream shop in Buenos Aires, Un Altra Volta. Bubba spotted it on our way to the cemetery, so of course we got a treat on the way back! Mike, Bubba and I all loved the dulce de leche. Paige and Jonah had chocolate. Jack had some sorbet. Mango maybe? He loved it!

I had been walking back from dinner (on a different night than going up to the cemetery) with Jonah when he just started to lose it. All the traveling and not sleeping... Poor Jonah. I offered to pick him up, but he only wanted Daddy. So, here is the backside of Daddy, with Jack in the Ergo and Jonah in the front. Jonah fell asleep during the five minute walk to the hotel.

The last destination in/near Buenos Aires was La Boca. It was a cute little touristy neighborhood with brightly colored buildings and lots of art prints and other crafty stuff for sale. Apparently the original reason for all the colors was that this was a poor area near the original port and the people would paint their houses and buildings with any paint that was left over from work being done to the ships at the port. Now they just keep it that way because it keeps people like us coming the neighborhood, which is a little outside of the main downtown area.

We decided to skip lunch in La Boca and have an ice cream instead. We were headed for the ship right after going here and since we heard there would be a LOT of food there, buying ice cream was the thriftiest choice, right? I just LOVE seeing Jack eating his "ice cream" (lemon sorbet, this time). He loves it and I like that he gets to feel like the other kids. So often we have to say, "No no Jack. That has leche. That has milk it it..."


Okay, another thing. Look at the picture below. It was hilarious. We asked for a crib at our hotel, El Conquistador. Two maids brought it up and Mike told them that he would put it together. No problem. He knows how to put a portacrib together. They REFUSED to let him do it. "No no no..." they shook their heads. Then they proceeded to make up this bed, a miniature version of the big beds, complete with little tiny sheets, a little tiny pillow, a blanket and a coverlet. The time they spent on this, only to have us completely rip it apart... It was HOT and babies from the states don't use pillows... again, another thing that just would not have been done at home. But it was sweet...

More to come! Buenos Aires was fun, and we enjoyed it, but out of everywhere we went this was at the bottom of the list, as you will soon see...