fin de semana

So instead of going away for the weekend I decided to do a day trip to San Antonio de Areco on Sunday, the symbolic center of the Argentine "gaucho" culture.

San Antonio de Areco lies in the pampas of the northern part of the Buenos Aires province about 115km from the city of Buenos Aires. The town was built in the early 18th century and what is now the central square used to be the corrals belonging to the town's founder. The now square is in front of the main house of the original estancia.

We parked the car and walked around the cobble stone streets, checking out local artist studios, grabbing lunch at a cute little cafe and walking across the "punto viejo" (old bridge) and then along the river where a surprising number of people were swimming (the water was REALLY brown). We also visited a couple museums with local gaucho artifacts and the history of the town and then headed back to the city driving through lots of farmland and open countryside.

This morning spanish class was packed with fun!! Learning prepositions on a Monday morning is almost as fun as talking about what you did last weekend in spanish- in the past tense of course. This afternoon I think I'll check out the horse races at the Palermo Hipodromo. Who knows, maybe I'll make some money off the ponies!! Wish me luck!

anonymous

So I got this anonymous comment that I'm slacking on my blogs and I have to agree. I am. It's just that by the time I realize I need to update my blog I'm so overwhelmed by too much to tell that I procrastinate.. ha ha. Yep, it's true. I am the ultimate procrastinator. Entonces... I'll try and catch my blog up to date with a shortened version and some pictures....


My trip tp Brazil was incredible. It was extremely relaxing and most of our days were spent lounging around on the beach. We went on a full day boat excursion one day that took us around a different part of the coast than where we were staying and rented a dune buggy for a couple of days later in the week and cruised around our area visiting the different beaches and coves. We stayed at a really cute traditional "pousada" and had a great breakfast of fresh fruit and coffee every morning outside, overlooking the beach and our private cove.

Since returning from Brazil life has returned to it's normal pace, spanish class every morning and running errands and relaxing in the afternoon or meeting people for lunch or a mate. My spanish is improving in leaps and bounds and I'm tackling the past tenses now and all of their conjugations. I started taking tango classes and think I might really like it. I'm also researching a outdoor pool so I can start swimming and doing some laps since the weather is so great here. Besides that I have been spending a lot of time with Alan and going out to dinner, seeing movies and basically just being a local. Or trying to be- I do stand out a lot here.

I have put in a request to transfer bases to Atlanta which would go into effect April 1st if granted. I have decided I am ready to let go of NY and this would be much better for my flying schedule and paycheck and of course for my commute down here to Buenos Aires. Can you believe I'm leaving NY? Yeah, me neither but I am actually really positive about it and really excited. It is the next step in my life.

So, that was the condensed version of the past three weeks.

This coming weekend Alan and I are trying to plan a trip to an estancia. In the 19th century European immigrants flocked to Argentina and took advantage of the wide open territory. They built ranches or estancias throughout the countryside. Many of these ranches have stayed in the same family for generations and some have opened up to the public. You can stay the weekend there and ride horses, hike, watch the guachos rope cattle and sheep and enjoy an "asado" (barbecue).

If that doesn't pan out we might try to make a trip out to Colonia, Uruguay. There's a ferry that leaves Buenos Aires and takes you over there in a few hours. You can spend the day there or the night too. It is a very "portugese" town and looks very colonial, with small cobble streets and white houses.

Either way the weekend will hopefully be filled with cultural experiences and more importantly.. LOTS OF FUN!! yay!

Hope everyone is enjoying the freezing cold weather up north, it's 84 degrees here and sunny.

besos