Happy Birthday to you....Argentina

This weekend Argentina celebrates it's 200 year anniversary. At the same time we are celebrating our fifth anniversary here in Buenos Aires. It's hard to believe that much time has passed since our arrival with two babies!

I have to admit that we have been very, very lazy about traveling into the city to partake in the festivities, or doing much of anything for that matter. The highlight of the weekend was watching the soccer or pardon futbol game between Argentina and Canada. It was Argentina's last friendly game before the World Cup which is starting in a couple of weeks. Canada lost 5-0 which was expected. I think that Canada was just happy to be invited to play with such a high ranking team. :)

We have spent long hours at the park this weekend, enjoying the fall weather. We are certainly having a good one this year with most days reaching highs of nearly 20C. We can't complain. I just hope that it doesn't mean we'll have a horrendously cold, wet spring in a few months!

All in all it was a weekend of recuperation. The Force went back on the road today and the kids are into their final three weeks of class before their school holidays. Our schedules are booked solid for the foreseeable future. Why does everything always pile up at the end of term no matter how well we plan for it?

I have included some pictures of fall colours in the area; as I know that many people have a hard time imagining anything but tropical weather in South America.

Happy Birthday Argentina! May the next 200 be good to you!

Girl's Weekend!

When the Force and the Earnest Boy decided to head to the woods for the weekend on a boy's retreat, the Glamourous Girl and I couldn't conceal our delight. We would have the house to ourselves and we could do as much girl stuff as we wanted. So while they were building campfires, canoeing and generally rolling around in the dirt, we got down to it.

It goes without saying that we watched The Sound of Music on Friday night. I can't tell you how happy I am that her love for Maria the nun has carried forward a generation. She can sing all the songs by heart and insists on singing along with the film at full capacity. When the Glamourous Girl was born 7 1/2 years ago, I remembered looking at her and thinking how fun it would be one day to share these moments with her. What a joy that this time has arrived!!

On Saturday morning we lazed around. That in and of itself is a treat. When the kids were younger they both had to get up and "do stuff" at the crack of dawn but now they are beginning to realize that getting up and playing quietly in pj's is actually a real luxury. By lunch time we started to come alive and the Glamourous Girl had a long and lovely bath in preparation for our afternoon's activities.

Mid-afternoon we were picked up by a remise (an unmarked taxi or car and driver here in Argentina). We swung by and picked some friends, Mom and daughter, and head into the city. We started with  dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, at the girl's request. They enjoyed munching on chicken fingers and fancy drinks in their Sunday best for their big night out. Meanwhile, we enjoyed dinner and a cocktail and just being out with our girls.

After dinner we met our remise driver who took us over to Avenida Corrientes, which is Buenos Aires' equivalent to Broadway. This is bright lights and big city. Theatres and restaurants go on for blocks and blocks in this part of the art rich city. We hopped out at the Teatro Citi and were whisked inside for our seats to see Bella y la Bestia (Beauty and the Beast).

It turned out to be a full three hour, two act production. The staging and the costumes were fantastic and certainly Disney worthy. The girls sat through the show effortlessly. They loved all the funny characters - the candlestick, the wardrobe and the tea pot and giggled at the jokes in Spanish. The Glamourous Girl was able to follow along as well as if the show as in English. A proud Mama moment....

With the end of the show we called our remise driver. He met us on the street as the crowds piled out into the night. There were people everywhere trying to get taxis and to cross the road. There were vendors selling every whirly-gig imaginable and of course protesters; there are always protesters for something here. Apparently, they were trying to stop the demolition of a local opera house.

We whisked the girls through the madness and into the car. Ahhh, the remise driver is a good thing. We sunk into our seats and enjoyed the drive home through the quiet streets. We had originally planned on post-theatre ice cream but the girls were falling asleep in the car and we decided to skip it. It had been a big day....our beds were calling.

On Sunday we got up early and drove to the mall just before it opened. The mall on Sunday is more of a sport than entertainment, but she needed a few clothes and we decided to go as early as possible. We enjoyed an early morning Starbucks (still a treat here in BA) and as soon as we could we started on our list. First up was a badly needed haircut. They blow-dried her hair and I could tell she was enormously happy with her new do as she flicked her head to and fro.

We shopped for winter clothes until noon. When we could handle the growing crowds no more, we retreated to our car and drove across town to our favourite family restaurant to meet up with our friends for lunch. The girls giggled and chatted and generally had a good time.

The weekend was essentially over. The Glamourous Girl admitted that life wasn't the same without her brother. And I quote, "I miss the teasing...."

The boys arrived back by mid-afternoon and the kids played well for the rest of the day. They had a great time and the Earnest Boy needed an extra long soak in the tub on Sunday night. He was filthy but happy!

By Monday night the kids were arguing again. Life is certainly back to normal. Until next year my sweet girl, thank you!

Everyday Luxuries #2 - Horseback Riding

The kids have been after me to sign them up for horseback riding lessons. Due to an incredibly busy calender it took me a while to get organized but I finally got everything set up a few weeks ago, much to their delight.

Horseback riding is a long standing sport here in Argentina. The gaucho, the campo, the estancia and the horse are a deep part of the psyche of this country. Polo season and horse races are a large part of the upper class social scene. This country was settled on the back of a horse and people have never forgotten that.

The Glamourous Girl tried horse riding some time ago but the Earnest Boy was tiny and uninterested and kept running around the grounds, getting in trouble and generally exhausting both of us. Eventually we gave up. But with everyone a little bit older and a little bit wiser the time felt right. Both kids were up for it, which made it all the more attractive.

Like many children's activities in Argentina the level of care is wonderful. Sweet, young and happy go lucky teachers are never too far away. Life in Buenos Aires for kids is generally pretty great and there can never be enough songs or games to keep them occupied and interested in the class at hand.

The Glamourous Girl and the Earnest Boy get lead around the children's ring on beautiful looking ponies at a lovely riding stable. They learn how to use their reins and their stirrups all while doing races and holding flags as high as they can in a parade. To ensure that each child is at one with the horse - they encourage them to do things like ride backwards, hold their arms up to the sky and lie down. The Earnest Boy looks particularly comfortable in this part of the class and there is usually some discussion if he is going to fall asleep, right then and there.

They encourage the kids to sit up straight and to find the rhythm of the horse. The Glamourous Girl is getting there. She begins to find her stride and then she loses it, but it's coming. With her height and her long blond hair she looks like a goddess on her horse. The Earnest Boy goes round and round each time flashing me an enormous smile on contentment.

Outside of the kiddie ring we watch good looking Argentines ride and jump the most enormous horses I have ever seen. These animals are machines - perfectly muscular and with the shiniest coats. This is Argentina at it's best. The fall weather, the crisp air and those beautiful animals, so well cared for and thriving.

Class ends and they feed their horses carrots and apples from their palms. They have no fear. They are satisfied and tired. Too tired to fight with one another (a wonderful perk for me!). We chat peacefully in the car about their class. At home we make hot chocolate and curl up on the sofa. It's a good day all around.

Once Upon A Time # 2 - Ciudad Del Carmen

All stories begin somewhere and for The Force and I it was in small town Mexico. We spent our honeymoon year in Ciudad del Carmen (not to be confused with the well known beach town of Playa del Carmen which was a seven hour drive away).

For anyone with a sense of adventure, it was a great place to start. It was a small town of 80,000 people, on a small otherwise uninhabited Island. It was on the beach but there was nothing posh about it. It was completely off the tourist trail. I can’t stress this enough. Virtually no one spoke English. At the time there were virtually no known shops and restaurants. Nearly everything was of the ‘Mom and Pop’ variety. I’ve heard that has changed significantly in the last 12 years although I have a hard time imaging a Sam’s Club in the middle of town. We drove three hours on pot holed roads and through military check points every few weeks to stock up on supplies, passing through lush green landscapes. In between we made do with what we could find locally.

We lived in a lovely home, brightly coloured in yellows and blues. We owned literally nothing. We used rented furniture. We did without a clothes dryer, a microwave or an expensive stereo amongst other things. We had no land line telephone and no internet. And yet we survived.

I shopped in outdoor markets buying the freshest tomatoes, onions, cilantro, chilies, mangos and avocados in my life. I watched other people buy live poultry and carry these upside down chickens onto city buses. I would linger in the piñata shop wishing I had a reason (pre children) to buy one of these vividly coloured works of art.

We ate the world’s largest shrimp in enormous quantities at a local beach bar. We ate heaps of tortillas and drank margaritas. I learned to cook Mexican food and to make a mean pico de gallo. I bought endless stalks of cala lilies for  ten cents each that filled our home.

The Force and I bought a tiny Volkswagen Gol and toured all over the Yucatan Peninsula pouring ourselves and various family members into it’s tiny interior. We drove fast highways and excruciating slow back roads. There were chickens and pigs and horses in every direction we looked. The coast line was never far away. We nearly lost our teeth hitting mind boggling, unmarked speed bumps. We visited as many Mayan ruins as we possibly could manage in ten months. I can’t tell you how many pyramids we ran up and down in the tropical heat. We listened to howler monkeys in the jungle and watched coati mundis while hiking in Guatemala. We went to the beach, a lot. My feet have never touched so much sand, before or since. I had the only real tan of my life during our year in Carmen.

The Force came home for siesta each day and we spent a year napping every afternoon. We were no more than five minutes from anywhere. It was a world without commuting or many complications.

It wasn’t Bali or Paris or the South Pacific. It was nowhere Mexico, which made it better. No one wanted what we had, because no one had ever heard of it. It was our secret life and one that I was sad to leave a year later. I would never trade that time. We stepped off the conveyor belt of life and that changed everything. What a gift!