Argentina

November 6-29, 2009

November 25: Relaxing in Buenos Aires

This morning was cleanup day. We spent the morning doing laundry, taking baths/showers, and organizing our stuff. For lunch we had spaghetti and only by 2pm were we ready to head out. The weather was pretty hot and the trees are all in full bloom with purple and orange blossoms everywhere to Samantha's delight. Our destination: Plaza Santo Pelligrini with a virtual geocache in the former president's honour. Dr. Carlos Pellegrini was a politician and consultant attorney born in Argentina (1846-1906). He was the Argentine President from 1890 to 1892. He was founder of Banco de la Nacion in 1891 and founder of the Jockey Club in 1882.

After the geocache we walked around a bit and finished up with a visit to a playground near Christine's place. For supper Christine made us the most delicious lomo (beef tenderloin) ever! MMMMM! It was accompanied with mashed potato, salad, and corn. Dessert was ice cream with a cake from a local pastry shop. We ate way too much!

Once the kids were in bed we had a relaxing evening getting caught up on the last 2 episodes of Survivor. Boy, Russel was such a baby! ;-)

Auntie Christine has surprises for the kids before she heads off to work.

The kids and their balloons.

Samantha having breakfast.

Rubby and Christopher with the GPS by Carlos Pellegrini's monument... the requisite photo for logging the virtual cache "Buenos Aires Monumental cache". The statue is a masterpiece by the French artist Felix Coutan (1848-1938), uncovered in 1914. The monument combines marble of Carrara and bronze. The foundation symbolizes the prow of a boat which holds the figure of Pelligrini who with the left hand is grasping the flag and with the right hand is expressing his firm determination to defend it through the institutions he established.

Sam's upset cause she wanted to be in the photo too.

Home of the Jockey Club which Pelligrini founded in 1882.

The Brazilian embassy.

The Louis XIV-style Palacio Ortiz Basualdo is the location of the French Embassy. It narrowly escaped demolition in the 1950s when Avenida 9 de Julio was widened, though it did have to be altered considerably to accomodate the highway.

Continuing our walk along the streets of Buenos Aires.

Palm trees and flowers everywhere.

Interesting balconies. On many buildings the lower balconies are completely caged in to keep burglars from getting into the apartments.

Samantha picking up some of the purple flower petals and seed pods.

It's like purple snow all over!

A very ornate water fountain which is a replica of a historic fountain in Spain and
was donated to the city of Buenos Aires in November 1996.

Another street named after a famous Argentine politician and former president.

Avenida Alvear is one of the city's shortest but most exclusive avenues,
line with expensive art galleries and international designer fashio boutiques.

City construction... once again you see mostly manual labour.

Samantha liked the sparkly Christmas tree with the butterfly on top.

Samantha is happy that on the way back to Auntie Christine's we stopped by a playground.

At first we thought you had to pay to get in because there's a fence all around the playground and a person was at the gate letting people in and out but it turns out it was just a security feature.