Day 169 (December 8): Muchas Gracias, Argentina
Not for nothing but this week Henry memorized perfect squares. So here's looking at you, Day 13^2.
Let's review:
Landed in Buenos Aires on November 10th.
Spent November 24-30 in Uruguay
Iguazu Falls Dec 1-4
Mendoza Dec 4-8
We've rounded it off to say that we were in Argentina for a month. We don't mean any disrespect to Uruguay but this is a shorter answer. Our last few days in Argentina were in Mendoza. At one point, we were going to hop Iguazu-Cordoba-Mendoza but realized that would be too many stops in too short a period of time. Also, the flights were crazy.
So we had three full days on the ground in Mendoza. One of them was really great. Let's focus on that.
The van picked us up at 9am. About an hour later we were at the basecamp of Potrerillos Exporer in the foothills of the Andes. Our first appointment was for an hour of horseback riding. We weren't sure how this was going to go. To our pleasant surprise, Cate wanted to ride a horse by herself, which she did with a gaucho holding the reins. Ali was more reticent; she rode with Elise (who had never shared a ride before) and it WORKED!
Our second appointment was rafting. I can't lie, getting to the point when we were in the raft was awful. Getting the twins into wetsuits (required) was miserable. It was super hot in the sun, the suits were uncomfortable and more. The van drove us about 15 minutes to the put in point and almost immediately all was well.
Our guide was Tomas. He was obviously excellent at his job and he was also excellent with us, including the kids. Ali and Cate rode just in front of him and he made a thrilling game for them of dropping down between the rows. He put me and Elise in the front (at first). Henry would have gotten out and pushed the boat downstream if he was allowed. The van driver took pictures of us from various points and, by a miracle of technology, we also have footage from the GoPro they mounted at the bow of the raft.
After both adventures, we had lunch at a parilla (a grill), where we were the only customers and they served enough food for several days. It was excellent. Some of us slept for most of the ride home;)
In non-adventure news, I was a pretty ineffective tour director in Mendoza. I signed us up for a walking tour that I thought would cover the array of parks and plazas in about 90 minutes but instead it was a different part of the city in 3 hours. We abandoned. I marched us in the blazing sun to Mendoza's "Central Park" but we had to abandon that too on account of time and heat exhaustion. On Saturday we headed for the traditional central market for eye candy and lunch. It was beastly hot inside so, guess what, we abandoned.
On the other hand we had one exceptionally terrific day of school that allowed Lily to finish the first of her two math books. That's almost 3 pounds out of our suitcase (look closely)!
Finally, Henry came up with a really awesome new 12 on 6 photo for us. Please look closely.
Let's review:
Landed in Buenos Aires on November 10th.
Spent November 24-30 in Uruguay
Iguazu Falls Dec 1-4
Mendoza Dec 4-8
We've rounded it off to say that we were in Argentina for a month. We don't mean any disrespect to Uruguay but this is a shorter answer. Our last few days in Argentina were in Mendoza. At one point, we were going to hop Iguazu-Cordoba-Mendoza but realized that would be too many stops in too short a period of time. Also, the flights were crazy.
So we had three full days on the ground in Mendoza. One of them was really great. Let's focus on that.
The van picked us up at 9am. About an hour later we were at the basecamp of Potrerillos Exporer in the foothills of the Andes. Our first appointment was for an hour of horseback riding. We weren't sure how this was going to go. To our pleasant surprise, Cate wanted to ride a horse by herself, which she did with a gaucho holding the reins. Ali was more reticent; she rode with Elise (who had never shared a ride before) and it WORKED!
Our second appointment was rafting. I can't lie, getting to the point when we were in the raft was awful. Getting the twins into wetsuits (required) was miserable. It was super hot in the sun, the suits were uncomfortable and more. The van drove us about 15 minutes to the put in point and almost immediately all was well.
Our guide was Tomas. He was obviously excellent at his job and he was also excellent with us, including the kids. Ali and Cate rode just in front of him and he made a thrilling game for them of dropping down between the rows. He put me and Elise in the front (at first). Henry would have gotten out and pushed the boat downstream if he was allowed. The van driver took pictures of us from various points and, by a miracle of technology, we also have footage from the GoPro they mounted at the bow of the raft.
After both adventures, we had lunch at a parilla (a grill), where we were the only customers and they served enough food for several days. It was excellent. Some of us slept for most of the ride home;)
In non-adventure news, I was a pretty ineffective tour director in Mendoza. I signed us up for a walking tour that I thought would cover the array of parks and plazas in about 90 minutes but instead it was a different part of the city in 3 hours. We abandoned. I marched us in the blazing sun to Mendoza's "Central Park" but we had to abandon that too on account of time and heat exhaustion. On Saturday we headed for the traditional central market for eye candy and lunch. It was beastly hot inside so, guess what, we abandoned.
On the other hand we had one exceptionally terrific day of school that allowed Lily to finish the first of her two math books. That's almost 3 pounds out of our suitcase (look closely)!
Finally, Henry came up with a really awesome new 12 on 6 photo for us. Please look closely.
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