Pasteles

We are heading off to Cataratas del Iguazú in a few minutes, but I wanted to leave you with these:



Mmmmm! These, my friends, are Pasteles de Batata, a traditional Argentine favorite. They are a little piece of heaven, if you ask Tyler and I. Tyler ordered one this week from our favorite local diner (Nu Saperia). Even though I'm still on my sugar fast, he made me take a bite. So I did.

And then another. Oh. My.

I know a batata is a potato, but whatever they do to it for the filling, it tastes nothing like a veggie. I think it has a lot to do with Dulce de Leche...

Our Mendoza trip in photos!



In sum...
We did a bike and wine tour, visited some thermal springs in the Andes, enjoyed touring some small bodegas (wineries), and loved our hostel. Ella made two furry friends from the hostel, enjoyed swimming, and had lots of fun in new parks. Autumn was coming on strong--a strange thing to occur in May! The country was gorgeous with brilliant colors and set on the Chilean boarder next to the Andes mountain range.

Mendoza Part Uno

We have only been here for a bit. We're a bit bus-lagged from the overnight bus from BA to here. There are no discount airlines here and flying is never cheap. But the bus was really luxurious and had fully reclining seats. Pea slept like a, uh, baby. But I sure didn’t. Anyway, we’ve only spent a couple of hours wandering the city. I woke up from the nap and Ella and Tyler are still asleep, so I’m working and blogging.

Mendoza is much smaller (it is the 4th biggest city in Argentina) and a fair amount quieter in comparison. Our ears are going to ring when we get back to super-quiet Colorado! And the city is very touristy. We’re staying at a fantastic hostel—best rated here. They’ve got hammocks all over the yard and two big (but friendly) dogs. The hostel has a big dinner every Monday night, parilla style, so we’ll get to hang out with some others, mostly English speaking. Hurray! We have a private room and bathroom, in case you were wondering. It's the nicest hostel I've ever been in!

Tomorrow we are doing a bike and wine tour that goes from 9:30 to 5:30. Who drinks wine that early in the morning?! I suppose we have to get to the place, get our bikes, and bike to their first bodega (winery), but still. Wednesday we are going to a ‘water park’ made from thermal heated pools, about 30 kilometers outside the city, and up in the Andes mountains. Hot springs! Some of the pools are Ella friendly temperature-wise, and I know she’ll love it. On Thursday we are doing a huge bodega tour, complete with a 5 course lunch and wine pairing. Thursday night, we’ll jump back on our cruiser bus and begin the trek back to Buenos Aires.

And Friday we will begin detox.

4 months down, 2 to go

Let me first say that we are having a fantastic time. We're enjoying big city life. Tyler and I are really getting somewhere with tango now. We have a fantastic tango studio. Ella is loving the weather and the parks. We're thrilled that some of the Paskiewicz's made it out to visit us. And we're really just happy to be on this ex-pat life adventure. We will have lived outside of the US for 6 months!

But. We are really homesick these days. We miss our family and friends, and many of our home comforts. Our king sized memory foam matress--which is just so great when you are co-sleeping with a toddler. Our super ginormous kitchen, which prior to this, I thought was pretty small. Our wonderful dog, Junuh, who we fear will have forgotten us or resent us for leaving him. All our clothes! But I digress...

When I think of time, I think in picture or shape form. For example, when I think of one year, I see a big circle of 365 days. Our six month stint in Argentina looks to me like a big hill. The first three months were the uphill. The last three are the downhill. And now that we have two months left, things are starting to pick up pace. We hit the two-months-to-go mark on Friday. That got me thinking about all the things I would like to see or do before we leave. Who wants to leave with regrets?! So here are a few things I would like to check off:

Travel to Mendoza, Argentina. We're taking an overnight bus next Sunday to spend four days in wine country. It's on the boarder of Chile, and should be some beautiful country.

Build a little big of a tango music collection. I need to start asking about songs and artists in our classes.

Continue to work on my Castellano. I have a tudor that I meet with now three times a week. She's fun and an excellent teacher. But I'm still in the 'trying to comprehend what I hear' stage. And still do not speak it well.

Travel to Iguazu. We're not completely sure if we'll make this trip. But we're going to try.

Buy another pair of gorgeous dance shoes.

Take more pictures of the city. You tend to take less pictures of your home town than when you're on vacation. And now that it feels like we live here, verses visiting, I've been taking less photos.

Dance at more milangas. I think it's time to take less classes and dance at more dances.

There are a few tourist sites that we haven't seen yet. This is one:

There are a couple of things that don't really have anything to do with being here that I would like to finish up before I get home. One is catching up on a journal I started for Ella when she was born. I'm a bit behind on it and am trying to get caught up. I'd also like to finish up a big chunk of my La Leche League Leadership training.

That's all I can think of right now. We miss you all. And I leave you with Ella and her new hat, aka Tyler's netbook case.