From Buenos Aires to Bariloche

Hi Everyone,
We are currently in a place called Osorno wasting time on a stop-over en route to Santiago, Chile. Since I wrote last, we travelled from Uruguay back across the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Buenos Aires was awesome! I just loved it. It is an extremely sophisticated and bustling city with a European feel to it. The food was incredible...and incredibly cheap too. Mom, you would love it! The Darlings rented an apartment downtown for the 5 of us as a base for our exploring before Becky left from BA after 3 hectic days of mostly shopping.

The first sight we went to see was Rodin´s "Thinker" (a real one this time, unlike the one in Recife) where we met up with Trish and Dave, Mike´s aunt and uncle from Edmonton.


Mike thinking


Buenos Aires is the home of Tango and one of the highlights was going to a Tango dinner show with Ted, Donna, Trish and Dave. Ted and I even got some unexpected lessons as the show was going on with the dancers in the show. I guess I should have known it was coming when the singer winked at me. Next time that will be my cue to head for the bathroom I think...


Ted getting an impromptu lesson.



You have to learn fast when your first lesson is on stage.


Real tango dancers with all the drama and passion you could ask for in a free show on the street.



We also went to Recoleta cemetery, the place where the who's who of Argentine society rests in peace (people like Evita for example). The mausoleums there range from elaborate and imposing to ornate and obstentatious, although some are beter kept than others. Many have subterranean labrynths underneath to hold the urns or coffins of all of the family members entombed there. There was one dishevelled mausoleum containing a coffin that must have been jostled somehow explosing the occupant´s broken bones and skull. Some of them didn´t smell very nice either. Perhaps they were freshly used.


Recoleta


After a week in BA, we spent 24 hours on a bus headed across the Pampas (flatter than the trip to Winnipeg!). This bus ride was no ordinary bus ride though...we had a "super cama" meaning a big comfy chair that reclined all the way. Really and truly, Mike´s parents are spoiling us. We ended up in beautiful Bariloche in the Andes which reminded me a lot of Banff.


Mike being a fruit on Victoria Island


Lake Nahuel Huapi at Bariloche



That is all for now. Will write more soon.