Cumpleaños!

Hi all,

Just thought I would post a pic from Mike's B-day which was on the 12th. He turned 47. I mean, 27. We went for Sushi, opened presents (even our gym where we work out gave Mike a present) and had smartie cake, as is the tradition.

A couple assorted pics for your viewing pleasure...

The Darling family and me at Iguazu.

The newest love of my life?? Nope.

Thanks for sending me the pics Donna.

Jesus land! I mean.."Tierra Santa"

Hasn't everyone always fantasized about combining Sunday school with Disneyland? I know I have! Well, such a thing actually exists! Really! "Tierra Santa" is a religious theme park here in Buenos Aires. It is a replica of 1st century CE Jerusalem complete with a mini-Mosque and Synagogue, a Wailing wall, and a Via Dolorosa with all the stations of the cross! There is also a replica Golgotha, a light, lazer and sound show about Creation (which the brochure is sure to point out neither argues for or against evolution), and the Ark of the covenant (if only Indie thought to look in Argentina!) and more, replete with camel and donkey statues and manequin slaves being whipped by their Roman oppressors as well as "authentic" Middle Eastern food (inluding pasta, pizza and hot dogs).

Kitsch, kitsch and more kitsch! It was awesome! Really, in all honesty, it was pretty neat and I am glad we went even if the robotic Jesus at the Last Supper table didn't inspire me to be be reborn as a Christian.

Looking out over "ancient Jerusalem."


Me and Jesus the big friendly giant.

Don't you hate when people read the Torah over your shoulder? Mike with his Kipa inside the synagogue.

Me with my buddy Martin Luther. Who knew he lived in first century Jerusalem?

Mike running into Ghandi. Yes, Ghandi. Uh huh.

The Wailing Wall. The sign says that all the notes that are stuffed into the cracks will be desposited into the cracks at the real Wailing Wall.

A mixture of the sacred and profane...well maybe the belly dancers were a little more profane than sacred.

Adam--I mean a gorilla. The most beloved figure in the Creation light, laser and sound show.

Back to Uruguay

Hello All,

Thanks to everybody who still reads the blog, and especially for the comments. Sorry we don't update it more often...honestly though, since we are living quite a settled existence these days and are in the swing of a very regular routine, it would be boring as heck to write about what we do everyday. (Pretty much just school, homework, grocery shopping, capoeira/workout for anybody who is actually curious...Mom and Dad that is).

We did have quite an exciting week last week though, while we were on vacation from our holiday. For one, we went to Uruguay in order to renew our visas. We hopped on Buquebus (the ferry here) and made it across the Rio de la Plata to a place called Colonia four hours later (it is a sloooow ferry). We came home 8 hours later, only 98 pesos poorer, able to stay another 3 months here legally. Actually, it was meant to be I think, since Mike found a handful of Uruguayan pesos in the pocket in his trunks from when we there months ago, just enough to have a chivito for lunch (THE national food in Uruguay--basically a steak sandwich) without changing any money.

Here is Mike at the gate of the old walled city.

Uruguay is supposed to be a little like cuba, with tons of old cars everywhere...a collectors dream. I guess that is why I didn't see all that many--they have all been collected.

With the remnants of the fortress.

Street scene in Colonia.

Mike with the ferry.

Catedral

Last week we finished up our first Spanish class at the University of Buenos Aires, and we have a week off before the next level starts. So since we have some extra time we went and took a peak at the Municipal Cathedral in Plaza de Mayo, across from the Casa Rosada. From the exterior, it doesn`t look too much like a church. It`s got Corinthian columns (with the curly-cues), and looks more like a government institution.

The main sight inside the church is the mausoleum of San Martín, who was involved in the liberation of Argentina, Chile and Peru... possible others, not sure.

They seem to like their mausoleums in Latin America, and I suppose that all their liberations came at a simlar time, after Napolean took over Spain and brought the legitimacy of Spanish rule into question. We also had a look at a very interesting mausoleum in Montevideo with an honour guard. There was also something similar in Santiago de Chile, but we weren`t able to figure out if we could go in or not.

Anyways, the mausoleum is quite interesting; the sarcophagus is guarded by sculptures on all sides, and if that`s not enough there is a 24 hour honour guard outside the chapel. We were lucky to be there to see a changing of the guard. All the tourists in the church (of which the majority was comprised) rushed over to watch, and had to run out of the way of the guards, who were not about to stop for them. They`ve got pointy swords, as can be seen by the marks they leave in the floor where they rest them while on dury, and I wonder if they`ve ever been tempted to give a poking to tourists who were slow to move out of the way...

mike