Well we´re back in Buenos Aires. Round 2.
Jason and Nicole Hatton show up today after a week spent on the beaches of Mar del Plata. So, minus Alex, all of the Hattons are now in South America.
Jay and Nicole are up for a good time so we spent to majority of the next few days hangin out with them. The first day we hang out by the pool and catch up on 5 months of lost time. We fill that time void with beer and wine and oddly enough, its Lisa and Nicole who are a bad influence on the nice little Hatton boys. Tsk Tsk.
The Dakar Rally is wrapping up so we go and watch the closing ceremonies. Our VIP wrist band have been rendered usless until now. Too hungover to stay and watch all of the competitors cross the finish line we head towards the exit when we stumble across a banquet. Our VIP passes spring to life and we suddenly aren´t too hungover for the free wine and roast beef sandwiches provided... (which Lisa and Kevin will later discover caused their minor dose of food poisoning. Stupid wrist bands)
(3rd place Robby Gorden)
A main attraction in Buenos Aires is the cemetary. It seems kinda morbid but its a spectacular display of 18th century architecture ... for the dead. Muah-ha-ha-ha. The likes of Old Generals and war heroes, as well as Madonna ... I mean, Evita were buried here. Its a maze of hundreds of above ground tombs, some of which are crumbling and the coffins inside are slightly broken to reveal their decaying contents.
¨WAIT, what was that?¨ cries a terrified Jason.
¨Ya, I heard that too ... it sounded like a scream¨ says Lisa
¨Oh my God guys, this place creeps me out¨ says Jason
¨Help meeee¨ is heard in a high pitch tone in the distance
¨Oh crap guys¨ says Jason, now shaking
¨Wait, wasnt that Lisa?¨ the ever so clever Kevin points out
Hahahahahaha. Why would a spanish ghost be screaming in English? we later ponder. Nicole is off staring at statues, not really paying attention to her terrified husband. Not moments, a cat walks by and Jason jumps.
The next day, we decided to take a train out to Tigre, another section of BA, for a river boat ride. On the way down, Lisa is far to ill (probably from the roast beef and empanadas) so she returns to her room while Kevin, Jason and Nicole venture out. There isnt much to say about the river, it was dirty and gross and when you used the toilet on the boat, it drained directly into the water. But of course, that didnt stop the Argentineans from swimming next to it and waving proudly at the tourists. (We have to point out that there isnt just 1 boat, there is 30 boats all fitting about 60 people in a series of 5 rivers that all join together .. so the water is a murky brown to say the least.) They arrive back to the hostel to find Lisa, incredibly bored and anxious to go out as she ate an apple and feels a little bit better. They quickly get dressed and we all head out to Dinner and a Tango Show. Because we havent booked in advance, we didnt have the luxery of an immaculate show. We were greatly dissapointed so 3 out of the 4 of us decide to drink. The beers arent cheap. Now we are even more dissapointed. But hey, it´s Jason and Nicoles last night in BA with us, and they got to experience the art of tango. We still had fun.
Its wierd to think the Hattons have all come and gone this month, and we still remain. Its off to Villa Gesell, 5 hours south of BA, where the beaches are the main attraction.
Villa Gesell is apparantly a ¨laid back dune community¨. When we think of this, we imagine Punta del Diablo, a very tiny town with dirt roads and no traffic. Boy were we mistaken. Its fairly big and extremely busy! The beaches are shoulder to shoulder and the city sleeps for maybe 1 hour a night. We find a hostel on the main drag ... big mistake. Our road closes down at night and becomes a passenger street. All the Argentinean teenage vacationers, street performers and live bands come here to party until dawn. Arcades are open 24hrs a day, and the pubs all spill onto the street. Little children with their moms and dads are up until 4am or later and yet rise again at 7 to make just as much noise. Needless to say, we didnt get much sleep. Not because we partied to hard because there isnt much to do here besides the arcades, but because no one sleeps. One of the nights we made use of the arcades and hit up its bowling lanes. Apparntly with more beers, Lisa gets good. She gets a strike for her first turn and Kevin gets zero. Final score : Lisa 96, Kevin 42. Same thing with pool the next night. Lisa wins 2 of the 3 games. She has a sweet tactic you see. She doesnt sink any balls (not because she sucks, no no, its her tactic) and waits for Kevin to sink all of his. Then, he cant get through the abundance of Lisas balls to hit the black ball so he accidently sinks them for her. She catches up and calls the 8 ball to its home in the corner pocket and wins the day! She is a shark.
So, since our last futbal match in Rio was a dissapointment, we decide to give the sport another chance. There is a big game in Mar Del Plata between BA´s 2 rival teams - Boca Jrs and River Plate. (Coke is the major sponser for the Argentinean soccer league. Rivers colors are red and white. Boca Jrs home stadium refused to have coke as a sponser unless they were to change the colors because they didnt want red and white on their stadium. Coke agreed and displays on their stadium probably one of the only black and white Coca Cola adverts in the world.) Boca won the Argentinean Cup in December against River so this game was a grudge match and bound to be awesome. We get there and there are cops on horses and riot police lining the entrance. We got dropped off at the Boca entrance (because you have to declare who you are cheering for when you buy your tickets) and we chose Boca because there are more Boca fans and there is saftey in numbers. The police only allow people in about 20 at a time. Then women and men separate to be searched, then they go through few more series of guards, then meet to go find their seats. We have seats right on the line between the River fans and the Boca fans. The only thing that separates us is a 10 ft high barbed wire fence and riot police guarding it on either side. But that still doesnt stop fans from taunting eachother and throwing whatever they can get their hands on, over the fence. The game was awesome and entertaining. We sang songs which we didnt understand, fans threw air bombs onto the field and there was a great firework display compliments of the River fans. At then end of the game, the helicopter cops flew around and made sure all the River fans had left and told the police when it was safe to release the Boca Fans. So for an hour we stood behind a barbed wire fence with an entourage of 40,000 other people all waiting to leave through 1 gate waiting anxiously to be released. When the riot cops finally freed us, there was no need to use our legs to hold us up, the mob did that for us. We were guided through the mob safely to our tour bus for a 2 hour bus ride back to Villa Gisell. We arrive at 4am, have to walk 10 blocks to our hostel and of course, hundreds of people are still lining the streets singing Boca songs and cheering.
It´s off to Buenos Aires for the final leg of our journey. Round 3 in BA ... we`re getting kind of sick of it. Home will be bittersweet.
Jason and Nicole Hatton show up today after a week spent on the beaches of Mar del Plata. So, minus Alex, all of the Hattons are now in South America.
Jay and Nicole are up for a good time so we spent to majority of the next few days hangin out with them. The first day we hang out by the pool and catch up on 5 months of lost time. We fill that time void with beer and wine and oddly enough, its Lisa and Nicole who are a bad influence on the nice little Hatton boys. Tsk Tsk.
The Dakar Rally is wrapping up so we go and watch the closing ceremonies. Our VIP wrist band have been rendered usless until now. Too hungover to stay and watch all of the competitors cross the finish line we head towards the exit when we stumble across a banquet. Our VIP passes spring to life and we suddenly aren´t too hungover for the free wine and roast beef sandwiches provided... (which Lisa and Kevin will later discover caused their minor dose of food poisoning. Stupid wrist bands)
(3rd place Robby Gorden)A main attraction in Buenos Aires is the cemetary. It seems kinda morbid but its a spectacular display of 18th century architecture ... for the dead. Muah-ha-ha-ha. The likes of Old Generals and war heroes, as well as Madonna ... I mean, Evita were buried here. Its a maze of hundreds of above ground tombs, some of which are crumbling and the coffins inside are slightly broken to reveal their decaying contents.
¨WAIT, what was that?¨ cries a terrified Jason.
¨Ya, I heard that too ... it sounded like a scream¨ says Lisa
¨Oh my God guys, this place creeps me out¨ says Jason
¨Help meeee¨ is heard in a high pitch tone in the distance
¨Oh crap guys¨ says Jason, now shaking
¨Wait, wasnt that Lisa?¨ the ever so clever Kevin points out
Hahahahahaha. Why would a spanish ghost be screaming in English? we later ponder. Nicole is off staring at statues, not really paying attention to her terrified husband. Not moments, a cat walks by and Jason jumps.
The next day, we decided to take a train out to Tigre, another section of BA, for a river boat ride. On the way down, Lisa is far to ill (probably from the roast beef and empanadas) so she returns to her room while Kevin, Jason and Nicole venture out. There isnt much to say about the river, it was dirty and gross and when you used the toilet on the boat, it drained directly into the water. But of course, that didnt stop the Argentineans from swimming next to it and waving proudly at the tourists. (We have to point out that there isnt just 1 boat, there is 30 boats all fitting about 60 people in a series of 5 rivers that all join together .. so the water is a murky brown to say the least.) They arrive back to the hostel to find Lisa, incredibly bored and anxious to go out as she ate an apple and feels a little bit better. They quickly get dressed and we all head out to Dinner and a Tango Show. Because we havent booked in advance, we didnt have the luxery of an immaculate show. We were greatly dissapointed so 3 out of the 4 of us decide to drink. The beers arent cheap. Now we are even more dissapointed. But hey, it´s Jason and Nicoles last night in BA with us, and they got to experience the art of tango. We still had fun.
Its wierd to think the Hattons have all come and gone this month, and we still remain. Its off to Villa Gesell, 5 hours south of BA, where the beaches are the main attraction.
Villa Gesell is apparantly a ¨laid back dune community¨. When we think of this, we imagine Punta del Diablo, a very tiny town with dirt roads and no traffic. Boy were we mistaken. Its fairly big and extremely busy! The beaches are shoulder to shoulder and the city sleeps for maybe 1 hour a night. We find a hostel on the main drag ... big mistake. Our road closes down at night and becomes a passenger street. All the Argentinean teenage vacationers, street performers and live bands come here to party until dawn. Arcades are open 24hrs a day, and the pubs all spill onto the street. Little children with their moms and dads are up until 4am or later and yet rise again at 7 to make just as much noise. Needless to say, we didnt get much sleep. Not because we partied to hard because there isnt much to do here besides the arcades, but because no one sleeps. One of the nights we made use of the arcades and hit up its bowling lanes. Apparntly with more beers, Lisa gets good. She gets a strike for her first turn and Kevin gets zero. Final score : Lisa 96, Kevin 42. Same thing with pool the next night. Lisa wins 2 of the 3 games. She has a sweet tactic you see. She doesnt sink any balls (not because she sucks, no no, its her tactic) and waits for Kevin to sink all of his. Then, he cant get through the abundance of Lisas balls to hit the black ball so he accidently sinks them for her. She catches up and calls the 8 ball to its home in the corner pocket and wins the day! She is a shark.
So, since our last futbal match in Rio was a dissapointment, we decide to give the sport another chance. There is a big game in Mar Del Plata between BA´s 2 rival teams - Boca Jrs and River Plate. (Coke is the major sponser for the Argentinean soccer league. Rivers colors are red and white. Boca Jrs home stadium refused to have coke as a sponser unless they were to change the colors because they didnt want red and white on their stadium. Coke agreed and displays on their stadium probably one of the only black and white Coca Cola adverts in the world.) Boca won the Argentinean Cup in December against River so this game was a grudge match and bound to be awesome. We get there and there are cops on horses and riot police lining the entrance. We got dropped off at the Boca entrance (because you have to declare who you are cheering for when you buy your tickets) and we chose Boca because there are more Boca fans and there is saftey in numbers. The police only allow people in about 20 at a time. Then women and men separate to be searched, then they go through few more series of guards, then meet to go find their seats. We have seats right on the line between the River fans and the Boca fans. The only thing that separates us is a 10 ft high barbed wire fence and riot police guarding it on either side. But that still doesnt stop fans from taunting eachother and throwing whatever they can get their hands on, over the fence. The game was awesome and entertaining. We sang songs which we didnt understand, fans threw air bombs onto the field and there was a great firework display compliments of the River fans. At then end of the game, the helicopter cops flew around and made sure all the River fans had left and told the police when it was safe to release the Boca Fans. So for an hour we stood behind a barbed wire fence with an entourage of 40,000 other people all waiting to leave through 1 gate waiting anxiously to be released. When the riot cops finally freed us, there was no need to use our legs to hold us up, the mob did that for us. We were guided through the mob safely to our tour bus for a 2 hour bus ride back to Villa Gisell. We arrive at 4am, have to walk 10 blocks to our hostel and of course, hundreds of people are still lining the streets singing Boca songs and cheering.
It´s off to Buenos Aires for the final leg of our journey. Round 3 in BA ... we`re getting kind of sick of it. Home will be bittersweet.
1 comment:
Count down Kids...2 more days until your in Vancouver, and 4 until your in my arms....I can't wait!! What an adventure you both have had, we can't wait to catch up on ALL the wonderful things you have experienced. Love Mom xx
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