Argentina- Part II

Wednesday morning we went on a city tour to all the major monuments. Buenos Aires, and Argentina in general, has some beautiful architecture. It's the "Paris of South America." We have a friend who has lived in Italy and Buenos Aires and prefers the food and culture of Buenos Aires. Makes me feel a bit better about us not going to Italy this year. They have FABULOUS ice cream in Buenos Aires – the Italian influence there – and we couldn’t get enough! Ok, let's talk about the food a little here.

Argentines are known for their love of red meat too. They consume the most red meat in the world behind the U.S. And the difference is that there are 245 million people in the U.S. and only 40 million in Argentina. We had the best meat I've ever had. All straight off the BBQ. You can even get a filet mignon at a fast-food joint in the mall for only $10. And it's good!

There is also a lot of pasta and bread. I loved their pizza because it was made with a thinner crust and not too much sauce and TONS of cheese. Dallin loved the gnocchis. We got all of this fresh bread one morning for $3.

Back to the tour. We were able to see the casa rosada or "Pink House" which is like our White House except it's pink. It's also where there have been a lot of demonstrations and violent protests and also where Evita spoke to the crowd. We went through the neighborhoods of San Telmo (Tango), La Boca (ghetto and soccer) and La Madera (ritzy) with a stop in Recoleta. We ended our tour in Recoleta and were able to tour the cemetery. It was a city within a city. All the cemeteries in Ecuador are above ground but the tombs here were something else. Some elaborate, some scary, one was open with a broken casket that reeked the most awful smell... We stopped by Evita's family tomb where she is buried after consulting the map to get us there - the place was huge! Also, very scary for a game of hide and seek.

Thursday we did the last of our shopping and packing and one more ice cream run and that early evening we flew out. We were on the red eye to Atlanta and I slept for a few hours. Dallin didn’t sleep at all. We ran through immigrations, customs, security and our plane home was already boarding. We got home about 9 a.m. and went home and showered then went straight to my grandma’s to say goodbye. She is so not well. Her bones in her back and ribs have been crumbling from osteoporosis and she’s down to 74 pounds. It was really hard and emotional. She’s still hanging on by a thread, I’m just waiting for the phone call.

Overall – I’m so glad we went. Argentina is gorgeous. The first couple days I thought my head would explode trying to switch back to Spanish but by the end of the trip it was coming as if I'd never left. I've actually had a hard time switching back to English and still some Spanish words come quicker so I have to think about what I'm going to say. It was an amazing trip.