Argentina Trip!

I've waited way too long to blog about Argentina. We've been home for almost a month now! Oops. You can always go back and read this blog but it's lacking on information....so here's a short synopsis of our trip and a link to my almost 200 pictures on facebook. I'm not about to try to pick my favorites and post them here!

Click here for PICTURES

We flew out of DFW on Sunday night. I realized that day that the government screwed up my passport and put my maiden name on there. Since there was nothing I could do about it at that point we decided to just go to the airport and see what would happen. ***Side note: ALWAYS THOROUGHLY CHECK YOUR PASSPORT WHEN IT ARRIVES!*** AA pretty much told me they would not let me go on the flight and would rebook me for the next day under Hillary Little. We begged we pleaded we prayed. And the prayers worked. The worker realized she could take me off my flight as Hillary Anderson and rebook it as Hillary Little. Same flight. Problem solved and off we went! I just had to be Hillary Little for the week....no problems there! We had one of the new 777 planes that is super big with personal TVs at every seat so our 11 hour flight wasn't THAT bad. It was overnight so we slept a lot and watched a lot of movies and sitcoms that were on the TV. We arrived in Buenos Aires at 9 Monday morning (they are 2 hours ahead of us). We walked around the city after we dropped off our bags at our apartment and had breakfast and lunch. We did a little sight seeing and napping of course that afternoon and had a nice dinner....wonderful first day but we were pretty tired!

We spent Tuesday & Wednesday shopping and doing Buenos Aires sight seeing. We stayed mostly in the city, went to the Japanese gardens, saw the Pink House (like our White House), the Obelisco and just the beautiful city in general. We went grocery shopping and to a little museum that had some historical artifacts that were pretty neat. We also went to this HUGE cemetary where there are TONS of above ground tombs. You could see inside to the caskets and artifacts that were left with them...kinda creepy but also VERY cool. Evita is actually buried there and her grave is always surrounded by tourists and full of flowers from admirers. We ate two of my favorite things....ice cream (helado) and noquis...yum. I miss them already. I experienced choripan (basically a sausage sandwich) and sipping soda out of a bottle with a straw. Lots of neat experiences to remember!

We met up with a family Jake knew on his mission on Wednesday night. We ate dinner at their home and they took us to a feria on the outskirts of their town. They made me wear my hood so my fair skinned, blue eyed self would blend in a little better. It's winter down there so I was already covered in coats and jeans. They are wonderful people and I was so impressed with how much they love each other and love life despite the fact that they have very little money and very little possessions. They don't feel that life has dealt them a rough blow, rather they laugh and spend time together as a family which is amazing. I fell in love with them instantly.

Thursday we did some more shopping and sight seeing. There really is an endless suppy of shopping and sights! Florida Street hold lots of shops with great deals and shopping. If only we had come over with thousands of dollars and extra suitcases! Our friends came to us that night and we took them to Florida Street to look around. We had told them we would take them anywere they wanted for dinner and they chose Burger King :) So we went to an arcade and Burger King for some good old fashioned fun. I was sorry to see them go!

We spent Friday in La Boca doing shopping at Caminto. This was the cutest little town, full of brightly colored buildings, and again, great shopping and great food. We definitely spent tons of money in Argentina! Oh well....all well worth it.

On Saturday night we went out to another town to see another family at their home. Again, these people live so simply and humbly and are so completely happy. I fell in love with this large family also and wanted to bring them all back home with me. They taught me to make milenesa and the world's best empanadas and we had a great time laughing and catching up. Jake had to do a lot of translating since we don't share a common language but it was good for him to brush up on that ability :) We stayed so late we missed the last train back to Buenos Aires and had to take a taxi..oops!

Speaking of taxis...I loved the public transportation. The subtes, colectivos and remises were fun! We walked a lot but took public transportation to get further away. Not sure why I loved it so much but I did :)

We had to go back home on Sunday and I was SO sad. I love Argentina and it's people and can't wait to visit again!