Salta and around

Before we come home we are taking a vacation in the northwest of Argentina. First we flew from Trelew to Buenos Aires and met up with my dad (he was in Oklahoma city a few days before). Then we stayed in the Lafayette hotel for a night. The next day we flew from Buenos Aires to Salta.  In Salta we rented a car and drove for four hours. It should have been three but dad got a little messed up and did a huge detour.  Our destination was Cafyate, a town that makes very good wine (according to mom and dad).  After staying a night there we drove in to a town called Tafi del Valle. We are staying two nights here.  We are also here right now. After this we are going to drive to Salta, stay three nights, drive to a place called Cachi stay two nights, go back to Salta, fly to Buenos Aires stay one night there and finely go home!!!!!

I forgot to tell you, there were hundreds of cactus on the way! 

A really cool ravine on the way to Cafyate

Eating enpanatas in Cafyate. An enpanata is like a little fried burrito. 

A large spice store in Cafyate.

A really cool house in Cafyate.

Goodbye Tea in Gaiman

As a farewell gift, the Duo family, our friends in Trelew who have lived in Miami for 6 years so are fluent in English and go to school with us, took us to tea in Gaiman. there was lots of cake, tea and tears.

Tango, Terma and Tongue

A few days ago, my mom's friend from the pool that she swims at, invited my mom and I to go to tango lessons with her and her daughter (the mother is fluent in English because she lived in California for a long time). So, we learned how to tango for half an hour, which is an eight step dance from Argentina. After, they took us out to dinner at a small resteraunt, where we were greeted to another special surprise, tongue of cow for an appetizer!!!! We also drank some sour juice made from a bunch of herbs called Terma. All in all, we learned a lot about Argentinian culture on our last week in Trelew!

Yum! Tongue!

Plate of tongue!

Terma

Tangoing

Mom learning to tango!

Earth Day

Earth Day in Argentina (Video - Click Here)

This is an Earth Day video I made (Pay it forward project).  All photos taken in Trelew, Argentina. (Prepare yourselves, it's gross)

Going back in time

I've been working on a theory about living in this small, industrial city in Patagonia.  Here it is:  In Trelew, it's always 1974.

Supporting evidence:

• Muscle cars and loud tailpipes are the epitome of cool.
• Recycling?  Nope.  Only a bottle-return on local beer.
• Construction workers whistle at women (constantly).
• Despite a national obsession with the game, no soccer for girls.  Instead, the big sport for girls is roller skating.
• Cursive writing is a major element of the kids' school.
• Popular ladies fashions include polyester stretch pants.  For men? Members Only-type jackets.
• No car seats or seatbelts in use, ever.
• Litter and graffiti are everywhere, on everything.

A lovely yard nearby

Okay, they aren't all muscle-cars...but they are still from the 70s!
The desert climate means they don't rust so they're still on the road.

Near our house

Paleontology park and Asado

On Sunday we went to a paleontology park in Gaiman.  We went with two of dads colleagues (Pablo and Marcelo).  We went up a steep hill and along the way they had displays of fossils.  The formation in which we walked was the Sarmiento formation.  After that we went back to our house and had an Asado (an Argentinian cookout).  Pablo's son ate Lams heart and tripe (intestine). Here are some pictures...

Basketball in Argentina-2!!!

Hey faithful blog readers! Sorry I haven't blogged in a while... 8 hour school days tend to give you a few headaches.  Less than one month until we come back to Durham!!! We are so excited!!!!!!!

For those of you that don't know, a few weeks ago I switched to a different basketball club, called Club Independente. I switched because of the lack of femininity and because of the drastically high amount of fart jokes. I know, I should be proud of myself that I know enough Spanish to interpret that, but unfortunately it had the opposite affect. Anyway, now that I have joined this new club, I find it amazing. All the players are girls, a lot of them really tall, all of them over the age of 13, and pretty awesome at basketball. It is so cool what you can learn from watching these girls play. I have gained so much confidence in myself, improved my lay-up amazingly, and learned so much about the game of basketball. I have also found a few new friends,made a few new role models and learned not to get on my coaches nerves or else he makes us do 20 push-ups (and that is just for not standing in a line fast enough!).

My coach and his daughter (whose name is Sofie, and who if I interpreted correctly, is trying out for the U-15 Argentinian National Basketball team) threw a party for the team. It was so fun hanging around those girls, eating churripan (the Argentinian version of a hotdog) and watching pro boxing (which I still don't get the point of, even though all my teammates had their eyes glued to the screen).

Here are some pics!!!

The basketball party-one girl in the back is 19 years old!!