Mom's here

I would be lying if I were to say I knew what the date is. I’m getting a little confused about dates and other logistical informational that would be pertinent to the success of my final week, but what can one do? What I do know is that the trip should end on a high note.
My mom arrived in Buenos Aires Tuesday morning and things started out a bit shaky. Even though I got up at 545 am to ensure that I wouldn’t be late getting to the airport, I somehow managed to arrive an hour late. The subway was closed, the buses took longer than planned, the airport was temporarily closed because the Argentina national soccer team (who are equally as popular here as all of the American boy bands combined) arrived back home after placing second in the American Cup, and just as luck would have it, mom was on the same flight as the boys in blue. It was quite the time finding her in the airport with hundreds of screaming fans, most of which whom were singing and beating on some sort of drum, but somehow we managed. It’s a good thing, too. She speaks no Spanish and didn’t even know the name of our hotel.
When I finally found mom we checked into our hotel and hit the city. She got to meet my host mother, Maria, and the two of them got along very well. After the informal meeting I took mom out to see an area of town I live in called Recoletta. We stopped by the cemetery and saw the tomb of Eva Peron, or “Evita” as most of you probably know her as. After seeing a few other sites (one of which included seeing the new Harry Potter movie), we concluded the evening with a good meal cooked by Maria. Mom got to taste some authentic Argentine pasta and enjoy a nice meal with Maria and Oscar. Oscar speaks no English and mom speaks no Spanish, so the conversations were interesting to say the least, but it was fun.
The next day we got up and saw some of the more historical sites Buenos Aires has to offer. They have many interesting monuments, statues, buildings, etc. so it was good that she got to see some of that stuff. I will post some of the pictures to give you all an idea of what we saw. We also ended up in a part of town called “La Boca” which literally means “the mouth”. La Boca is very interesting because of the buildings that reside inside of the neighborhood. They are pretty much all different colors, but not just your typical pastel. I’m talking about bright colors that really jump out. It’s a very touristy area, so of course we got harassed by many street vendors, but all in all is was a fascinating part of town to see. La Boca is also noted for having the best soccer team in Argentina (they are equivalent to the New York Yankees of Argentine soccer). There stadium is one of the bigger stadiums in all of Argentina, and a funny story has to deal with one of their sponsors, Coca Cola. Coke is huge in Argentina. Their billboards hang all over the city. The problem is the typical Coca Cola colors are not permitted in the Boca stadium because they are the same colors as Boca’s biggest rival, River Plate. The whole neighborhood in La Boca is prohibited from putting up any of the River colors. It may sound funny, but the people of La Boca are so serious about their team. So, needless to say, Coke had to use different colors on their billboard in La Boca stadium.
After our adventure in La Boca, we saw a few other sites that BA has to offer, but the real story is what happened that night. Maria, Oscar, mom and I all had a reservation to see a real Argentina tango show, a show I had been looking forward to seeing for awhile. Problems arose, however, when we got to the show. Maria had a coupon so we would be able to see the show for a discounted rate (they usually run very expensive), but when we got there we learned that the coupon was not valid for non Argentines, and instead, we would have to pay 8 times as much as they would. It’s ridiculous, but it’s Argentina. Foreigners usually have to pay more for things, but this was a bit excessive. As we were getting ready to leave (there is no way we were going to pay 8x as much), Maria somehow worked here magic with the manager and got us a discounted rate. We got to see the show, which was absolutely spectacular, while enjoying a three course meal with a bottle of wine for a reasonable rate. And for those of you who have never seen a tango show, you don’t know what you are missing. It was incredible. There were four excellent tango groups, two singers with very nice voices, a dude who played the mandolin, two different types of flutes and sang, and two gaucho drummers. I don’t know if I will be able to justly explain the gaucho drummers. They were unlike anything I have ever seen, but I will try. They started just playing the drums, doing some tricks and dancing a bit, but then things got really interesting. They had these ropes with hard leather balls on each end and used the leather balls as mallets. They spun the ropes very fast, but all the while keeping a beat with the leather balls smacking the floor. Basically, these devices were used as drum sticks and the floor was the drum, but what was so cool about it was how fast they were spinning the ropes, and the tricks there were doing with them, as well. I wish I could explain it better, but you will have to take my word that it was very, very cool. So all in all, the day and evening were both very successful. I was very pleased to finally see a tango show.
The next day, which I am guessing was Thursday, was packed tightly with site seeing. We started the day touring other parts of the city that mom hadn’t seen and ended up wandering across some very neat areas. First, while walking through a park near our hotel, we saw a film being shot. It was very interesting because I have never seen a movie being made in the states, and I never dreamed about seeing one made in Argentina. The process was very elaborate, but as it turns out, I think they were just shooting a lousy soap opera. Regardless, it was fun to watch for awhile. Next, we came across a Japanese garden. Like the filming process, I never thought I would see a Japanese garden while in Argentina, but it was really cool. Mom, who as many of you know loves flowers, really enjoyed the garden. After that we went on a guided bus tour of Buenos Aires which was fantastic. Our guide had a ton of personality and was able to give the tour in Spanish and English. It was really nice to get some history of the significance of the buildings in Buenos Aires. Some of the buildings I had seen many times but never knew their significance. The trip was also fun for mom because a Brazilian woman told her she looks like Jane Fonda. I thought I would be able to understand Portuguese because of its similarities to Spanish, but I didn’t catch a word of what she said. We had to use her young daughter as a translator, because realistically, any family that has enough money to travel probably sends their kids to private school where English is taught. When the day was finished I was confident I had shown mom every major part of the city. She now has the history down, next is the language.
Today has been a very long, interesting, jam packed day. It started at 6 am when we left for the airport to start our voyage to Mendoza. The only problem is that our cab driver and I weren’t on the same page. He thought I said international airport instead of national airport. When we got on the highway I knew we were going to have some problems as the airport is less than 10 miles from the hotel. To make a long story short, we made our flight only by a couple of minutes. I was a frantic lunatic, but that just happens sometimes when in a foreign country and unable to convey important information. Moral of the story is that we made it to Mendoza and had a wonderful day today. Mendoza overlooks the Andes mountain range and is noted for being the wine capital of the state. Today, however, we explored the heart of the city. It is much smaller than Buenos Aires, which is nice, and it has a great atmosphere. The people are extremely friendly, the air is crisp, and it has a very homey feel. It’s quite a change coming from such a big city, but one that I really am enjoying. We also had a chance to check out some of the animals’ native to Argentina during our tour of the local zoo. The zoo was great. It had different animals than I have ever seen and was enormous. We got to see some bears, tigers, panthers, lions, pumas, elephants, monkeys and others, but what was really cool was the condor. It is the largest bird that can fly, I think, and was very impressive in to see in person. It has also been said that the condor has snatched up small children in the past, so for all you new parents, Watch Out!! The day was concluded with mom and I figuring out the local bus system (which is much harder than one might imagine). We took the bus back to our area and walked around for awhile. Today, also, the weather was great. I haven’t had many opportunities to say that, but 60 and sunny was a good combination.
I’ll check in tomorrow after we tour the mountain range and check out some of the different wineries, or as they are called here, “bodegas”.