We have learned that most video streming is blocked outside the US. Netflix, Hulu, even the Daily Show won’t allow us to stream. But somehow, some way I am streaming the Independence Bowl LIVE from SHREVEPORT. Go Jackets.
Update 11:00pm local. Whelp the Tech game didn’t work out so well. We just returned from dinner and the Falcons Saints game is actually on TV… with Spanish broadcast.
Ava diggs Matty Ice: falcons game
Just put the wee chica down for a little siesta before dinner and this rag tag parade came marching down our street. Note the dancing girls up front.
Video link: Defensa Parade
OK, so when you think of Bs As, you think of late night outings and tango, but when you are traveling with a three year old, sometimes you just have to scrap all that and head to the zoo.
luckily, All of the major characters of Madagascar where represented. Melman above. Check out the tongue. We are getting good enough with Spanish that we can negotiate routing and price with the cab drivers. None of whom speak English (so far) although they are almost always listening to US 80’s hair metal on the radio. This new skill is saving us countless hours of walking. Stewart and Ava plan to tackle the Bus and train system next week.
This city is SERIOUS about playgrounds. And there are carousels everywhere. The zoo has two. Ava’s had so many spins that it is old hat for her, even though the first time she saw one was Tuesday.
And if anybody knows what the creature below is, please advise. They are roaming the zoo freely with the humans. And nobody there could seem to tell us what they were.
There is a lot that goes on here that goes over our heads due to language. But this one is the biggest mystery. There is an ecologic area in between the city parks and the River (Rio De La Plata). We were hoping to walk out on the trails there, but found the gates all closed. But there was one man sitting in a lounge chair reading, naked inside the gates. He never looked up or acknowledged the periodic passerby looking to walk out in the reserve.
On the way up to the port to see about a boat ride, we stopped in at Derrego Plaza for a lunch and got a free tango show. Here’s a quick video: Derrego Plaza Tango
Our budding photographer asked for the camera and actually got some decent shots. (the 43 shots with her finger over the lens not pictured)
Ava’s pics:
Nice dinner a block down from the apartment. Ava found some friends to play with and they covered themselves in finger paint. Back home just before midnight. Then AT midnight we were treated to a city-wide fireworks display that lasted for over an hour. 
links to fireworks vids fireworks1 fireworks2
Stewart went downtown early to fill the stocking, Ava and I joined in in the afternoon by the obelisk and then for some ice cream and a walk down the old port.
Even after the marathon, I’m still not a huge running fan, but it remains the best way to learn a new city. Some pics below from my run this morning.
Ministry of defense building, Edificio Libertador. The blue roof. Not sure what that is in front. The boat is a tall ship called something Uraguay…
Puenta de la Mujar (Woman’s Bridge) – a cateliver cable stay swing bridge. It swings opens to let boats in the dike
Woman's bridge
Ugh. The reach of the ugly americans knows no bounds.
Quick vid of the apartment. Super nice. High ceilings with great windows and porches.
What else is different?
Video link here:
Drain
The bananas taste better
Coffee tastes worse
Dinner starts at 10:00 and last 2 hours.
We made it downtown today. Stew and Ava went first and I joined after working some at the apartment. The plan was to hook up by txt msg and keep it brief since using the gringo cell phones is expensive. The last message ended up being. “I’m looking for a bank in 300 block of San Martin” This tiny block contains 14 banks, and not much else. But we found each other and we finally found some Pesos.
Back at Plaza de Mayo we ran across our first Che Guevara reference. “Hasta la victoria siempre. Querida hijos” was written on a stage set up in the middle of the square. It doesn’t make any sense with literal translation, but after returning home to our google machines, we find it is a famous and apparently beautiful quote by Che meaning “always toward victory” but really not translatable to English.
There is a cute little local girl in our building that Ava met today. She is 4 and called Sasha. Sasha if very eager to play and so is Ava, but they are stuck with no common language. Her father Oscar speaks about as much English as we do Spanish and we have been able to make introductions and sort out the ages, but it will be up to the girls to get creative. We are here for 5 more days, so it will be interesting to see if Ava figures it out.
They apparently don’t have the “Rudolf the red nose reindeer” story and song down here. Sasha was playing with Ava’s Rudolf doll and I had a hell of a time explaining to them why it had a red nose.
We are now involved in Christmas planning. We are thinking dinner out Christmas eve, followed by some iChatting then a day on the beach for Christmas. Stewart is frantically researching now.
Picture below is the pizzeria below our San Telmo apartment. No matter how far you travel, there is always Coke. Maybe Big Syd Sr. is keeping his eye on us.
Arrived this morning after a surprisingly easy flight. Ava watched a movie, then slept the rest of the flight.
Here’s a clip of us playing around101222ATL-EVE1
So we are checked into our apt in San Telmo. A little napping and working and now its time to go explore. more to come.
Delta stuck us in Atlanta so Hurricane Ava spent the night at Syd and Randi’s
