A recap of our journey up through this last day of April.

Our journey out of familiar and comfortable surroundings really began in the first week of February (3 months ago) when we began moving out of our house on Buttercup Lane of over 10 years, and all that the kids have known their entire lives (except for Hawaii; which can become familiar and comfortable real quick). It was a brutal move for many reasons I won't address here. But since we made it through we figured we were pros so we'd keep at it. We moved out of Buttercup on March 6th, stayed with parents until we left for Argentina on March 9th, and since then we've:

Lived in an apartment in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires for one week.

...in downtown Cordoba for almost a week.

....in a hotel in Cafayate for a week

.....in our house at La Estancia de Cafayate, which Erika refers to in the previous post, for almost 3 weeks.

...... and currently in our apartment in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires that I refer to in a post from last week. We've been here for 11 days now.

Throw in about 5 nights in different hotels for less than 18 hours, and that about sums it up. But don't feel sorry for us, it's much easier than you can imagine when you have three young and energetic kids to help you through it all.

Anyway, we've had some really nice times, and some really tough times, but the whole thing has been a great learning experience that will serve us well in the future in many ways, no matter how things end up. And speaking of "ending up" we've booked our last apartment (hopefully) where we'll be staying for our longest stint, and the rest of our time here in Argentina, for the next 5 weeks. Wow, 5 weeks in one place is sounding REALLY nice right now! 

We've actually spent the better part of the last week searching for an apartment through local agents, Craigslist, Airbnb, and other avenues. We visited one all together last Saturday that we had high hopes for (mainly because of it's stunning views of the city from the 24th floor), but in the end decided that it was going to be just a little too small for us (and the double bed in the Master Bedroom didn't help much either; although it would probably be better than the two singles that we have here). I've seen a few other places on my own (it's pretty difficult to mobilize the whole family to go see a place), and have gotten to know BA pretty well from driving and taxiing around to different areas. I even got a great walk in the other day in a quest for suitable parks for Alessandra (she can be a little picky at times). I came to the conclusion that the best parks were the ones around our first apartment, which is where our new apartment is located. The area is called Alto Palermo, and it really is about as central of a location as you can get (in a nice area; our current location is very central, but it's in more of an industrial part of town) in Buenos Aires.

Back to my walk for a second though; as I was walking Gianluca around the block this afternoon trying to get him to fall asleep, I was thinking about my walk from a couple of days ago. I was trying to draw parallels between my trip that day in Buenos Aires to areas of San Francisco so I'd be able to put things in context for most of you that have been following this blog ( yes, all three of you). Anyway, the geographic similarities were pretty amazing: We're currently in Villa Crespo, which is in a central part of the city, very similar to let's say a part of the Mission district. From here I took a taxi to a neighborhood on the border of La Boca and San Telmo, which would be very similar to Hunters Point/ Potrero Hill, and about the same distance in a cab if you took it from an area of the Mission a bit closer to the center of SF. And from there I walked through the downtown area (a few blocks in from the water; as I may in SF) around a bend to the neighborhood  of Palermo, which would be very similar to the Marina district. Yes, the walk was about that far too; I think I was walking for about two hours. From there I took a cab to go check out another place, which was in a more residential part of BA, called Belgrano, which would be similar to the Richmond district. And then I finished my search with a ride back to our apartment in Villa Crespo. When I have more time I'm going to plot my BA loop out and see how close it is to my imaginary SF loop. Just looking at the two images below you can see how similar the walk from La Boca to Palermo is to a similar route one would take in SF from Potrero Hill to the Marina.

I'm curious to see how I do with the last part of our stay. I AM NOT A CITY BOY. The longest stay I've ever had in a big city has probably been the last eleven days, and so far- NOT SO GOOD. Well, the circumstances haven't been the best (with the issues with our current apartment and such) so I'll wait and base my judgement of city life on the next five weeks. 

As you can probably tell from Erika's previous post; she can probably adapt to country life a lot easier than I think I'll be able to do with city life. Especially if we can keep the spiders away from her. But we'll wait and see. The kids can be pretty happy anywhere, but something tells me Alessandra is leaning towards being a city girl. We took her to Manhattan when she was about two, and she absolutely loved it. She seems pretty happy here too.

This is the center of Buenos Aires. See the Obelisk in the background.

...and Teatro Colon behind the fountain.

On the road again

Think Willie Nelson... On the road again.  I just can't wait to get on the road again.

That was not the case for us.   After living in a spacious home for three weeks, it was hard to get excited about being squished in a car for many hours.  

Before leaving La Estancia, Alessandra and I squeaked in a morning horseback ride.  She rode her favorite horse, Aseviche.  We took a nice trail along the golf course and vineyards with the Spanish style houses and mountains as our backdrop. Not a bad way to say goodbye to Cafayate.

I will miss the friends we made, the daily routine we established, and the serene surroundings.  Some things I won't miss are the giant spiders the size of my palm (so relieved they did not eat Gianluca) and the daily battle with ants in the house (FYI the mosquitos lost).

As a side note, our daily routine included:

Waking up and going into the hot tub

Getting the kids ready for school

Tony dropping off the kids at school followed by grocery shopping.  Grocery shopping meant going to several stores (fruit and veggie store, butcher, two different mercados as one doesn't have fresh bread and the other has a better selection of deli meats).  Tony had it all figured out.  My job was to create the grocery list.

Going for a walk with Gianluca 

Picking up the kids, feeding them lunch and getting them down for a nap

Pool time at the fitness center and eating apples and raisins 

Karate class for Alessandra on Tuesday and Thursday nights 

Tony working some magic on our parilla (bbq) 

Playing games and falling asleep

We didn't have a tv and thankfully, we didn't miss it too much.   We got a little teaser when someone dropped off a tv screen, but unfortunately it didn't have any speakers!

Back to the road trip.   Our first stop was Termas De Rio Hondo. Only about 4 hours away and is considered quite a tourist destination.  Tony wanted to visit this place because they were hosting a World Motorcycle Gran Prix race the next weekend, and he wanted to see the race track.   

I did not figure out why it is a popular destination, but the highlight for us was the park.  Alessandra and Anthony went on the merry go round and jumping houses while Gianluca watched.  We tried to see the race track, but could only get as far as the entrance gate.  (We will have to see the track on TV)

The next day, we got up early and hit the road again.   This would be our longest stint.  Not sure how we did it, but we managed to drive 10 hours that day!  The kids only watched Frozen one time, The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse three times and Toy Trains twice.   Meltdowns were avoided by feeding the kids food and a special treat of honey nut cherrios. (Now think Jackson Brown...)  We were literally running on empty.

The big decision was to stay at Marcos Juarez, a small town we stayed at before on the way to Cordoba or drive an extra hour and go to Rosario.   Alessandra chose Rosario because it was a bigger city.  We agreed and could say we saw it.   

For the third largest city in Argentina, one would think it would be simple to find a hotel on the Main Street.  Wrong.  After an hour of searching and inquiring at three hotels, we arrive at our apartel at 9 pm.  

We walked around Rosario for a little bit and headed on the road.  Tony best summed it up as "the guidebook summed up Rosario pretty well by only writing three lines about a city that has over 1,000,000 ( one of only three in the whole country).

And off we were to Buenos Aires.

Full moon

Alessandra and Aseviche. (You can't see it, but she is wearing her dress with a horse on it.  That is her riding attire)

Ruins de Quilmes

I wished I took a video of this.  The dogs did a great job herding the horses across the road.

Alessandra reflecting on days in Cafayate 

Running on empty.   The car actually sputtered as we coasted into the gas station!

Passed out in Rosario

Made it to Buenos Aires (and no, we did not drive with him on top). Remember National Lampoon's Vacation.

Hard times in Buenos Aires

It's been a rough week....

This is the neighborhood we ended up in booking through Airbnb. Palermo? No not Palermo- Villa Crespo. Sounds nice, but not so much!

Anyway, we're still getting out and experiencing what we can. Hopefully this week will be better. We'll be looking for a place to move to for the rest of our stay here.

El cementario de Recoleta

They're pretty close

A late dinner and dessert with Daddy

Our favorite pastime these days

El cementario de Chacarita. Est 1871 after the yellow fever outbreak in Buenos Aires.

Not looking forward to our trip back to BA....

I can't believe we're not looking forward to going back to Buenos Aires, but we're not, for a few reasons. The main reason is probably just the trip back. Aside from a few slight variations the road we came up on will be the road we return on. And although it was fun to see the country coming up, we don't need to see it again. If there were any way for us to return our rental car up here we'd be flying back- without a doubt. Our small car is half the problem, but long road trips with three small kids are just not a good idea- period! Oh well- lesson learned.

The other reason is that we've settled into a pretty comfortable routine here in Cafayate, and the amenities we have here are hard to beat. It's not perfect by any means, but this is the first time we've been in one place for over two weeks since we arrived in Argentina, and that's a huge deal. We've learned that moving around with the kids is just plain difficult. They need a routine, and when we get away from one for more than a day or two it weighs down on every one of us- sometimes heavily. The last few days have been particularly difficult for me because of the break in the routine that our Salta trip produced, not to mention the mild case of dysentery Alessandra, Anthony, and I picked up somewhere out there.

Anyway, enough complaining, hopefully something will happen on our trip back to make it all worth while. And then, when we get back to BA, we'll just have to apply what we've learned so far to make our lives as comfortable as possible so we're able to enjoy the rest of our time here. The main thing will be getting the kids back in school as quickly as possible. It's amazing what a huge difference that makes for all of us. We need the break to get our daily chores done and breathe a little while juggling Gianluca, and the kids thoroughly enjoy being in school. I hope we can find something this good in BA. Anthony is extremely happy after his first week in school, and although Alessandra has always been pretty happy in school, she seems extra happy here, which of course makes us all happy.

Overall- so far so good! We knew that this wasn't going to be easy coming in, but the experiences we're having, and the connections we're making here, make the rough times all well worthwhile.

Our friend's house with a TV. We haven't had one for over two weeks, and we hardly miss it. The kids might judging from the picture.

Siesta time

Getting ready for a hot tub before bed.

Alessandra's olive tree

A quick trip to Salta

Cafayate is in the province of Salta, and most people that come here come in via Salta (usually flying in from Buenos Aires). The drive between Cafayate and Salta is very highly touted, but since we came up through Tucuman, we hadn't seen it yet (we were pretty impressed with the drive up from Tucuman). Well, the drive didn't disappoint. It took about 20 minutes to get out of the Calchaqui Valley, and into the lower Andes that descended into Salta. Once we got not the mountains again we carved through some of the best desert landscape I've ever seen for about an hour. And then you arrive to a town called Alemania, and within minutes the landscape changes from what you would expect in Arizona or New Mexico to something like West Viginia, which is what it's like all the way into Salta, a city of over 600,000 (including the outlying areas). The trip was about 3 hours driving time.

We stopped for a quick meeting on the way, so we didn't get into Salta until late afternoon, and once we got checked into our hotel it was time to head out for dinner. I squeezed in a walk after we got the kids down, from about 10:30 to midnight, but the next morning we had to just do a little shopping, and the pack up and head back because we had dinner plans back in Cafayate. Too much to see and do, and too little time!

An early morning horse back ride for Alessandra before we hit the road.

Leaving for another short road trip

A quick picnic and rest on the golf course at La Maroma

Alessandra and Anthony running through the fields.

Salta

A protest; who would have imagined?