Feliz Navidad

The furthest thing from your mind here is a white Christmas. But it is Christmas time here, just with different traditions.

We do have a Christmas tree. It is a snappy number that fills our living room quite nicely.

I'm just messing with you. We just have a little, live tree that we have decorated. Perfect for the apartment.

The big one is the tree of our next door neighbor, in the the lobby of the Alvear Palace.

We have stockings hanging in the living room and we have a nativity scene - a simple one we bought in Salta.

The big event here for Christmas is Christmas Eve. Familes & friends gather together for a very late evening with dinner, champagne, wine & presents and FIREWORKS! I like the 'mixing alcohol & fireworks' part!

Now, this is a city of ~ 12 million people and most live in apartment buildings. So, use your imagination on just how the fireworks portion of the evening is handled. We are looking around from our own 7th floor terrace (top floor of our building) and EVERY building around us is at least 5 stories higher. I am glad we wont be home that night. Instead we will be with friends who's apartment is on the 18th floor overlooking the Hipodromo (horse race track) and the Palermo Polo Fields. Lot's of wide open space if our aim is off.

This afternoon, we went to Jupiter - the Fuegos Artificiales store and we bought 750 pesos worth of fireworks with our party hosts. No sparklers, just rockets (yes, rockets!) - 35 of them in fact. Our hosts, Paul & Tracey are moving back to Houston in January, so they are going out with a bang!

It is going to be a spectacular Christmas Eve! It will be made even more special by the fact that our children (and spouses) will be joining us for Christmas. Jake & Kelli and Katie & Devin arrive tomorrow from Calgary.

To all of our friends who have been following our adventure on the blog, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and all the excitement you can handle in 2009. Although, this really low oil price is just too exciting for me at the moment!

B.

Humahuaca Hound update - well folks, we got crushed in the voting in the Living In Argentina photo contest. Some woman from Germany's picture of a dock (yes, a dock) near Neuquen garnered 629 votes, 570 more than my pooch did. It was clear that her campaign for votes was far more extensive than mine!

For those of you who voted for me, gracias!

Polo anyone?

We finally went to our first polo match here in Argentina.
We have been cancelled out 5 times in the last two months due to rain but this Sunday we got to a match. It was a beautiful day to watch the semi-final of the 115th Argentine Open Championship.

This event is quite a celebration with the 'painted polo ponies' displayed around the city during the three week event...including this one that is on the sidewalk in front of our apartment.

The match we got to see was between Black Watch and Ellerstina. We were hosted by an oil marketing firm (sorry, a global energy solutions firm) and it was good event.

Our hosts had a two story VIP building adjacent to Field 2 and they had the VIP seats in the main stadium.

Being polo rookies, we watched the consolation match before the semi final - to ask our questions and see how the sport is played. We were surprised that there was no fanfare, no announcements - they just started to play. It was like a pick up game.

There were two referees on the field.......and goal judges who were decked out like baseball catchers. We think this goal judge had his vest on backwards.

They were being protected more from getting run over by a horse, not necessarily being hit by the ball.

While we watched this match we sipped champagne and were offered a steady stream of appetizers. Every 5-6 minutes the players would get a fresh horse....using 7 or 8 horses in match. Very good, very expensive horses.

It is interesting because with each horse, the player gets a different mallet. The reason being that each horse is a different height so the length of the mallet must match the height of the horse - made sense.

The reality of the sport did set in with one horse coming up lame in the match. They brought the trailer onto the field and took the horse off. It reminded us of the Calgary Stampede.

This semi final match, known as the Mercuria Cup was (by reports in the paper the next day) boring. We couldnt tell the difference. Ellerstina was by far the class of the match and once they ran up a 5 goal lead, they pretty much coasted, saving their better horses for the final next weekend.


We still enjoyed it.


Ellerstina, the winners of the match were awarded the Mercuria Cup on the general grounds and then they...


...came into the Mercuria VIP area booth and accepted more gifts from the executive of Mercuria who were here from the head office in Geneva.


Now for the rest of the story....the event. Different event stuff than we are used to related to a sporting event. An a cappella group performed for the Mercuria guests before the match.

Sun hats and sunscreen was distributed to all guests of Mercuria. Much appreciated.

We met their Communications guy from London, David Ensor. He joined them in 2006. He used to be a CNN correspondent in Washington. I googled him - he is the first guy I have ever met with his own Wikipedia entry.
The booth next door was the Mercedes spot with pretty much all the new 2009 cars on display.

At the conclusion of the event, a group of (excellent) opera singers performed excerpts from several operas.

Part way through the performance, they handed out masks to the guests. The Mercuria executives were good sports, modelling their masks, singing with the opera and posing for their own corporate cameras.

These are the masks we ended up with. We will have to wait for a costume ball before they get worn....or we might play dress up.

This is a high end sport and (with no bragging intended), the best players in the world are from Argentina - by a long shot! These guys are good! The masks, hand made in Rosario, were pretty impressive as well.

Polo matches might be fancy but I miss the 'cold and the cow bells' of Lake Louise. While we were sipping champagne here in Buenos Aires, the volunteers at Lake Louise fought and won a snowy battle to complete the Women's World Cup Super G at the same time - way to go gang!!

B.

Unashamed promotion

OK - now I want to win!
There are a couple of entries that over a lot more votes but this pooch has it all!
Tell your friends to log on to www.livinginargentina.com and vote for the Humahuaca Hound...photo below!

I entered a photo contest down here. Not looking to win another contest but hey, the glaciers are on the list of our travel destinations.


Here are my entries:


Artisans working at Salinas Grandes (the salt flats in the Alto Plano).

These guys are out in the middle of a huge flatting carving things out of salt. They stay covered up to keep protected from the strong sun (at altitude) even in the hottest months of the year.




This is a roadside vendor near San Antonio de Los Cobres - this lady was one of the first vendors we came upon on our trek to the north east part of Argentina. We bought several things from her.




And this was a guard dog at a shop in Humahuaca. This was the furthest north in Argentina that we have been. It is close to the Bolivian border. This little guy made us think of Cooper.




Log onto www.livinginargentina.com and have a look at the entries.


You can only vote once. I am partial to the guard puppy!


There are many great photos on the site. Some of the places in the photos we have visited and some are places we are looking forward to seeing in the future.


B.

This place is crawling with them....

I am becoming more common every day....

This time, I was in Neuquen for the PAR field operations family picnic and look who showed up! And no, that is not me in the suit!

B.

Learning to slow down

Today I learned why locals walk so slowly.

Up until now I have often been frustrated by the slow pace of people on the sidewalks. They walk two or three abreast and you are forced to wait and go around them. No one is in a hurry.

I now know why.

When it is 36 degrees and the humidity is above 85%, any effort above a saunter will have you in a dripping sweat in no time.
We have also needed to learn to avoid the 'drip' of the air conditioners above the sidewalk. When the air conditioners are on, they generate condensation. Some units have tubes which drain the condensation down the wall but many just drip away....leaving a distinctive puddle in the middle of the sidewalks. With some apartment buildings having 20 air conditioners sticking out of the walls...that is a lot of dripping.

So, in the summer on the sidewalks, we have to stickhandle around the locals, avoid stepping in dog sh*t, not trip into potholes, avoid major sweats from developing and dodge dripping air conditioners! Its only November, January & February are the hot months!

Still enjoying our time in BA.

B.

What a difference a year makes!

It was exactly a year ago this week, I was standing on the top of Lake Louise preparing for the World Cup Downhills.

A year later - you can find us living and working in Argentina. Today in Buenos Aires, it is 36 degrees...above zero. You cant hide from the heat. Our apartment has air conditioners in most rooms. You fire those babies up and they rattle & hum. Being from Calgary, we are not 'air conditioner' people. It will take some getting used to.

Last night was one of those evenings where it stays warm all night. You might get one or two of those nights a year in Calgary. Here, I think we will get 5 months of them! It was 27 degrees when we woke up this morning.

We have noticed that the sun is different here. It is way more intense. My little bald head took a beating before I finally put a hat on.

We were out sailing in the Rio de la Plata last weekend and my hat (not a toque) came in handy.

Anyways, I have been monitoring the progress of the race prep at Lake Louise. The webcam at the mountain provides a great view of the last 400 metres of the course and the finish corral.

In fact, I just caught this morning's Jury meeting in the finish area......

Work has been progressing nicely - the Men's first training run is scheduled for today. I am sure all will go well but just to be sure, I will keep an eye on the FIS Live Timing website later today.

B.

Salta - continued

Our Salta trip (continued)

This is the Franciscan Church, which while colorful during the day was pretty spectacular at night.....
We werent able to take pictures inside most churches in the country but some are truly remarkable structures. The art work and gold decorations areamazing. I actually bought post cards as a reminder.

Following the trek to the Alto Plano (Purmamarca & Humahuaca), we returned to Salta for a bit of down time and spending time touring in Salta. The city is layed in around a central square which has a park and numerous outdoor patios to sit in to watch the world.

We made sure we sat in this patio, it reminded us of being in Valley Ridge at our local pizza joint.

We toured a couple of museums in Salta. One is famous for the three children that were found mummified on the top of a nearby dormant volcano. It appears that the children were left there as part of a sacrifice. They only have the remains of one child on display at any one time. The preservation of the body is remarkable due to the altitude and lack of moisture where they had been left.

This museum, on the other hand, had an interesting weathervane on the roof.

The Goblin Irish Pub is down a side street from the plaza. A much quieter spot, out of the way of the rush of the plaza but the beer was just as cold!

Monuments are an interesting thing if you take the time to examine all elements of them. There is a monument to General Guemes in Salta that looks out over a portion of the city. We were with a guide who spent 30 minutes describing this monument alone. What was pretty cool was this little perro (dog) who was part of the story as well. Despite his size, he didnt escape the grafitti which is prevalent everywhere.

They also have moving advertising in Salta. This guy has speakers on the front of his trike and he just drives around town with his little billboard. The noise from the speakers just adds to the noise of the street.

We took a city tour and went out to San Lorenzo which is a suburb of acreages (and castles) outside of town. we stopped here for lunch.

B.

Beginner's Luck or Best in Show?

We were invited to a special party hosted by Mary Pat & Tom.

It celebrates Halloween, the Great Pumpkin and/or the competitive spirit in many of us.


A pumpkin is delivered to your home 3 days before the party. You can carve, decorate, exploit the pumpkin in any way you want as part of the competition. We had heard stories about previous years' winners and knew that simply carving the pumpkin would get you in the door but that was about it.

Picking up a photography, paparazzi, camera theme and utilizing my brother's mechanical skills, we designed and built the Pumpkam used by the Pumparazzi. Simply genius.

The design tested our understanding of 'is there such thing as a Canadian Tire' in Buenos Aires? After several trips to various stores, the Pumpkam became a reality.... We tested it and in 2 boxes, transported it to the party for assembly and use.

The Pumpkam was not the only component of our entry, Mimi was responsible for displaying and describing some of the published photos by this Pumparazzi including work involving our hosts. Here is Tom...
....and Mary Pat:

They have a beautiful home with stables attached for their race horses. The house, yard and horses were all decorated for the evening.

The Pumpkam worked well - in fact here is a sample. I especially like the orange halo cast by the pumpkin itself.

To our surprise, we won the 'Most Creative' Award....The prize was a beautiful engraved silver ice bucket.

I am already working on next year's idea.

B.