Happy New Year!!

We have just sent the kids back to cooler climes (ok, much cooler) and we will get back to a bit of a routine here - although I know Mimi loved the routine of having everyone here!

It seems like forever ago that they arrived. Jake & Kelli had 2 flights delayed and missed one and arrived 14 hours late flying through Toronto and Katie & Devin did OK going through Houston. It made us feel lucky as we watched the weather in Canada mixed with holiday travel really spoil the plans of many others.

When they all finally did arrive and had a good nap, we are were all set to go to share everything we had learned in our own 10 months here!

It could read like the Twelve Days of Christmas.

So here goes.........

One Boca futbol match. The Apertura Championship was not decided in league play because of a three-way tie for first place. As a result, a round robin final was played and because it dragged out an extra week, I was able to take Jake to a game. It was between Tigre and the Boca Juniors. It was played in a neutral stadium (Racing) and for security reasons they only sold so many tickets (mostly to Boca fans). The place was bouncing - literally. When a concrete stadium flexes under your feet, you just hold on!

Boca lost the game but won the championship on goal differential - partying went on late into the night!

Two countries in one quick trip to Bueos Aires. We sent the kids to Uruguay for one day. It is a one hour Buequbus Fast Ferry ride away. They did a tour of the old fort of Colonia including a trip to the top of the lighthouse.

Three hours of tango show at Cafe Tortoni (the oldest cafe in BA - 150 years old).
Devin is such a good sport when it comes to audience participation!

Four hours of Christmas Day brunch at the Alvear Palace. It was more like 'grazing' than 'brunch'... especially when we found the helado & panqueque bar in the back room! Dee-lish! It is a good thing the Alvear Palace is 40 metres from the apartment. We could all waddle home.

Five parties and get-togethers to meet our BA friends....

This included new pooch pals (Lolly and Sheila) as well. None that can replace Cooper, of course.... although the pearls are a nice touch!

Six trips to Volta & Freddo for helado (ice cream) including the one kilo of vanilla, chocolate and dulce de leche that we brought home for New Year's Eve...

Seven reminders of home including a personalized photo album of of Alberta, a copy of Katie & Devin's wedding photo album, Tim Horton's coffee, western wear Christmas ornaments, Bernard Callebaut's chocolate covered pretzels..... and a Pook Toque!

Eight different kinds of cervezas were tried & tested including these....we have determined that buying it by the litre is the way to go!

Nine churches and cathedrals visited...

Ten shopping trips - to various directions in the city including the Recoleta Hippy Market- just 300 metres from the apartment.

Twelve matches of Wizard (and even a couple of attempts of Mah Jong)

Sixteen naps enjoyed during the week (or was that sixty?)....

Eighteen Holes of Golf at the Pilar Golf Club

Which included playing the Par 6, 614 yd hole, on which we all did not impress!

Twenty Choripans sampled and 3 kilos of lomo (tenderloin) prepared on the parilla on New Year's Eve.

Thirty Seven rockets fired off the 18th floor balcony of Paul & Tracey's apartment. Our friend, Tom was pretty excited about the evening too!

Fifty peso rum & cokes at the Park Hyatt which were only matched by the 50 peso photograph of Jake & Devin with Tango dancers in La Boca - you can still see the burn on Jake's face when you remind him of it!

Seventy hugs including these....



And by the latest count, Eighty Four Empanadas were consumed (both carne & pollo). Being on vacation and being an efficient person, Jake just slid a chair up to the kitchen counter to enjoy some of them....

By far the best - the thousand laughs, stories and memories that the trip had for all of us! This was only to be exceeded by the Sixteen Hundred and Forty Seven photographs taken to record the adventure!

There were other life experiences including shopping at the Disco (the local grocery store) - notice the plethora of cervezas in the cart.

And the opportunity that Katie and Devin got to get their picture taken with the president of Argentina in front of the Casa Rosada....

There is a story with each photo - touring the Recoleta Cemetary, seeing the market in San Telmo, walking along Puerto Madero, cleansing ales at the Alvear Palace...

We were blessed that the trip worked out. The kids now know (for sure, for sure!) that we are safely enjoying our adventure here in Argentina, surrounded by great new friends, a new language, a strong company and that we are just a skype away.

Happy New Year everyone!

B.

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.