The Munzingers Visit B.A.

Sara´s family flew into Buenos Aires on Friday, December 18th. We really enjoyed spending time with them here for two weeks around the holidays. We had a great time relaxing with them but also did many touristy things together with them. Some of the things we did include:

● Took a double-decker tourist bus around the city, which gave a historical overview of some major tourist destinations and made several stops around town where passengers could get off and on.
● Perused the artisan goods at some of Buenos Aires' well-known ferias
● Checked out La Boca, a neighborhood that is famous for its colorful buildings as well as its high-crime rate
● Toured Palacio Paz, an ornate mansion that was built by the the family that owned "La Prensa" newspaper. Señor Paz built the home, with the intention of becoming Argentina´s President and using it as the Presidential Palace but that never happened.
● Toured Palacio Barolo, which was the tallest building in South America when it was completed in 1923 and it's design was inspired by Dante´s Divine Comedy. Originally, the Italian owner intended to acquire Dante's ashes after his death and to display them in the building, but that also never happened.
● Visited the Evita museum.
● Walked around the Recoleta Cemetery, where Evita and many other wealthy Porteños (Buenos Aires residents) are buried in mausoleums. Some of the mausoleums are meticulously cared for, while others next to them are crumbling in disrepair. Porteños make-out in public pretty much everywhere, but still, we were a bit surprised to see several couples making out at the cemetery on the stoops of
mausoleums...ew.
● Visited many leather shops
● Ate a lot of great food, including one meal where Jill´s parents treated all of us to an amazing dinner at "Cocina Sunae," a closed-door restaurant. Buenos Aires has several similar restaurants, where a chef opens their home to a limited number of guests each evening for a fixed menu. The meal was a Thai, Vietnamese and Filipino fusion, and we think it is the best food we have eaten here yet. We definitely want to try another closed-door restaurant soon!
● Saw a tango show at the historic Cafe Tortoni
● Went to Tigre, a popular weekend spot for Porteños that is located on a river delta just north of Buenos Aires. Tigre is made up of a series of islands that the river runs through, and most people are either sunbathing or taking a boat ride through the small channels of water.
● Took a high-speed ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, which was an hour-long ride from Buenos Aires. The sleepy town of about 20,000 is right on the river, and it really has maintained the look of an old Spanish fort and colony. The trip back from Colonia, however, was the scariest boat ride we've ever been on. A storm whipped up while we were in the middle of the Rio de la Plata and the boat pitched and rocked in every direction. The crew handed out cold presses and motion sickness bags and a ton of people on the boat got sick. When we finally, and thankfully, made it to shore we were told the waves were about 7 feet high. It was nice to be home...

Sara´s mom, Kathy, had also arranged for us all to make a trip to San Antonio del Areco, which is about an hour outside of the city and is known for its gaucho (Argentine cowboy) culture. Unfortunately, the day before we were supposed to go, San Antonio flooded because of heavy rains and illegal irrigation ditches built by farmers and 3,000 people were forced to evacuate. Needless to say, we didn't go...

The Munzingers also helped us move into and settle in our new apartment, which probably wasn't the most fun thing for them to do here, but we really appreciated their help!

Overall, we did a lot while they were here and had a really nice time getting to sightsee with them. We were sad when they left on Dec. 31st! They also made the holidays very special for us, but that's the next blog entry.