¡Que Barbaro!

Yesterday basically all of Buenos Aires took off work and school to remember the 30,000 people who have been missing during the military dictatorship in the late 70's. It is referenced to as the "Dirty War" and the mothers of those missing come together every Thursday to march in front of government buildings demanding for information or anything on their abducted children. The group is called the Las Madres de Mayo and they wear their famous head scarfs with the names of their children that have gone missing. Yesterday was not like the usual Thursday marches, it was the anniversary of when the dictatorship came into power...so everyone comes out to protest and walks around the city to remember those who have disappeared. There is actually 9,000 people the government claims are unaccounted for from the abduction times, so every once in a while you will hear of stories where families are reunited after many years.

This was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. First of all, I can not even explain to you how many people were present in this one are of Buenos Aires, like literally no air to breath or move. But the passion of the people marching along with their drive and fight was something that you just do not see anywhere else. They were all parading through the city streets divided into the groups they were representing. They all were carrying flags, banners, and pictures. Fire works were being shot off and drums were being pounded all around you with people dancing, selling t shirts, flags, and churipan (sausages). The history of this country has been bumpy but as you can see with my pictures, Argentines stick together for the love of their country. They are very into the politics of their country. Sometimes when I sit down for dinner with the family and the news is on the TV in front of us, the instant the presidenta Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner comes on, my host grandmother will cover her eyes shouting "¡Que Barbaro!" or "How Outrageous!"

All in all, everything has been going great. I took a nice trip to Uruguay this last weekend and it was beautiful! I went to a city called Punta del Este on the northeast corner of Uruguay, and right on the beach. We took a ferry from Buenos Aires across to Montevideo and from Montevideo a bus to Punta. The whole trip took about 6 hours but the timing was perfect as the high season just passed so the town was nice and tranquil for us city dwellers. I stayed in a hostel called Brava Hostel about 2 blocks from the beach and very close to the few stores in our area, including a small grocery store that I relied on getting my food from for those days. My friends Sara, Dan, and I actually bought a whole chicken from the grocery store one of the nights, and decided to prepare our own dinner since we were sick of eating out all the time. My culinary skills from living on my own at university kicked in immediately, and I took charge of the small kitchen with my sue chefs at my side. I made the famous but easy Israeli salad with onions, tomatoes, parsley, cucumbers, a dash of salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar. Dan had the noodles going, the microwave had our tomato sauce, and Sara put the table together while our chicken was on the parilla grill. The dinner was brilliant and although maybe not the tastiest of meals we have had while here, it was possibly one of my favorites I have had. Ok, now that I have finished going off on my tangent about food, lets talk about the beach...the place where us gringos fried ourselves. I actually did not get burnt, I guess just because my skin is a little darker then the others, but the rest of us came back like tomatoes. The funny thing is, it was not extremely hot during the day and the water was kind of cold. Not many people were in the water but that did not stop us gringos from getting in. I swam everyday I was there and it felt so refreshing. The locals were laying out on the beach, the beach salesmen were all over, and the ice cream man was crazy, screaming "¡Helados!" or "Ice Cream!" at the top of his lungs.....it was perfect. We were entertained by a local rally car race while there, and I actually saw highlights of it on ESPN when I got back to Buenos Aires. I guess a famous race is held every year in Punta. It was cool to see the cars right in front of you, but definitely annoying to wake up to the sounds of engines roaring at full speed and literally two blocks from your window. Whatever, that did not ruin my trip at all. Sara, Dan, and I planned it perfectly and I could not have pictured it any better than it was. I will be posting up some pictures from Uruguay soon, so you will be able to see Punta a little better.

On our way back home the drive through Uruguay was amazing. The scenery was incredible and everything was so green, rolling hills, and had a mountainous region in the back round. There was a calm tropical rain storm during our drive which made our 3 hour trip so much more relaxing. I slept for a 45 minutes but after we left the city and were out rural, my eyes were glued to the window watching everything that we passed by.

As for now, it is about 2:26 am and I am getting pretty tired. Ya me voy a dormir y que tengan una buena noche también.

chao