Blake and Jason got a chance to go to a Boca Juniors soccer game. This is the craziest and most infamous team in all of Argentina. They saw them roll out a banner--the size of an entire section of the stadium. There were fireworks, chants, and lots of people. The entire experience was truly memorable.
We really enjoyed our "cabana"--apartment in Pinamar. There was a very cold pool--that everyone except Jack and Lindy did "tanderbeyers" into (Jack's pronunciation of "cannonball"). We found a miniature bowling alley too--with small bowling balls and small pins. We again enjoyed the ice cream and walked around the shopping area. 
We lucked out by finding this great beach town, Pinamar. We spent 3 days on it, enjoying the sun, the waves, the sand, and the snails. We collected around 50 shells, and then Maeve and Jack would watch as the alive ones would crawl away. Because it is the off-season, we practically had the beaches to ourselves. Blake and Jason did a great job of entertaining the kids, by digging a huge hole in the sand and putting them down inside of it. We were able to eat a cafe right on the beach and the next day at a Mexican restaurant, which we all loved--a little change in palette. 
There was a food strike that happened in the beginning of April--where the farmers refused to allow trucks to pass on the highways because the export tax of soy increased.... The city was devoid of most fresh vegetables/fruits, meat, dairy, etc. for about 3 weeks. The government and the farmers came to a truce for one month--an agreement to stop the stoppage on the roads. A week later, over 300 square miles of grassland caught fire and raged for 2 weeks. The north winds swept in and carried large amounts of smoke into Buenos Aires and "choked the city" for 6 days. On the second day of eyes watering, coughing, and dry throat we all decided to go on an adventure. Blake found a rental truck/van--small, which we affectionately named "the peep". We loaded up whatever clothes and food that we could and headed south to escape the smoke. The photo of the road with smoke is after we had already driven 3 hours outside the city. We drove 5 hours to the coast and found an adorable beach town called Pinamar. Here the kids are enjoying fresh air after we arrived in Pinamar. We found an awesome, 3-story, apartment with an outside grill and a full kitchen.
We had the wonderful opportunity of taking care of Maeve and Jack for four days while Jason and Keely went to Mendoza (wine country) on the other side of Argentina. They traveled there to celebrate their 10th year wedding anniversary. We had a lot of fun exploring the city more and going to the Children's Museum. This museum is very incredible because it has miniature versions of everything--boats, McDonald's, grocery store, subway, bus, bank, brickyard, auto mechanic, etc, etc. Maeve and Jack were able to pretend "to be adults" by going shopping, to the store, using a crane to load a boat, talking on the radio or at a television station. It was a really neat experience for all of us. (This was the kid's second time visiting the museum, so they were able to show Uncle Blake and Aunt Lindy around. We also took advantage of the great ice cream around the city and went for a "treat" one night. 
We spent one Sunday afternoon traveling down past the port out to the coastanera nature reserve. We took a hike and finally saw the ocean/river--very brown and dirty unfortunately. We took a picnic with us and found a neat lookout to sit down and enjoy our food. The kids were able to use some view goggles to see the back side of the port and all of the new buildings. Maeve and Jack played on some of the interesting playground equipment including a strange cable-type spiderweb, which Maeve climbed to the top.
Piriapolis is a small town located on the Uruguayan coast with beautiful beaches. We were there during the off-season, (because all the students are back in school) so we had the beaches completely to ourselves. The weather was in the 80's and blue sky everyday. The kids played in the sand, collected seashells, and broke waves with Jason and Blake.
We were all pretty tired each day from all the fresh air and saltwater intake.
Our hotel was set up in the remnant buildings from a Castle and farm owned by an Armenian family in which the town was named after, Piriapolis. The Castillo had several play structures and a zip line for the kids to play on. It was a working farm, so they had over 60 horses and lots of colts (only 4 months old). We went on 2 different horseback rides in the mornings. We each had our own horse including Maeve (Jack rode with Jason of course). The second day we even got the opportunity to wash down the horses after their saddles were removed. Maeve did most of it but with Jack's help. We had breakfast and dinner at the Castle and enjoyed our back patios off of our rooms to gaze at all the stars. The sky and evenings were so clear--we saw more stars than we had ever seen before, including the Milky Way.
This week we traveled to Uruguay from Argentina. We took the Buquebus (ferry boat) across the Rio La Plata to Colonia, Uruguay. We spent time in the colonial town and explored the old rock wall and lighthouse. Maeve and Jack are pictured here in an old car that is set up as a table for a restaurant. They were pretending to drive. We also picked up a rental van, that we affectionately called the "Van Diesel" the whole trip. The best part was that it had "Thrifty" stickers all over the entire vehicle--so we looked like a driving advertisement. We had some laughs and some definite looks from people as we drove through the small towns. We drove 4.5 hours to an Estancia called Quebrada del Castillo (the creek of the castle).
We spent the first week that Jason, Keely, Maeve, and Jack were visiting around Buenos Aires. We went to several markets around town, San Telmo and Recoleta. The kids got an opportunity to walk on elastic bands strung between trees at the Recoleta Market--Blake held their hands--but they held their balance well. They found neat little treasures and saw so many things. Jason and Keely bought a cow bell to ring for dinner time. Maeve found some interesting rocks. Jack found ice cream. During the San Telmo market at one point there was a parade of horses and riders along with a marching band. They were all dressed in old-fashioned "british-looking" uniforms. There is always a lot going on and we saw most of it.
Over the last 2 months we have had many visitors and have been traveling again, therefore we have not had a lot of time to work on artwork. These few images are some of the newest things we have worked on. The images are inspired by our trips to Peru, Ecuador, southern and western Argentina. During April, Jason, Keely, Maeve, and Jack (blake's brother and family) are in town. They are renting an apartment just down the hall from ours. They have also created a blog to document their trip here. The site address is: www.familynovotny.blogspot.com, check it out if you get the chance.
