Here are some more photos from Christmas Eve at Juli’s Uncle Ricardo’s home. The next day we got a chance to ride his horses and Ricardo took us to see Rio de La Plata, the widest river in the world. From where we stood, it looked like the ocean. Later in the day, we visited Juli’s Mom’s side of the family.
Here are some quick pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas day at Juli’s uncle’s house. And Juli and I got engaged on midnight of Christmas Eve!
We also visited Museo de La Plata, a museum of natural history. Juli’s Mom studied at the University in the museum and later became a professor there. Also, it’s known as the largest museum in Latin America and has one of the largest collection of dinosaur fossils.
Yesterday we visited Catedral de La Plata. It’s located in the center of the city. We looked around the main floor and then we took tour of the underground museum, where the founder of La Plata’s tomb is located.
After checking out the museum, we took an elevator ride to the top of one of the cathedrals towers. From the top you could see most of the city.
Today we visited Buenos Aires, about a 30 minute trip from the town of La Plata where we’re staying. It’s the capital of Argentina and it’s a huge city. We drove around the city with Mario, Juli’s dad giving some of the city’s history. After getting pulled over for having too many people in the car, we parked and walked around the city.
We saw the part of the city where locals set up shop on the streets and bring their hand made items such as jewelery to sell. We then visited a cathedral where General San Martin, who lead the Argentinian revolution, is buried. We then got to see the President’s house (The Pink House) as well as the building where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
We also visited , a mall Galerías Pacífico, which has a huge fresco on the ceiling. All in all it was a very interesting and educational day and we will definitely make a few more trips back during our stay.
There are two pages of images no make sure to click to the second page at the bottom of the post.
Today we visited Ruben and Norma, friends of Juli’s parents. They have a huge outdoor grill which was really awesome to watch in action. Ruben would heat up the coals in a separate section on the left side of the grill, then move them over to the cooking area, a grilling technique know as ‘asado.’
I got to try Argentine sausage, steak, and some other part of the cow, they weren’t sure where it came from. We ate inside the quincho, which is an outdoor building for eating and hanging out while cooking on the grill. I also got to try another popular drink, vino y soda (red wine & seltzer). It tasted very similar to what I would think a champagne made with red wine would taste like.
After lunch, we had some ice cream and went for a much needed swim.
After a few days here I found that there are three beers popular with the residents of La Plata. Quilmes is the most popular national beer and it’s a light lager similar to Coors or Bud. They also love Stella Artois and Heineken. Also the alcohol over here is very inexpensive, even in bars. To put it in perspective, a large Heineken, larger than a 40 oz. in the US was only 17 pesos, the equivalent of about $4.50 US.
