Stewart is a brown cat we met while we were swimming in the hotel pool. His daily activity's include sleeping, bathroom stuff and being cute for food. He loves to wander around the property and meow and be cute and wait for people to leave so he can eat their left-overs.

Frankie is a dog we met when we were getting ice cream in town. He followed us around, and like Stewart, begging for food. Then we passed a restaurant that left food and water out for stray cats and dogs. So he stopped there and we kept going. But soon he came back and walked with us. But the whole time he was following us he was biting my mom's skirt and jumping up on her. Then we realized that he looked a lot like Frankenweenie from Tim Burton's movie "Frankenweenie", so we named him Frankie.

Lizzy is a huge iguana that also roams on the hotel property looking for food. The funniest thing she did was when I was swimming Lizzy came up, stuck her face in my shoe and smelled it with her tongue (yes, iguanas smell with their tongue).


-Maddy

In terms of national pride as well as vacation-destination prominence, Iguazu Falls might be considered South America’s combination of The Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls. Which is perfectly apropos as it also literally looks like a real-life combination of The Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls.

Having many gorges and folds, this internationally renowned National Park, recently named one of the New 7 Natural Wonders of the World and an UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a huge expanse containing over 270 separate falls, as it is a series of tributaries and a splintered main-river flowing over a mass tangle of cliffs. Pictures cannot do the scale of this wonder proper justice.

The river is called the Iguazu River (Big Waters) and it separates Southern Brazil from Northern Argentina and Eastern Paraquay. You can visit it from any of the three countries, but we did not want to go through the process of obtaining a Brazilian Visa as the Argentine side contains most of the overlooks.

And speaking of which, the overlooks are a spectacular series of metal catwalks built right up to, and in some places, slightly over, the edges of many of the smaller falls. They are a breathtaking feat of engineering, and make for a 360-degree full sight, sound and touch sensory experience – like a real-life Imax 3D movie but with water spray – image that, kids!

The main fall is called The Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo) and it is a very tight, deep and rapid horseshoe. It is flanked by 16-minor (but still quite large) falls in several, more straightened rows.

As it is 500-miles closer to the equator, and on the southern edge of Brazil’s rainforest, it was close to 100F degrees again, and with very high humidity, a sticky experience. Walking to the edges was painfully hot, but once you approached a cliff, the rush of the cool mist made you were literally tempted to jump over the edge and take your chances at survival!

This was the perfect side-trip; a Wychocki Learning Institute “no school-work Field Trip day" - and one that truly lived up to all of the brochure hype.

- Mike

Meet Danica. Danica is the cousin of an old family friend of the Kamp's. She is a native Argentine that grew up north of the city in San Isidro, a beautiful town about 30 minutes from the city center. It's a bit like a crowded Hinsdale (for our Chicago friends) or San Amselmo (for our Marin friends).

Danica has been amazingly helpful during our entire planning process before coming to Argentina and while we have been here. She is a bit of a traveler so she may or may not be in the city when I email her but she always emails back right away with exactly what we need. A real life-saver in a city where we don't speak the language and everything seems to happen on the sly.  Luckily we have been able to see her twice while we have been here as she travels out of town quite a bit to visit her ranch.  Everyone here seems to have a ranch.  A HUGE Thank you to Danica for making us feel at home in Buenos Aires.

-Suzanne

PS - we found a great little playground near Danica's house where Maddy got to work off some of her excess energy.  It felt a little bit like Deer Forest in Coloma except things actually worked.

Today is the big day.  Ben was registered to take the SAT this morning in Buenos Aires.  We had attempted to take the test at home but couldn't get the dates worked out and the test is only offered internationally twice while we are traveling. Sometime in May was the other option and at this point we don't know where exactly we will be then.
Ben is interested in attending the Illinois Math & Science Academy for high school and the SAT is a requirement.  This was his opportunity to take the test and see how he would perform, do a little work on areas that need it, then retake the test prior to applying to high school.  One of Ben's strengths is test taking so he was not nervous at all.  He woke with 10 minutes to spare this morning and got in the car. 
The SAT is only administered at one location in BA. The Asociación Escuelas Lincoln, the Lincoln International School.  As luck would have it one of the two people that we know in Buenos Aires happens to be a teacher at the school.  A friend and neighbor since childhood, Dan Nolan, has lived and worked here for 10+ years and teaches middle school social studies. He was even able to pull some strings and arrange for a graphing calculator for Ben to use for the test.  We forgot to pack ours.  Thanks, Dan!

Ben and Mike did a test drive to the school yesterday. It's about 30 minutes north of our apartment and in a beautiful neighborhood called La Lucila, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires. The school is as close to the Rio de la Plata as things get here and has amazing views of the water. We were so impressed with the school itself that we forgot to get a picture of the view.  It felt like a mix of the classic Hinsdale public school and a open-style California school.  Maddy has plans to move here soon.

Obviously, parents are not allowed to accompany their children into the test but I tried. I wanted to make sure that he found the calculator and make sure that someone inside spoke English (the security guards at the gate did not speak English and had a hard time locating his name on the list). After he went in I spent the next few hours worrying that the test was being given in Spanish and it would be a long 4 hours for him. Don't laugh. I even made Mike circle back to the school to make sure that he was still inside and wasn't sitting on the curb with no cell phone.  He was fine. 

The College Board website indicates that the test takes 3 hrs. and 45 min. to complete so we returned at 11:45am with the girls to wait for Ben. Well, things take a bit longer here and at 1:20pm Ben came out looking tired but pleased.  Said the reading part was the most difficult. 

-Suzanne


Aside from what my mom just wrote, I kind enjoyed the day too. I thought it was really nice of Dan to show us around the school and give us fact on the history of the school. The school had a huge soccer field and a pool! The school offered different classes like Drama and Choir. Overall, I thought it was nice and fun to learn about a school I would go too if I lived here. Later we got ice cream.

- Izzy

It's much of what people discuss, and mostly what we have in common - the weather. The weather will surely be an impactful factor on our trip; both in how it affects us (travel times, comfort, mobility, packing, site seeing)...as well as what we are missing back home.

California is in a severe and dangerous winter drought, and Chicago is entering a second Polar Vortex next week with below zero temperatures again. Our best wishes go out to our friends and family in each of those places.

Down here in Buenos Aires, it has been consistently between 90 - 102 F degrees since we arrived with close to 100% humidity. Not much fun in the middle of the day. Yesterday and today, however, the hot weather broke, and we have 75 degrees with a cool breeze coming off of the Rio Plata and it feels like a whole new city. Lovely.

Climate Specialist say the ideal temperature for humans is between 70 and 75 degrees F., so in keeping true to our math home studies of Mean, Median, and Mode, I wondered why people in the U.S. retire to the hotter climates of Florida and Arizona, and not more to regions where they have the most days in the 70's - and I'm not referring to Average Temp. (or Mean), but most actual days in the 70's (or Mode). So my quick online (consumer) research revealed a lot of inconclusive data and mostly Temperatures Averages, not actual days of temperatures (although Suzanne showed me a website that teaches more professional and educational search techniques that don't always default to Wikipedia, so I will do that next). So far I'm seeing Central California as the place - right around Santa Barbara, but I'm suspecting that maybe the Carolina's would also be in the running.

So stay warm, cool, dry or wet, wherever you are, and I'll ask about your weather the next time I see you!

Here's to that ideal 75 degrees.

- Mike

After being in the B.A. city center for over two weeks and getting around by cab, bus and foot, we decided to be real Americano's and drive us some! So we rented a typical vehicle for the average Argentine - a tiny 4-door, 4-cylinder 1.8 liter, manual-shift Chevy the size of an original Civic. It had all of the modern features of manual button door-locks, crank-up windows, zero cup-holders and not an air-bag to be found!

The first night we tooled around the city, which seems to never end and just goes on and on, block after block for 10+ miles in three directions.

The second day, we went out to the country on a highway and took an hour+ drive to La Plata, the capital of the state of Buenos Aires. It was OK, but again, right on the water yet with no water access - which was another three hours down the coast.

In general, driving here seems nerve-wracking at first, but quickly becomes a blast: lot's of quick shifting and braking while crazy lane-changing and veering to avoid collisions. The lane markers are but mere suggestions as cars typically straddle them deciding which option will eventually become better, and during rush hour a 3-lane road becomes 5-across as four cars occupy the marked three stripes, and the shoulder becomes a fifth lane. Yet, there are no horns, no foul remarks and it all seems to flow pretty well.

The buzzing thunder of twenty small motorcycles rolling up to the front of every red light is pretty impressive, especially when you see them flying towards you in the rear-view mirror, looking like something out of Mad Max. Their weaving and lane changing is pure ballet.

Out in the suburbs, there are no stop signs or stop lights, but the rigid block-by-block grid of streets remains; so the rule-of-thumb is when two cars approach the intersection at the same time, the car on the right has right-of-way. This is the same as the States, but people actually observe it here and it works, especially once you get the rhythm of it (as it happens and quickly - no hesitating here - on almost every single corner).

Parking on city street is tough (like any downtown area), so they have those "parking guys" (cuidacoches), who flag you down with dirty towels and will hold a spot if you pay them $2 US ($20 Peso).

Stopping to get gas was one of the longest and strangest experiences we have had here as they have to pump your gas for you and they take a very, very, verrrry long time (which of course translates in to long lines).

Lastly, (and if your still reading this long and boring post), Suzanne got to drive down the Avenue de Julio today (in the picture above), one of the widest streets in the world: 16-lanes, eight in each direction, plus 4 bus lanes in the middle for 20-total lanes. Impossible for pedestrians to cross in one light (so there are 2-3 islands to wait upon). She drove it like a native - you go grrrrl.

 I'm hoping to still try my luck on a motorcycle yet before we leave!

-Mike

Here is my list of the Top-Ten-Things-That-I-Have-Seen-So-Far-In-Argentina-Because-We're-Only-About-Two-Thirds-Of-The-Way-Through-It:

1. It's Hot
This week the temperatures hit 100˚F here.

2. It's Really Hot
Seriously, it's 9:00 in the evening and it's still 85˚ here.

3. Lots of Tiny Convenience Stores
Scattered around the city are these small, hole-in-the-wall stores selling soda and candy. I also discovered that I really like Mentos.

4. Exchange Rates
Due to the sharp increase in black market currency exchange rates, I can now go to a government exchange, trade pesos to dollars at 6.5 pesos/dollars, then go to a black market and exchange dollars to pesos at 12 pesos a dollar. This effectively doubles my money.

5. Computers
It sounds lame, but at least I have some form of reliable entertainment to use.

6. Ice Cream
Go to Buenos Aires and walk in any direction. Within 10 minutes, you will happen upon an ice cream place, most likely Freddo's, a chain restauraunt.

7. Pizza
They really like pizza here.

8. Steak
Lots of steak too.

9. Stores
With a weekly marketplace 3 blocks from our home, and a mall next to it, I can be content spending all my money.

10. Motorcycles
It seems the primary method of transportation here is either taxi or motorcycle. Most restaurants use motorcycles for delivery. We are a block away from a motorcycle dealership.

That's all, I guess. So yeah. Bye.

-Ben

A few days ago, my parents let us stay at the nice hotel in Buenos Aires because it was super hot outside. On the cab ride there, we looked at tons of license plates and found words like MAS or LOS. It drove my mom crazy.
Right after we got to the room, we changed and went to the pool. While I was there, I broke my googles and lost my sunglasses:(. From the pool, you could see a little bit of the Atlantic ocean, but we couldn't go swimming in it :(.
We went swimming the next day as well and then we went home. I thought it was a good idea to go to the hotel to get away from the heat!
- Izzy

One important goal of this trip is to avoid hotels as much as possible, especially during the longer stays. We want to immerse in the local cultures via apartments and walks to the small markets. However, after almost a week of near, and over, 100 degree temperatures, we gave the kids the treat of swimming (and a breakfast buffet vs. Dad's daily huevos and Zucarita's con leche). And true to be expected, while clean and beautiful, the hotel could have been in any Spanish-speaking country in the world, and would not have the slightest idea of real Argentinian culture (although we did see a few Brazilian-type thong bottoms on both men and women!)

As a final treat, Mom and Dad did authorize hamburgosa's from room service so we could go on a Sushi date. Our advice to anyone looking for Sushi in B.A. is to skip it altogether, and wait until you visit a seafood oriented country. ;)

- Mike

Today our adventure was at the San Telmo Market. It had things like knitted Minions and dresses and these little cup things that you would make tea out of. It was AWESOME!!!

When we got there, we looked on the first half of the market. We saw knifes (which Ben wants to start a collection of and Izzy's freaked out about it) and dolls and huge piles of little knitted finger puppets. The were Chicken Little puppets and Snow White puppets. Also, I got a bracelet and a pair of sunglasses while Izzy got a fan and purse. Ben got nothing while Mom got a bracelet too and Dad enjoyed his beer. Plus, we got to see a mini tango show!

-Maddy

As many people know, I have been playing a "license plate game" in Chicago for many years, and have gotten our kids hooked. As Chicago just uses a straight numerical listings, and not some complex alpha-numeric code as in many cities, you can find interesting plates amongst the 1- 8000 numbers-only system (and they are plastered on both plates, the sides, the top, etc.) They have always reminded me of large lotto balls. Over the years I have seen plates like "1776", "1812", "1984", "2001", all of our ages and our birth years, "1040" on tax day once - we even stopped and took our pictures by cab "1" once.

Well down here, I noticed all of the plates are just three random letters, followed by three random numbers, so we stared a letter game instead! The kids are having a blast and Suzanne is going bonkers. We have seen tons of short words (both English "LEG", and Spanish "MAS") and many three letter acronyms, plus even two of our initials "MAW" (mine) and "IFW" (Isabelle Flora Wychocki) so far.

We wondered, however, if they did any human editing like they do for vanity plates in the states, as we saw one that was JEW?!? Very weird.

The kids started "scoring" and created a variable points value-system, and then of course, everyone started fighting! :)

Suzanne said she won't be impressed until we see some web words like OMG, LOL, BFF. So, maybe we'll get her hooked too.

- Mike