Buenos Aires, Argentina

The confessional where a l7-year old Jorge Mario Bergoglio decided to enter the priesthood.  This visit to the Basilica of San Jose de Flores was part of our Media, Religion, and Culture class Field Lab, which took place on our first day in Argentina.

Media, Religion, and Culture students in front of the Basilica of San Jose de Flores, a suburb to the west of central Buenos Aires.

Students awaiting their first Argentinian lunch...

Of pizza and empanadas, done deliciously, as only Argentina can do.

At the city center square of Plaza del Mayo, at the end of which is the Casa Rosada.

The Casa Rosada (Pink House) is Argentina's equivalent of our White House.  We did not see President Kirchner on the balcony.

A copy of "Mary, Untier of Knots" an image that had a major influence on Pope Francis when he visited Augsburg, Germany as a student, and which now hangs in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, where Bergoglio was Bishop before becoming the Bishop of Rome.

Walker, Jasper, Oliver, Genevieve, Adler in the plaza that fronts the main train station.

Genevieve poses politely.

Mom happy, belly full of empanadas.

Jasper learns to fly.

Oliver learns too.

Beef: it's what's for dinner… and lunch… and breakfast… and snack.

Littlies in front of the obelisk on the world's widest avenue:  the Avenue of the 9th of July (Argentina liberation day), which Rachel especially liked since it's also her birthday.

Genevieve gives a thumbs up to her first obelisk.

At La Recoleta cemetery, where many of the crypts are unattended or only partially maintained, and the overall feeling is quite spooky because you can see into many of them, and see the coffins stacked inside, and sometimes even these are falling apart, rotting, broken open...

The family crypt of Eva Peron.

Lots of beautiful statuary at La Recoleta.

Row after row of above-ground crypts.  

Afterwards, we went straight across the street for gelato.  Genevieve ate some of the chocolate, but got most of it around the outside of her mouth.  

Later, after we cleaned up, we waited in a fancy hotel for mom to show up and have High Tea with us, but it never happened.

Genevieve posing in front of a religious antiques store.

On our next to last day, I got to take Jasper, Oliver, and Genevieve to a gaucho ranch and go horseback-riding and eat a traditional meat feast.  The first stop was to a little town where Walt Disney spent some time his 1941 visit, and there were statues built of wood by some of Walt's former colleagues in the film-making world.  

At the El Ombu Ranch.  

Genevieve, super-duper excited to be wearing her horse-riding hat that she got at a second-hand shop in Cape Town.

The implication being that, where one wears a horse-riding hat, one must be about to ride a horse.

Genevieve wanted a LOT of pictures to make sure we captured this day...

Jasper took to his horse naturally.

Genevieve got to ride on a full-sized horse!  And with a lead rope instead of a handler walking beside her!  Super awesome!

After a while, her lead rope handler realized she was pretty confident on the horse.  

She was in hog heaven.  You would be too if you were a five-year-old girl and living your DREAMS!!!

Oliver had a HUGE horse compared to his size, but he didn't even need a lead rope.

What does total and complete contentment with the universe look like?  A girl on her horse.  This was the picture of satisfaction after her circuit loop was over with the lead rope, and before lunch she and Oliver and Jasper GOT TO DO ANOTHER CIRCUIT but this time WITHOUT a lead rope!  Oh happiness!  Oh Bliss!!  Oh Horsey!!!

The meat feast awaiting us.

The original salty dog, one of the best gauchos in the area, but whose name I didn't catch when he was introduced.

Genevieve walks back from the gaucho's guitar performance to finish her dinner.

The horse-whisperer did AMAZING things with his horse, and afterwards the kids got to take a picture with him.

This was a highlight for us all, as he did things you're never supposed to do with a horse, like walk behind it, crawl under its legs, stand up on it while it rode in a circle, and essentially treat it like a big kitten, to which it responded like it was, in fact, a big kitten.

A short but sweet dip in the pool before we had to leave the ranch.  This day was, for Genevieve, as soul-satisfying as the day-trip safari was in South Africa for the boys.

A full and fun day on the gaucho ranch.  A super-satisfying and super-fun and super-delicious day of awesome, a real treat and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the kids.  

On the last day, we wandered into the dangerous land of metal crocodiles and other artistic monsters from El Gato Viejo.

A metal man driving a metal car.  Everything here had this great Antoine De St. Exupery feel to it, and we had no idea what we would find at the end of the journey.  

Airplane sculptures made from real airplanes!

Genevieve barely escapes from a CARNIVOROUS FIRE ANT, SIZED XXL!!!

Oliver and Adler beneath the wings of another flight of fancy.

Two students joined us… for what turned out to be...

…an amazing meal made by the artist himself, on a day and time when he was normally closed but he opened his kitchen/restaurant/studio to us and gave us a feast fit for a king

The inside of his hangar/studio was just as awesome and eclectic as the art on the outside.  And we shared a nice bottle of Argentine Malbec.

The old cat started to make us nervous with his hospitality, and after four hours of feasting….

…we discovered that his art must not be selling very well, that the exchange rate isn't very good, and that we now owed him several hundred dollars!!!  In short, we had an amazing, authentic, delicious, profound, and eye-opening lesson on the nature of tourism and being swindled.  The funniest part was when he told us he was a famous artist, like Pablo Picasso, and that we should be grateful to have spent $400 to be in his company, and that his doodle on our bill, plus his signature, would be worth its weight in gold one day… (so we are of course, framing this piece).  By contrast, a meal just as sumptuous, and just as long, would have cost about $100 in any other nice restaurant in the city, including the wine.  So consider yourself warned...

Little kids underneath one of the many plaza statues.

Adler and Dadler back on ship.

Next stop:  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.