No Ifs, Ands, or Butts


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South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Mar del Plata
December 20th 2007
Published: January 9th 2008
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Christmas cookiesChristmas cookiesChristmas cookies

Tris and I made Christmas cookies. It increased our holiday cheer tenfold.
Well, maybe a few butts...

We discovered Sir Mixalot´s inspiration at Mar del Plata - and it wasn´t pretty. The thong is all the rage in the beach town south of Buenos Aires, so butts abound. And beach etiquette makes for full back views. Instead of getting their bronze on sprawled across towels, Argentines stand in small groups chatting with their feet in the chilly Pacific with their backsides facing the crowd.

Our friends, Tristen and James, were nice enough to invite us to their timeshare in Mar del Plata. The Andersons also left their jobs in their home state of Cali and are traveling around the world for a year. That´s right, around the world! They´re adventurous, generous and fun, fun, fun. They´re also extreme - we met them on an Extreme canopy tour through the cloud forest in Costa Rica and then randomly ran into them on the streets of Quito, a city in Ecuador with over 2 million people. We were meant to be amigos.

The Andersons welcomed us to their beach-side high-rise where we had the rarest of luxuries, including our very own bathroom with hot water, a kitchen, and cable TV. We spent
Home-made empanadasHome-made empanadasHome-made empanadas

One of many batches of empanadas we´ll make.
lots of time planning meals and picking out favorite foods at the grocery. They treated us to the best breakfast of our trip with scrambled eggs, fruit salad and much more. Later, we tested our rusty cooking skills not with the complete pig pictured, but with home-made empanadas, salad and plenty of malbec sampling.

Tristen and James have been just as disappointed as we were with the lack of Christmas cheer in Argentina (no Christmas lights, no carols, and decorations only at the malls) so when we arrived, we immediately displayed our mini Christmas tree so we could be merry. Then Tristen and I rang in some more holiday joy by making Christmas cookies. Sure, we had no measuring materials, cookie sheets, or temperature gauge on our gas oven, but we improvised. We even hand-chopped chocolate bars since chocolate chips don´t exist. We baked several dozen cookies and our Christmas cheer increased tenfold.

We had a wonderful time together sharing adventure stories and trading travel tips. Tristen and I even commiserated about being girls on the road without hairdryers or a change of clothes. Turns out, Tristen and James had to return to BA to pick up a
To the beach!To the beach!To the beach!

We brought sunny CO weather with us to the Mar.
holiday package and insisted we stay at the timeshare an extra day. We were proud to report to them that we did next to nothing, except for making seemingly gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup.

There might´ve been some butts at the Mar, but no ands or ifs about it. We had a great time with the Andersons. Thanks again, Tris and James, for a fantastic time together at the beach. We´re so grateful to have met you and can´t wait to meet up with you again in BA to continue our quest for Christmas cheer...





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ButtsButts
Butts

Sir Mixalot´s inspiration... Goo!
Another buttAnother butt
Another butt

A certain someone in Chicago really missed out.
Standing on the beachStanding on the beach
Standing on the beach

Standing in chatting circles on the beach.
Our amigosOur amigos
Our amigos

The four of us got our bronze on at the beach.
Our dinner?Our dinner?
Our dinner?

This friendly lady loved our joke about making an entire pig for dinner.
Mmm... gelatoMmm... gelato
Mmm... gelato

Thanks to the Italian influence here in Arg, the ice cream is unbelievable.
Mar del PlataMar del Plata
Mar del Plata

The place to be over the holidays.


13th January 2008

love trevor and liz
honored to be in your blog! christmas rocked with you both. hope you are traveling well during your last month in sunny SA!

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