Overseas Adventure Travel - The Start of our Adventure

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We checked out of our Airbnb and checked into the Grand Recoleta Hotel. We met our group at 12:30 for a walk around the neighborhood. The grocery store and the money exchange were of interest to most of our group. After our tour Mark and I went to an Italian restaurant at the Recoleta Mall. It is New Years Eve and all of the shops and restaurants will close early and will be closed tomorrow. We stopped at the store to buy bread and cold cuts so we can make lunch on our travel day on Tuesday. At four we meet with the group for an orientation. Out guide explained in detail what we should expect for the following two weeks. Our fellow travelers (24) introduced themselves. They are a well traveled group of people and they are highly educated. Most of the group have been on OAT trips before with four people having gone on 15 trips with OAT. After the orientation we had a tango lesson. The lesson was fun and even I could keep up. We toasted in the new year. Some of our group went out to dinner but we were not hungry after our Italian lunch.

Today we enjoyed breakfast in our hotel before joining our group on a city tour. Our local guide Pablo gave us great information regarding the history of Buenos Aires. We stopped at a cafe where we enjoyed coffee or tea and fresh croissants While we listened to a film maker talk about his personal experience regarding the times of the Dirty War. The Dirty War in Argentina went from 1974 - 1983, military forces hunted down any political dissidents. Between 22,000 and 30,000 people were killed or disappeared. The speaker’s father was an engineering professor and he turned in students and other professors who he thought were political dissidents. The filmmaker loved his Dad but did not agree with what he had done. We continued on our tour to La Boca an older part of Buenos Aires. It is famous for the La Boca football team which has a stadium here. It is near the old port, has colorful buildings, it where Tango started in Buenos Aires and has lots of shops for tourist.

Dinner tonight is called a home hosted dinner. We are taken to the home of a barbecue expert. He has prepared a wonderful dinner for us. After dinner he and his family answer questions from our group. It was wonderful. Tonight we pack because tomorrow we fly to Ushuaia at the end of the world.

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Comments

[Barbara Husak]

OAT
Donna and I were on the OAT trip to Antartica in February 2007! Had an awesome time! Antartica is so much more than the best photos. The 3 species of Penguins are smelly but so cute! Is Rosario still a guide with OAT? Barb