Blogs from La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America

My last full day was spent having a neighbourhood wander, a shopping expedition to the main city area and then going out for a lovely meal in the evening. La Plata is the capital city of the Buenos Aires province, around 1million people, and was a well planned city from the start. Street are arranged in a grid and numbered off, and there are diagonals intersecting these with a plaza at each intersection. Each plaza has exercise equipment, cafes, fountains, childrens play equipment, some community gardens, and provide a meeting space and play area for many apartment and multi-housing dwellers. Streets are one way and the next street across is going the opposite way, so an odds and evens system which is very effective for moving traffic safely and efficiently. Interspersed in each little set of ... read more

Today's throw me in the deep end of cultural learnings started at 9am with sightreading and learning a Spanish folk song in 2 parts. Based on Argentinian folk rhythms which often include a 6/8 metre against a 3/4 metre Bernardo Latini had composed this piece using a well known folk melody for children choir. (bernardolatini.com) So his challenge was to not only get me to sing one voice against the other with an opposing metre, but also to include syncopation, as well as of course all in Latino Spanish. Success to some degree, today's prevention of dementia done! The park near the house has markets on Friday, inside an organic small market, very grass roots, home made home grown. Outside the park on the footpath were more markets; veges, meat, cheese, eggs, fish, spices, herbs and ... read more

Sunday is a day for meeting people in this part of the world, so this we did all day. Meet and greet started with my daughter inviting some friends over for home cooked ravioli for lunch. Because there is a huge Italian influence many people cook their pasta from scratch which means making the dough, making the fillings, and making the sauce with real vegetables. I was drafted into ravioli making, using the little moulds that you fill and then press out. Hmmmmm not my forte but they looked ok and tasted fantastic. Someone bought bread another wine and we had a lovely meal with 5 friends at the house. Most Sundays there are markets on somewhere so after lunch we all took to bus to Plaza Malvinas to a huge market that is held monthly. ... read more

END OF THE WORLD We have not been to South America. Shall we give it a whirl? The Falklands was our real destination and to get there we decided to do a cruise. Wednesday 9th March 2016 All aboard the 14.10 hrs. National Express Coach to Heathrow. After a lift to Birmingham Airport we boarded the coach for the first part of our adventure to South America. The coach journey was not that interesting and what we had done many times before. We arrived at Terminal Three Heathrow and went to check in. The check in clerk offered us seats at the back with plenty of room as the plane was not full. We were to have four seats each!!!! After a meal at the airport we boarded the TAM AIRLINES plane for a long journey. ... read more

So we just got back from a few days away visiting Lean's relatives in La Plata. His family is so big we have been spending a lot of time meeting up with everyone and catching up with people, and we still haven't seen everyone yet! La Plata is a really nice city, it's only about an our away from the city centre of Buenos Aires. It is of course much smaller than B.A itself, but it is still fairly big, comparing it to other places in Ireland. I really liked the place, it has a really nice atmosphere and I have to say that the city as a whole felt a lot more compact and safe than the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires. There are many beautiful buildings and as the city is quite compact ... read more