Argentina (w/Uruguay, a bit of Brazil & Paraguay) 1989

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This is a continuation of my putting our old travel journals onto this blog site. See previous ones: Guatemala 1988, which is the first in this series; Costa Rica 1989 (w/Christmas in Cozumel, Mexico and last days in Guatemala), which is the second; Cuba & Mexico 1989, the third; and this is the fourth. Again, I am relying on photos I happened to have scanned and ones people have sent to me as I do not have access to my original photos. Thank you all who sent me photos - much appreciated! When we return to the states (this is being written in Germany where we are living this year) I'll add/substitute original photos.

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ARGENTINA & URUGUAY, 1989

(Originally written in conjunction with the Cuba, Mexico journal in Argentina April, 1989)

Montevideo, Uruguay, March 8 - 12 (78° F/25.5° C & Sun)

Another beautiful city! Montevideo has lots of trees, even in the city center and many tree-lined boulevards. It is a coastal city and has great beaches right downtown.

The European mixture of the people is so noticeable here (Argentina too) - blonds everywhere. We didn’t stand out as tourists like we had in Mexico and Central America where the people are generally darker and shorter. The Spanish spoken in Uruguay and Argentina has an Italian lilt to it and they say “Ciao” instead of “hasta luego” for good-bye.

We spent two days in Montevideo and then went to the famous beach area of Punta del Este. It is a pretty beach town with gorgeous beaches surrounding the town. Rich people from Uruguay and Argentina summer here. Some of the homes are magnificent. At the height of the season it is hard to find a hotel or a table in a restaurant, but since it was the end of the season, it wasn’t so crowded - perfect for us.

We ran into a problem here - the dinner 'hour' began at 9 p.m. and 10 was the normal time to eat. The restaurants didn’t open before 8:30 p.m. The trick, we learned much later, was to have 'tea' at 5 p.m. to be able to make it until 10. You can imagine Bernie come 7 o'clock when he last ate at noon. Frequently we just had a hearty 'tea' and didn't bother with dinner.

Argentina March 13 - April 17

Buenos Aires, March 13 - 16 (75° F/23.8° C w/rain, sun by 10)

Our exchange student from a few years ago, Vicky Sahade, met us at the airport. We could see her jumping up and down as we came through customs. Cannot tell you how great it was to see her! In two years she had blossomed into an incredibly gorgeous young lady. She’d lost 15 pounds, her hair was shorter (still below shoulder length) and more stylish, and she was tan from vacationing in Brazil for a month.

Vicky’s cousin, Ricardo (who had a car) was with her, and the two of them were our guides during the four days we were in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires - it must have been one of the world’s great cities at one time and in many ways still is. After WWII Argentina was one of the ten richest countries in the world, and despite the economic problems of today, you can see that there is still a lot of wealth in Argentina, particularly in BA.

Our hotel was in the center of the city and close to many walking/shopping streets. About a week before we arrived, the dollar doubled in value against the local currency. Can you imagine the bargains? Leather, which was already a good buy, became a steal (I had to buy a coat, of course). How I would have loved to have been heading home right after visiting BA as I would have loaded up with goods.

(Note: We've visited Argentina two other times: Once in 1997 when we were living in Ecuador, and a third trip for Marcela's wedding in 2002, the currency crashed AGAIN on that third trip. Again, bad for Argentina, good for tourists.)

Usually when a currency is devalued drastically the merchants just increase prices. For whatever reason, they hadn’t done that here, on most things anyway. Vicky’s cousin and many other people bought cars immediately, before the dealers could adjust the prices. Ricardo said car dealers’ entire stocks were depleted in hours.

Restaurant prices remained the same. We went to one of the best restaurants in BA and had steaks (the Argentine speciality), wine, salads, etc., and for four people it was $20. The portions of meat were unbelievable!! Vicky’s steak was at least two pounds, was two inches thick and ten inches across - swear to God! All the steaks were done to perfection at every restaurant we went to. In one place Bernie tried to order the smallest steak on the menu - half a baby beef steak. Sounds small huh? Well, it was at least a pound, an inch thick and covered his whole plate.

We ran into the same problem with restaurant hours in Argentina as we had in Uruguay. Since Vicky and Ricardo were our guides and dinner companions, we had no choice but to shift to their schedule. One night we went to a tango performance (fabulous!) that got out at 11 p.m., so we had dinner at midnight to 2 a.m. Can you imagine our Bernardo even staying awake until midnight let alone eating then?

The young people in Argentina don’t go out on Friday and Saturday nights until midnight because that is when the discos open. The usual time to come in is around 3 or 4 a.m.; 6 is not considered late. Evan Vicky’s 15-year-old brother and all the teenagers adhere to this schedule.

Córdoba (75° F/23.8° C & Sun) No, we are not tired of the sun yet. We flew with Vicky to her home in Córdoba. Her entire family (mother, four siblings) met us at the airport. What a delightful, warm family.*

*Mother Rosa, brothers Pablo & Sebastian, twin sister Marcela** and older sister Andrea

**When we met Marcela for the first time in Córdoba she was planning to work as an au-pair in Connecticut because she needed to live in an English speaking country for, I think, three months to graduate from the English language translation school she was attending. And as many of you know, to know Marcela is to love her, so when the au-pair gig fell through, we invited her to come to Alaska and join the other foreign exchange students, Jaqueline from Guatemala; Camila from Brazil; and Marysia from Poland, we were hosting for a year each (two for Camie as it turned out). See earlier blog: Exchange Daughter Reunion/April 14-21 2007 for the stories of our meeting these wonderful foreign daughters.

There wasn’t enough room at Vicky’s house for us, so we stayed at the family’s 'country villa.' Vicky’s immediate family is not wealthy, but her uncles obviously are. The house (villa) we stayed in was indeed a villa complete with large grounds and a swimming pool. It was one of two villas the family owns, and nobody lives in either. The one we stayed in was used on Sundays and special holidays for family get-togethers. So for this limited use, they had a couple (maid and handyman) who lived in the villa: five bedrooms, three bathrooms, formal dining room, two kitchens, two living rooms, several work rooms, and of course, servants’ quarters over the garages. The house has 13-foot ceilings and was full of antiques.

We arrived on a Saturday and the next day the family got together at 'our' villa. A table for 16 was set on the verandah. Vicky’s mom, Rosa, cooks wonderful Arab food, so we had a complete and outstanding Arab-style meal.

Rosa is of Lebanese descent and Vicky’s father, who passed away a few years ago, was of Syrian descent. Some of the family still speak Arabic. Rosa recently started selling food from her garage, which she converted into a kitchen. Vicky said that this is looked down on somewhat by society and some of the family, but Rosa loves it and is doing quite well. She now has four children in university and one in high school. I’m sure she can use any extra income she can acquire, plus the food is to-die-for.

Belgrano, Argentina March 25 & 26. All of Vicky’s family and we (eight total) loaded up two cars and headed to a friend’s cabin in the mountains about two and one-half hours south of Córdoba. All did not go smoothly, alas. First the starter on one of the cars wasn’t working, and a mechanic had to be located. That was hysterical because at least six different men came in ones and twos, and some came back two and three times. All conferred with the main mechanic whose only tool seemed to be a hammer.

Three hours behind schedule, starter repaired, we headed out, spirits high. About two miles out of town, whammo, a rear tire blew, and I mean blew - there wasn’t anything left of it. The spare tire was marginal, but got us to a repair shop where we bought a new one.

It was raining, of course. First rain we’d seen in ages, but naturally when you have a flat tire, it has to be raining; Rand-McNally’s law or something.

Discussions were held on whether or not we should continue, but after Rosa led us in a rousing rendition of Singing in the Rain, we pressed on.

We were so glad we did! The cabin setting was nothing short of spectacular. It was snuggled in a pine forest on a bluff overlooking a pristine river with beautiful wide, white sand beaches. Fields of blooming wildflowers sloped down to the river, and horses galloped through the fields. It was as pretty a setting as I’ve ever seen.

The sun came out on Sunday, Easter, and we had a perfect day - sunning on the beach, walking through the forest, riding horses; and lots of sitting on the verandah admiring the view. And of course eating, Rosa packed enough for twenty people. We tried to work off the calories by dancing, sure was fun, but I doubt we achieved much. We were going to do aerobics (I’d brought my tapes), but there wasn’t enough room; too bad as it could have been a hoot.

We cannot begin to express how much we enjoyed Vicky and her family. They are warm and loving, and treated us so specially. Example: on Monday, March 27 we flew to Buenos Aires to overnight before heading to Ushuaia the following day. Before leaving Córdoba we had lunch with the family. After lunch as we were settled in the living room with coffee, Rosa entered with a homemade birthday cake for Bernie. She had whipped up a delicious cake that morning when Vicky mentioned that Bernie would shortly (on March 30) be 43 and begin his 44th year, which is awfully close to 45, which is only a hop, skip and jump away from 50. And I’m nowhere near 40 yet - cradle robber! But I digress, the cake was scrumptious.

Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego (“The Farthest Southern Town in the World”), Argentina March 28 - 31 (40° F/4.4° C & Misty). Latitude 54° South

How Bernie got me to Ushuaia (oosh-why-a) I’ll never know. It had been his goal to go from Alaska to Ushuaia, from the top of the world to the bottom, and lucky me got to tag along. Only kidding.

Ever been to Cordova or Kodiak, Alaska? Well, Ushuaia looks exactly like that - ocean, snow-capped mountains, rainy, windy and dreary. We felt right at home - cold!

Ushuaia has a nice little museum in which we met a British man who had bicycled from Bolivia to Argentina, and obviously, was at the end of his trek. We had dinner with him that evening and he told us fascinating tales about his trip. The dinner we shared was only the third meal he had eaten out during his ten-month trip. While on his trip he mostly drank tons of tea, had porridge with nuts and fruit in the mornings, and pasta in the evenings. He ate very little meat. He was very thin, but said he had actually gained weight, muscle. Also, he had not been sick at all, not once.

Tierra del Fuego, a territory, has a large national park, which we toured. Very familiar stuff - tundra, lakes, glaciers, but gorgeous all the same.

After the park we took a boat through the Beagle Channel (named after Charles Darwin’s research boat). It was very similar to the Inside Passage on route to Alaska. The sun honored us on and off, and when it was out the scenery was more spectacular.

The highlight for me was one island in the channel solid with sea lions and fur seals. They were playing, fighting, jumping into the water, swimming and rolling nearby. There were huge males, as well as small pups. Fascinating - could have stayed all day.

There was another island packed with Imperial Cormorants. They look like they are related to the penguin - big (1.5 - 2 feet/45.7 - 61 centimeters tall), white-fronted with black wings and back. This island is called, originally, Bird Island, and evidently in the spring (October) is even more crowded with nesting birds. Had a hard time imagining more birds than we saw.

In the surrounding area we also saw albatross, condor, and all kinds of ducks and swans.

The following day we drove around the area to several lakes. That evening we celebrated Bernie’s birthday with a nice dinner and lots of jokes about it really being the end (well, the bottom anyway) of the world when he turned 43.

The next day we took a ski/chair lift up a mountain, and then climbed farther up to a glacier. The view was very similar to what we see when skiing on Mt. Alyeska outside Anchorage, Alaska.

Next we flew to Rio Gallegos to overnight and head to Calafate the next morning. Rio Gallegos is in the middle of the pampas - the flatlands. I thought we were in Kansas, except the town looked like something out of West Texas.

El Calafate April 1 - 4 (40° F/4.4° C & Mostly Sunny) There are only two reasons to go to Calafate: (1) visiting Perito Moreno glacier and (2) mountain climbing. This little town (population 3,000) sits on the edge of the pampas, on the banks of the largest lake in Argentina, which is the second largest in South America, Lake Argentino, so the setting is very picturesque. The lake is a rich aqua color because it is a glacial lake; the Andes rise magnificently in the background.

The main draw is Perito Moreno Glacier (reminded us of Columbia Glacier in Alaska) that is not only very impressive visually, but it gradually dams an arm of the lake. Every four years or so there is a tremendous (100 feet/30.5 meter) rise in the level of the lake and then the inevitable, fantastic breaking of the ice dam. The last time this happened was February 1988. We saw a good video of it.

There are many glaciers feeding Lake Argentino. One glorious day we spent 12 hours on a boat visiting a few. The glaciers were beautiful and there were many icebergs floating around. We drove to Perito Moreno and I liked that because we were able to walk around and get different views of the glacier.

When people found out we were from Alaska they wanted to know what the heck we were doing in southern Argentina. Tongue-in-cheek we told them we were scientists doing comparative studies on northern hemisphere vs. southern hemisphere glaciers.

The other reason for visiting the Calafate area is mountain climbing. There are several technically difficult (though not too high) peaks; Fitz Roy is the most famous.

We met a whole bunch of Israelis in Calafate. We knew from our Israeli friends that traveling through South America was popular with them, so we weren’t surprised to find so many.

It has become standard practice for young people getting out of the Israeli army (of which both young men and women must serve two years, 18 - 20 years of age) to travel for a year or so. They traditionally travel to either Southeast Asia or South America. After running into three different groups in two days, Bernie asked one Israeli if any young people were left in Israel. The young man looked at Bernie with a twinkle in his eye and said yes, they made a schedule of who got to go and who had to stay.

We also met some young Germans who were traveling in South America for a year updating a guide book. They were really enjoying themselves until one day in Calafate they returned to their room to find that one, only one, of the girls had been ripped off. The thief and her victim must have been the same size because it was clothes and shoes, in addition to money, that was taken.

We were really surprised to hear of the theft because generally Argentina is very safe. This was the first and only incident we heard about, and most travelers were impressed with the relative ease in which they could travel safely in Argentina.

On the up-side, we also met a very entertaining pair of older gentlemen from New York. The Germans dubbed them The Odd Couple: Frank was originally from Cuba and had an accent. Ben was born and grew up in Brooklyn and, yeah, had an accent. Typical conversation: Frank (to us): “You think afta nine years Ben would at lease pretend he could understan me. Last night I says Ben, could you turn out the lamp, I wanna go to sleep now.” Ben says, “are you crazy, there ain’t no lambs in here. You dream’n or sumthin? I ain’t puttin out no lambs cause there ain’t none in here!!” So I (Frank) says “for Christ’s sake Ben Context, Context! You brains in you ass?” And Ben says “now don go draggen Christ into this again, you know I’m Jewish . . . .”

Trelew, Argentina (Peninsula Valdes) April 4 - 6 (60° F/15.5° C w/Winds 75-100 mph/120- 170 kph) Almost got knocked off our feet as we stepped off the plane! Fortunately in town it was somewhat calmer and it was calm the rest of our stay.

Nothing in Trelew, but the surrounding area is gorgeous - beautiful coastline. And best of all: penguins!! The largest penguin colony (one million) outside of Antarctica is on Point Tombo just south of Trelew. Penguins, everywhere penguins - rolling hills of them as far as the eye could see. It was fantastic and entertaining to say the least. We laughed almost the whole time we were there - their antics are comical. It was so strange actually walking among so many penguins. Most of the area is off-limits, but there were many penguins nesting in and under the public path. We literally almost stepped on many. They have little fear of humans, and only retreated to their nests (holes in the ground under bushes) if we got too close (a foot/30.5 centimeters or so). At one point the path narrowed and we had to walk through a group of about 10, gingerly stepping around them. That was the only time I was concerned; I thought for sure we’d get 'beaked' because we were only inches away.

It was fascinating watching them parade down to the ocean, always in groups and always in a line. They all did this several times a day, so the parade is constant. It looks like they are playing Follow-the-Leader because if the lead penguin would just wet his feet and then run back up the beach, the others did the same. If the lead penguin went for a swim, they all did.

Watching them swim was a real eye-opener: they are fast little guys. They may waddle on land, but in the water they are lightning-quick. We even saw one group jumping the way dolphins do and covering distances every bit as fast.

North of Trelew were saw sea elephant and sea lion colonies. It was late in the season, so most of them had gone south already. The ones remaining were females with young born late in the season and not yet ready for the long swim to Antarctica. There were still quite a few sea lions. Boy can they make a racquet. The noise must be deafening at the height of the breeding season.

The sea elephants were much more sedate - not so noisy and barely moved. Unfortunately we didn’t see a male, only moms and babies. Per our guide book, this sea elephant colony is the only 'mainland' colony in the world; all the others are on islands.

Driving to and from Trelew to the coast was open pampas - lots of grazing sheep. We were pleased to see quite a few groups of guanacos, which are llama-like animals, and many, avestruces, which are in the ostrich family.

Bariloche, Argentina. April 7 - 10 (40° F/4.4° C & Rainy) This is the ski/recreational area of Argentina. Skiing in the winter and fishing, hiking, camping in the summer. Originally founded by German and Swiss immigrants in the 1930s, it definitely has an Alpine village look and feel.

The town is on a beautiful lake and the surrounding mountains are rugged. There are numerous lakes and rivers in the area - we had great trout dinners. The skiing is supposed to be world-class.

We took boats across two of the lakes. On an island in one lake there was a lovely forest of arrayane trees, which is in the eucalyptus family. Per our guide, this is the only large forest of arrayanes accessible to man as the few other forests in existence are very remote. The forest is different because the trees have no foliage or bark on the lower ten feet/3 meters or more, and the wood is a bright reddish brown. There is very little undergrowth, so the trees stand out vividly. Evidently this was where Walt Disney filmed part of the movie Bambi.

On another island we were able to lose our group and hike alone for several hours through dense evergreen forests. Wonderful.

Okay, how many of you realized that Bambi was a cartoon and wasn’t 'filmed' anywhere? Our guides gave the Bambi line as fact, and none of the 200 other tourists questioned it! Hate to imagine how accurate other 'facts' were.

Foz Do Iguaçu, Brazil; Puerto Iguazu, Argentina; Puerto Stroessner, Paraguay, April 11 - 13. How about three countries in one day? Sounds like a whirlwind tour, huh? It wasn’t really. Iguazu Falls are tucked in a corner of Argentina and Brazil, with Puerto Stroessner, Paraguay almost merging with Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

We were staying in Brazil and did not get settled in our hotel until late in the morning. Since it is better to see the falls in the morning, we decided to hop a bus to Puerto Stroessner, which is an open port with deals on electronic gadgets, watches, perfume, etc., We had a shopping list from Vicky and family.

I was lucky and got Bernie to shop for several hours. Puerto Stroessner is incredible - like Hong Kong but more dense with street vendors and hawkers. It was intense shopping. I’m so proud of Bernie - he didn’t go into convulsions until the tenth perfume shop. Well, naturally I was comparison shopping - can’t be a wimpy shopper in PS.

Fortunately we had been warned not to buy anything off the street because some of the deals seemed great. Chanel No. 5 perfume that sold in the stores for $60 was selling on the street for $8. Fake of course. I don’t know how they manage to package the fake perfume so perfectly. I made the mistake of asking a street boy how much he wanted. He started at $8 per bottle and ended up offering to sell me four bottles for $2. (Again, all prices in US dollars). I didn’t want to waste $2 on slightly scented alcohol, thank you very much.

Bernie, 'Mr. Money' to close friends, was having fits with the Brazilian currency. The present novo cruzado note which says 10,000 is really worth only 10 cruzados. The 100 cruzado note is worth 10 centavos. In the change from dinner (food is great and plentiful) we got a 100,000 cruzeiro note, which is worth .1 cruzado. The cruzeiro is the old currency. They have dropped six zeros from their currency in the last five years - three off the old cruzeiro and three more off the old cruzado. Add to this the complications of changing from dollars to Argentina australes ($1 = A46) to cruzados (A1,000 = 40 cruzados). Forget about the Paraguay currency, the guarani, which was 1,020 = $1.

The following day dawned cloudy and cool, so we dressed appropriately and headed for the Argentine side of the falls. About 9 a.m. the sun broke through and we were acutely aware that we were in the jungle again. The rest of the day was 80-85° F/26-30° C and sunny.

We all remember the Robert DeNiro movie The Mission don’t we? And Iguazu Falls is, of course, where it was filmed. The falls are definitely as spectacular as portrayed.

Niagara carries more water, but Iguazu is 65 feet/20 meters higher and much prettier. Prettier because they cover a much larger area - miles of falls circling the area.

It took all day to see everything - walked all the trails and catwalks over the falls. The setting is still natural, but has a nice visitors' center and two restaurants. The commercialism of Niagara has not been duplicated, yet.

Day three was again misty and cool in the a.m. and heaven by 9. We visited the Brazilian side of the falls. Not so many trails, but a much more complete view of the falls. Much easier to see the immensity.

Bernie had always wanted to ride in a helicopter and I figured there couldn’t be a more spectacular sight to fly over, so guess who took a helicopter ride over the falls? Yes, Joan and Ron Spencer of Columbus, Ohio. No, your first clever guess was correct. Bernie sat next to the pilot and had a bird’s-eye view, me in the back snapping photos. It really was worth it.

Argentina in General. A real sleeper; we liked it very much. Very inexpensive, safe and friendly. We stayed in many hotels that were under $10 and were more than acceptable. I think all the hotels in Argentina put in new bathrooms recently - I swear, they were great and oh so clean.

I’ve been doing aerobics three or four times a week and have to lay on the floor for part of the routine (sit-ups, etc.). Well, I’ve gotten a whole different perspective on hotel rooms from that angle. I didn’t find one dust ball under the beds - very clean everywhere. Good food; best part was lots of great salads available in almost every restaurant.

Bugs - almost non-existent. I saw one cockroach (not in a hotel or restaurant) and there were a few mosquitoes in the jungle. Most prevalent insects were the butterflies (thousands at the falls), and they were gorgeous!

Interesting Note: One of the presidential candidates in an upcoming election claims “I will regain the Malvinas,” the Falkland Islands to us - stay tuned.

Córdoba, Argentina April 13-15 (80° F/26.6° C & Sunny) Flew back to Córdoba to gather our things and head to Mendoza April 15 for a few days. Vicky has an uncle in Mendoza whom we’ll visit. It will be very hard saying good-bye to Vicky and her lovely family.

After Mendoza we are going to take a bus over the Andes Mountains to Santiago, Chile. From Chile we’ll fly to Easter Island for three days. Back to Chile for approximately two weeks. May 10 - June 15 Bolivia and Peru. Meet Ken Wallack and daughter Katie* in Quito, Ecuador to go to the Galapagos Islands for about two weeks. Back to Ecuador until approximately July 15. Two months in Brazil, until mid-September. Then Venezuela and Colombia**. Back thru Central America (want to dive in Honduras Belize). Fly to Boston Nov. 20 from Mexico City.

*Cannot remember now what happened, but we went to the Galapagos without Katie & Ken.

** Colombia's 'troubles' had erupted again, so we only saw a bit of Bogota on a short lay-over and didn't tour the rest of the country as we'd planned.

So anybody interested in joining us somewhere, we are fairly flexible and would love to have you.

Hard to believe we’ve been traveling for almost a year now. Time flies! We dearly love hearing from you all and mail day is the BEST. We’ve been having mail packages DHL’ed to us the 15th of each month. This last one went a bit astray and we received it only yesterday, April 13. It left Anchorage March 15, but went to Mexico by mistake and sat there until it was traced. From Mexico it only took three days to Argentina.

Language Gaffes: In several restaurants Bernie ordered trucks (camiones) instead of shrimp (camarones) in garlic sauce.

Before I learned there was a specific word for wine glass, I kept asking for and receiving water glasses full of wine. The waiters must have thought I was some big drinker.

In a taxi one morning Bernie cleared his throat (he had a slight cold) and the driver asked Bernie if he was talking to him. Bernie said “no, I just have a guitar in my throat.” The taxi driver looked very perplexed indeed.

Miscommunication Argentine Style: One night Bernie did not want a heavy beef meal, so he asked the waiter for pasta with tomato and meat sauce. What he got was pasta covered with tomato sauce and in the middle were two filet mignons.

Good-bye from Argentina. You all take care, be good and let us hear from you.

NOTE: We used mostly public transportation throughout our extended travels in Latin America - trains and buses mostly, but the occasional boat or shared van as well. However, in Peninsula Valdes, we rented a car because many of the places we wanted to visit were not on public transportation routes.

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Photos

Victoria Sahade 1987
In 1987 Vicky was a Rotary Exchange student in Alaska and that is where we met her as we were one of her host families

Buenos Aires, Argentina
Avienda 9 de Julio - one of the widest boulevards in the world runs right through downtown BA

Perito Moreno Glacier
On Lake Argentino

Fitz Roy Peak
Popular climbing area

Magellanic Penguins
Peninsula Valdes

Penguins,
Peninsula Valdes is home to a huge colony of penguins

Guanacos
Related to the llama and alpaca (which are all related to the camel), guanacos are smaller and their fur very valuable (finer than cashmere), second only to the fur of its wild cousin, the vicuña

Sea Elephants
also know as Elephant Seals

Avestruces
related to the ostrich

Sahade Siblings
This was taken at Marcela's wedding in Cordoba in 2002: Pablo, Vicky, Marcela, Andrea & Sebastian

Sahade Ladies
Marcela and twin Vicky; sister Andrea, mom Rosa. In October 2009 these lovely ladies went to Mexico to celebrate the twins 40th birthday, and a milestone birthday for Rosa also, yes, her 40th too!! Weird fact: a mathematical conversion takes place because my girls and I are now the same age!

Vicky & Marcela, Mexico 2009
As most of you know, Marcela also lived with us in Alaska, but while it was 1987-88 for Vicky, it was 1991-92 for Marcela.

Comments

[jill sare]

back when we first met....
I remember some of these tales from when we first met in 1989 at 4 am while birdwatching from a dugout canoe in La Selva in Ecuador. Where have the years gone?? I'm back where I started from!!! much love, dear friends!!!

[Shondra Frye]

Terrific!
Thanks for continuing to share stories and pics of your past travels. I love it! The 'Odd Couple' Story about Ben and Frank: Priceless!! :-)