This section will contain a salmagundi of pictures and commentary. The first picture is of a very common site in Buenos Aires - a dog walker. We have seen as many as 20 dogs walking in an orderly pack. There was one dog walker that simply had all of the dogs tethered together and was leading them only by voice command - no leash. Virtually all of the dogs here are well-behaved and seem to take the crowds and the traffic in stride. Most of the doggie groups are heterogeneous like this one, but occasionally there are single-breed packs.
The next picture is of a street vendor located about two blocks from the Casa. Even though there is a Coto grocery store in the same block, steet vendors of fresh vegetables and fruits are very common.
Not too far from the Casa is a large park that is great for walking and running, and there is also a lake for paddle boating. On the weekends, there are often special events such as races, concerts and as shown below, car shows.
Before Rhonda headed back to Colorado to be available to help Nick, Jaime and Silas as they prepare for their second child, we were able to spend a long weekend in Mendoza, the center of wine country. We toured two very nice bodegas and also took a tour along the old route from Argentina to Chile through Villavicencio, which is a nature preserve, historic villa, and the site of one of the largest natural water bottling plants in Argentina.
We visited the bodega y cavas de Weinert and the cavas de Don Arturo. Both were very interesting, and very different from one another. Interestingly Don Arturo does not market its wine in Argentina other than at the bodega. They ship to the USA and Europe, and their five dollar wine [a great Malbec] sells for $85 in NYC restaurants.
Vieja Ruta 7
The Chapel at Villavicencio
While walking through our neighborhood looking for a church with a Christmas music program, I happened upon an LDS church and two young missionary boys. The music program had just concluded, piped in via satellite from the Tabernacle. What I did learn is that the church has a basketball court that is open for our use!! So, often on Saturday evenings a group would play for a couple of hours, and the picture is at the end of one of our outings, courtesy of Randy Kunkel.
In addition to basketball, another regular outing was to the bowling alley on Cabildo - Monday nights, after home-stay dinners, which means that it usually got started around 11:00 and often went until closing at one.
Nick picking up the spare
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