Mom & Dad Schulman in BA - Guest Bloggers!

After a 10 1/2  hour flight to BA and not seeing Amy for 4 months, we felt great joy when Amy walked into the lobby of the Marriott Hotel and into our waiting arms!

After checking in, we pushed forward despite our groggy state.  We had an early introduction to the Argentine parrilla (steakhouse) for lunch, where we mapped out our plans for the week, tried some Argentine food and Jeff had his first Quilmes beer!  By this time, we realized that Amy was speaking Spanish quite fluently, in both the hotel and restaurant!  When we met up with Cait, we realized the same for her!

One of the first things we noticed on our trip was that dinner in BA was off-limits until at least after 8:00PM, which was still very early by BA standards.  We even noticed that families were eating dinner with babies very late at night.  Since Amy and Cait were more accustomed to this late hour, we had to compromise about the time and generally went to dinner about 8:30 every night, which is very late for us in the USA!  But we did get with the program!!  

On our first full day, Amy took us on a beautiful walking tour where we went to the famous MALBA museum (Cait could not join us). On our way, we also passed the Floralis sculpture and other interesting sites in addition to noticing the many dog walkers that Amy and Cait have written about.  Later that night, we took the girls to a fabulous parrilla dinner at Cabana Las Lilas in the beautiful Puerto Madero neighborhood. We loved it!

The following afternoon, the 4 of us went on a 3 hour guided tour of BA. Our tour guide, Enrique, was excellent and a highlight of this tour was the Recoleta cemetery where Eva Peron lies in a mausoleum.  There are more than 6400 mausoleums and they are all architecturally interesting to look at.  We also noticed the many cats in the cemetery, which was very interesting to see.

Mom and Dad in front of Teatro Colon

Lucky for us, the first Sunday of our trip was Mothers Day!  Amy and Caitlin came to our hotel room with beautiful flowers in my honor, so I celebrated two Mothers days in 2010.  It was also Alissa and Bill's first wedding anniversary, so we called them to wish them well!   Sunday was also a terrific day at the San Telmo antique market and the Recoleta craft fair.  We ended the day at Marcelo, a fantastic Italian restaurant, where we  enjoyed a delicious mothers day dinner!

The next day brought us to the town of San Antonio de Areco, about an hour outside the city.  We went to a beautiful silver shop and then spent the rest of the day on Estancia El Ombu de Areco with our new friends Kaye and Tony.  What an experience!  Part of the day was horseback riding on a pictureseque trail surrounded by soy and wheat fields, llamas and sheep.  Meanwhile back at the ranch, they were preparing our traditional Argentine asado.  Jeff was very brave, and tried everything on his plate, including the blood sausage (a.k.a. black pudding, or as it's called here - morcilla)!!!  We really loved this day and our daughters were very proud of us that we went on horses!

For our next trip, we took the Buquebus high speed ferry to Colonia, Uruguay for a wonderful overnight stay.  We booked the Radisson hotel on line and were so surprisingly pleased with the very pretty hotel and its location, given that the online reviews didn't say such kind things.  After checking in, we had a lovely lunch at El Drugstore and then walked around the old part of the city.  Amy and Jeff climbed the old lighthouse while Cait and I waved from below!  While on top of the tower, Amy and Jeff discovered what a small world it is.  They met a guy named Andrew, who ended up being from Smithtown, which is not far from our home town!   After walking around some more, we returned to our beautifully located hotel to watch the sunset from the pool terrace.  The view from our hotel was stunning!

Dad and I on top of the lighthouse

Cait and Mom on the ground

Views from our hotel

When we got back to BA on Wednesday, Amy and Cait took us on a wonderful guided tour (with the help of Mr. Frommer) from Ave. 9 de Julio to the Congress building.  We so enjoyed finding the buildings that were highlighted in the book.  That night we all loved El Querandi, a beautiful Tango show complete with singing, dancing, and wonderful music.  

          Walking tour with Frommer's           Cait and I at the tango show

Lastly on Thursday, Amy took us to Tigre via the Tren de la Costa, where we took a boat out to the island of Tres Bocas and ate a surprisingly great lunch.

To close, we want to say how proud we are of Amy and Caitlin. Their knowledge of the city was fab and we so enjoyed being with them.  We know that this experience will help them to make good choices in life and will be a benefit in any path that they choose!