s/v Field Trip

s/v Escapade owners transporting 'stuff' to boat! Pinch me.  Ok, hit me.  Reality set in this weekend.  We're next!!!  We helped Neil and Shaun move aboard their boat Saturday.  It was a crammed bus.  Lots of boxes, bins, suitcases and other items to provision their new boat.  We were very excited to see them board Escapade for the first time.  I was beaming almost as much as Neil and Shaun - knowing how close we are to the same provisioning excercise. Stacks of items for boat prior to loading It took about an hour to unload the bus, and move all bins onboard.  In 3 hours a lot of the items were unpacked.  The hard part will be finding space for all the smaller items and getting the boat organized.  It will take Neil and Shaun a couple of days to get on top of everything. Tomorrow (Monday), s/v Escapade heads out for Uruguay for the inagural exporting and collection of items we had shipped for our boats.  More on this...

Elizabeth building sentences Homeschooling has been a lot of fun since we've been traveling.  We have taken every opportunity to learn as we visit new places and see new things.  Mornings are still devoted to structured schooling in our apartment, but we have loved the freedom of taking school with us, too.  As a regular classroom teacher, it has stretched my ideas of how  and where  children learn things.  It challenges my creativity at times, and I miss the typical classroom events such as 'center time' and 'calendar time', complete with songs about the days of the week and the weather.  Actually, because I was missing these classroom nuances, I decided that there was really no reason we couldn't  do centers and calendar time at home.  And yes, we are all saying the Pledge of Allegiance in our pjs to start our days! Photo taken by Elizabeth! Recently, we have incorporated schooling into some of our sightseeing.  Last week, we ...

While we've been living down in BsAs, we've ventured out twice to the land where Jaguars were hunted years ago.  A beautiful, delta town appropriately named Tigre.  We have yet to see a Jaguar, and I am not even sure they still live in the area, but the town of Tigre provides a peaceful refuge from the hustle and bustle of downtown city life in BsAs.  It's only a 45 minute train ride away, for which tickets only cost about $0.30 per person per trip.  Seriously.  All four of us went there and back for less than a couple bucks!  Read more about the town in this Wikipedia article .  It has become one of our favorite field trips, for sure. Since it is a delta town, many people live on the river.  That means they don't drive cars to work, but rather take boats!  There are river taxis going all day long, and we even spotted a traveling fruit stand.  I suppose they come by the docks of each house at relatively the same time and day, offering...

Warning ...Men will not relate to this post at all, let your wives read it instead. Let me start by quoting a sentence from one of my previous posts... " Do they have nail salons in BA? I'm sure they do, but who knows when I'll get brave enough to try it out. Of course, it can't be much different than the salon I go to now. I can't understand anything that they say either :)." Well, today I found out just how different it could be. I arranged a babysitter (Mark had a long distance errand to run) and met up with one of my friends here, Christina. We were excited to be pampered and have some girl time to chat. At least that's what we expected. We met at a cafe, and I ordered a quick cafe con leche "para llevar" (a very necessary phrase that I've learned that means roughly 'to go'). And we set off in search of this salon that had been recommended by a friend of Christina's. Without kids in tow, we were really able to h...

I just got back from a quick three day trip to Washington DC.  I had to fly back to get a power of attorney notarized at the Argentine Embassy so we can export our boat.  Don't ask.  Complicated procedures on the export side in Argentina.  In summary, since my boat is owned by an LLC, I was required to get an Argentine notary on US soil allowing me as an individual to sign export paperwork and export the boat on behalf of the LLC.  ARG! Boxes of stuff I ordered at Neil's house :-) Neil and Shawn were nice enough to let me stay at their place in Fredericksburg, VA.  We did a TON of shopping for miscellaneous items I can't get down here - maple syrup, good peanut butter, boat items, medications, etc, etc.  I also picked up six boxes of Annie's mac and cheese for one of our expat friends whose kids were craving this delicacy. :) In addition, we spent a full day at the Annapolis boat show Thursday.  It was great.  Lots of Antares owners we...

We had an exceptional time at Iguazu.  Frankly I'd never really heard of Iguazu prior to our visit to Argentina last year. I know, I know, typical Americans that live in our bubble of North America.  Niagara Falls?  Been there done that, and frankly not so impressed.  Another waterfall?? Ok, Ok, I'll go for the kiddos...and darn glad I did! We stayed at the Sheraton hotel (using my Starwood points).  It just so happens the Sheraton is the only hotel in the middle of the National Park.  We could walk outside and be on the paths or small train to the hiking trails.  Fortunately on our second day after some haggling with the front desk we received a complimentary upgrade to one of their 4 suites.  The accommodations were MUCH better than the previous room. Other than being in the best location for access to the falls, I would rate the Sheraton as poor.  The food was bad & expensive and the service terrible.  The good news is we di...

this is not my  Coto, but a  Coto. I've shared a bit in past posts about the adjustment it's been for me to figure out the grocery shopping and meal planning in a foreign country.  Trips to the store that would've taken me a mere half hour at home, end up taking an hour and a half here.  Part of this is because I don't know the store layout totally yet (whereas at home I actually write my grocery list in the order of the aisles - yes, a bit obsessive, I realize), and the other obvious reason it takes forever is that I have to figure out WHAT things are.  It's becoming easier, and actually a friend here introduced me to online grocery ordering and delivery- still an hour and a half of hunting, but in my living room on my couch. This same friend actually lives around the corner from our apartment and has 4 kids.  I met her at the nearby park, and she has taken me under her wing in a lot of ways.  A few weeks ago, she invited us all over for dinne...