Daddy Yankee and Mommy Yankee tour Argentina

Shortly after giving my final lesson, and getting an improvised visit from a WM friend, Ma and Pa got into town and I was ready to begin winter vacation!

I introduced them to Prof. Morales, my Fulbright referente, who is kind of like my Argentine mommy in La Plata, and we shared a huge family parrillada. They also got to check out my deluxe double apartment and meet Tino, Bob and Manson (my roommate and two fish respectively). They also had the pleasure, as some of you choice readers may have had, of staying on the new fold-out futon.

After a day and a half in La Plata it was time to roll out to Iguazú. This meant getting semi-cama bus tickets and packing into a double-decker bus full of Paraguayans with their cell phones blasting cumbia music on full blast. "Boom chicka boom chicka boom chicka ..." I met a nice Brazilian lady on the bus who is doing a Master's in Education in Paraguay is applying to a doctorate program at the UNLP. Anyway, twenty hours into hour scenic, officially-17-hour bus ride, we arrived at the town of Puerto Iguazú. We proceeded to stay in a sweet hotel that had breakfast and dinner buffets included in the price of our lodging. Oh yeah!

We visited the ecological park surround Iguazú Falls. There were wide, well-paved paths through the park and even restaurants, gift-shops, and Guaraní artesans with official nametags selling cool carved wooden things. We got some awesome mandatory us-in-front-of-the-falls pictures and then went on some of the trails through the woods, where we saw capuchin monkeys, coatíes (coatimundu in English? Like jungle raccoons), parrots, iguanas, and other beasties. We also went into a boat ride that actually took us under some of the falls. We had bought ponchos after seeing how pathetic all the people coming off the boat before us looked. Have you ever seen when a cat get soaked, and slinks around looking all mopey and indignant? That was them. Oh, but not us! We were ponchoed head to toe - we looked like triumphant condoms (*great name for an epic metal band) and we came out dry and happy!

At night we "hit" the "town". We were drinking beers and Fernet-and-Coke (Dad didn't like this admittedly foul-smelling Italo-Argentine mixed drink but he was brave and tried it) and a kid came over to our table and did magic tricks and then give us crystals out of a shoebox for good luck. What showmanship! He'll be famous some day.

We also went to the Triple Border area, where Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil are separated and the merging of three river branches. Each side of the river has its own obelisk with its national colors on it and on a clear day like the one we spent there, you can see all the people in other countries taking pictures of you as you take pictures of them.

On the bus ride back, I formally withdrew any and all complaints I might have had about the first one. There was a screaming two-year-old with a nasty cough right behind me in the bus. I found myself wishing there would just be loud music from people's cell phones instead. Eventually, the baby got tired of screaming and her young parents learned that lollipops are only a quick fix for making her stop crying... And we woke up in Buenos Aires.

Their last few days were spent in Buenos Aires, where Agus and I were their official "native guides" bringing them to see the sights: the obelisk, the microcento, San Telmo, Puerto Madero, la Plaza de Mayo, la Casa Rosada, Recoleta, Floris Generalis, Tango Show at Cafe Tortoni, etc. When Mom and Dad left at the airport I realized that I had missed them more than I thought. At that same moment, Agus's brother was flying back to Spain. We pulled ourselves together and took a long series of cheap buses back to La Plata.

That same night, I got a visit from Justin (remember Honduras? He was there: co-founder of OYE). Justin, Agus and I spent two days just recharging in LP. Justin is now gone, my computer has crashed and been completely reformatted (thanks Dell tech support!) and in no time I will be en route to Argentina's hinterlands, where more exploration awaits.