Bowling, Circus, an Eclipse, and I'm still homesick sometimes... Am I insane?

We have yet to spend a week without at least one of us being ill. We've been fighting colds, stomach viruses, the flu... now it's my turn and I'm so very annoyed. We've delayed our departure from Bariloche until Monday giving us time to recover again and maybe for someone else to get sick. So Monday we'll head a few hours south to El Bolson, then to Trevelin - a Welsh town famous for tea time - then across to the Futalefu river to visit with Liz.

We all had our last days of school Friday and celebrated with a late night out bowling with our classmates. It was a lot of fun for us to be out with other people, drinking beer, visiting... Ila had fun too. There were tiny bowling balls and plenty of people to charm. I forgot to wear socks and was faced with the choice of being barefoot in rental shoes or barefoot on beer dampened carpet. I chose the latter. We paid for our good time the next day when Ila woke bright and early at her usual 7:30 despite a midnight bedtime. I spent the day feeling grumpy and hungover.

Last day at Panda Jardin!


Saturday night we watched a lunar eclipse from our patio. It was spectacular. A very clear night. It became visible when the moon was nearly eclipsed so we mostly got to watch the shadow recede. Very cool. I felt the world get very small and very large all at once. Being so far from home, but such a tiny point in the universe.... totally groovy man.

Sunday we took another chair lift to a very pretty spot that offered a wonderful view of the surrounding lakes and, as usual, a confeteria with sandwiches, empanadas and cakes. We strolled around, had some lunch and met some nice folks from Manchester at the bus stop. After a late afternoon nap, we had a big adventure and went to the circus! Basically, cirque de soleil with no budget. The tent was up above town on a dirt road. Peter had been there earlier in the week to buy tickets and "splurged" on VIP seats for the early show. Nobody was in the ticket booth so Peter had wandered into the tent to find some help. One of two stage hands drinking beer off to the side ran off to fetch an authority. The tall toothy man in gymnast shoes who eventually appeared, turned out to be the lead performer and Peter was tickled when during an intermission he broke character to ask we were having a good time. Ila was spellbound and saw right past the aging acrobats, the threadbare costumes and the dirt floor. She also didn't notice that we were one of only three families in the VIP section.

Three days ago I got hit with this flu and spend days in bed while Peter and Ila made more friends at the playground and Peter finally scored a much talked about, much coveted YPF cap. After Liz turned us on the the fact that YPF - a gas station - had coffee to go, Peter stopped by there a couple of times a week, much to the amusement of our teachers at school who don't understand at all why one would get a coffee to walk around with. YPF used to be nationally owned but is now owned by Spain and, according to a lefty I know here, is a typical example of what's gone wrong in this country and how the politicos have spoiled everything. There's more oil here in Argentina than the population needs, but they have to buy it from a foreign company. Peter, having just finished reading a very sad book entitled "The Open Veins of Latin America" by Eduardo Galleano (the leftist bible according to my lefty friend) had some mixed feelings I think, but chose to think of the old YPF that belonged to the people. After all, he had spent weeks trying to get his hands on one of these hats that for some reason were not for sale. In the end, using a much practiced negotiating speech, he traded a Boca Juniors (soccer team) cap for the hat off one of the station employees, and made a few more friends in the process. Go Pete!

So now we're busy tying up loose ends, making transportation arrangements, doing a little shopping and mailing home. Miss "home" lots, but onward we go!

Please check out the Karate Kids video below...



A stop at the Tourista Chocolate Factory