Olavarría

For Semana Santa (aka Holy Week) I took a mini vacation to the town of Olavarría which is the hometown of Santi and Majo (two people I lived with last semester). It was about a 7 hour bus ride that flew by because Norma (former roommate), Christo (also lived at the Resi last semester) and I slept the whole time. Friday we got a little tour of the town, had fish and rice for dinner and then enjoyed a bit of the night life. For me, Saturday was the best part of the trip. We woke up and around 11 we drove out to Santi's parent's country house. It was about an hour drive through fields and farms and it looked surprisingly like the drive on I-5 when you are north of the grape vine. Just flat fields with occasional houses or clumps of trees. We ate an amazing asado that was mostly carne (i.e. cow meat). Mmmm and my favorite is the choripan! After eating copious amounts of meat we all laid around in the grass outside and napped. The weather was absolutly perfect and it was the most relaxing thing I've done in a long time. When we woke up we enjoyed some mate and fracturas (little pastries with a fruit filling or chocolate drizzeled). Then we explored the camp a bit and saw the horses, mini ponies, sheep, cows, orchards and miles and miles of pastures. By the time we finished the sun was setting and it was absolutely breathtaking. It was a really nice día en el campo. Saturday night we had more yummy home cooking and checked out more of the nightlife.

Sunday we went to Majo's parent's house for lunch. Again we had a delicious asado but with different kinds of meat than the day before and great red wine. I was brave and I tried liver, lamb and something else (I still don't know what it was). Of the three the only thing I didn't like was the liver, ewwww. After lunch we had some ice cream and chocolate eggs (because of course the commercial parts of the holiday exist everywhere . . .). In the afternoon me, Santi, Majo, Norma and Christo all piled into Majo's dad's truck and he drove us back to BsAs. But since it was the end of a long weekend we of course hit a ton of traffic trying to get back into the city. So Majo's dad decided to take a short cut and explore a bit. We ended up driving through probably 25 or 35 miles of country back roads but it worked and we got around what a huge traffic jab that was probably because of an accident.

Overall it was a really great weekend and here are the rest of the pics. I love going home with people and getting a glimpse of family life outside of the city. It is also refreshing to be in a house, with a loving family eating "mom's" delicious home cooking." Jaja. This trip did re-awaken my desire to get out and travel more while I'm here. I spent quite a bit of today planning out some of the trips I want to make and trying to decide when I'm going to go where . . . .

Chau, besos.