Semana Santa

• for Holy Week, both Jake and I had Thursday and Friday off - long weekend! Yay! Unfortunately I was down for the count until Friday...
• ...Argentina doesn't seem to like my body much.  Sick again, and again over a weekend...this time a long weekend (+ don't have to miss work, - it's my weekend!) 
• Thank goodness for the Buenos Aires version of a "minute clinic" aka la guardia, a branch of the emergency room.  For once, something went pretty smoothly for us here.  
• Thank goodness also for my husband translator who was able to explain all of my issues and get me the antibiotic I needed.
• I was determined to make the most of the rest of our weekend.  So on Friday we first visited the Japanese Garden.

• then we hiked it over to where we could finally get a good view of the river (besides Puerto Madero).  
• We first visited the Club de Pescadores.  The guard inside only gave us access to the dock because he wanted to talk about his recent trip to the U.S....perfect for us!

• We then walked along the Costanera Norte, a boardwalk that runs north along the river.  It was a nice view, a very long walk, and once it got dark, we were ready to go home.  Snapped some good shots though!

• For dinner, we went to a restaurant bar in the neighborhood we'd been wanting to try, Bakano.  It was pretty good.  The best part was the upstairs patio overlooking the corner intersection.  
• During dinner, we noticed a large group of people parading down the street behind us holding candles....Good Friday!  They were doing the stations of the cross.  Kind of neat to see.

• on Saturday we were invited by some friends to check out San Antonio de Areco, a small town about an hour north of BA  
• the town has a very peaceful atmosphere with colonial style buildings and cobblestoned streets
• once we arrived and had walked around a bit, we were ready for a little snack...beer and a picada...at this crumbly old building

• an old, beautiful church, pretty parks, gauchos on horseback, asados full of carne... 

• ...what's not to love?!
• We stumbled upon a little town museum that housed old farm equipment.  Can you read where this piece was made?

• could have ridden the saddle-less horses for about $10/hour...but had a skirt and flip flops on...maybe next time

can't get enough empanadas

see the $500 peso egg? That's about US$115

live folk music complete with town dancers

• on Easter Sunday, we slept in, went for a little run, and relaxed a bit before church
• After church I tried to recreate my family's traditional Easter meal of ham and potatoes with cheese sauce.  
• we found it very difficult to find a ham to bake...so we ended up paying around US$21 for about a pound a half of deli-meat-like ham...grr... 
• deviled eggs, potatoes, and homemade bread turned out, but as for the cheese sauce...let's just say we had to settle for a more "basic" sauce, as Jake called it...
• our friend from the States joined us for the meal...

• ...and she so kindly brought a large Havanna chocolate egg for us to share for dessert!

• there was more fun inside...a token, another chocolate egg, and chocolate covered almonds...what fun!

• Happy 2nd birthday to our goddaughter Alex!  So happy we were able to Skype with her and the fam...even got to watch her open her presents and blow out her candles!
• our long Easter weekend turned out just fine, despite the doctor visit...let's hope for many healthy weekends to come!