Wednesday, January 6, 2010

A couple of days in La Pampa

For Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, my family and I (my mom made me write that) went to La Pampa, the grassy plains of Argentina with cowboys and cows and horses, and a ton of mosquitos. We stayed at an estancia, which you already know about from reading my other blog post from Tierra del Fuego. On the first day, we got introduced and then we went swimming in a pool that had not been cleaned out for a while so it had a ton of waterbugs in it, and other bugs like mosquitoes and Japanese beetles. Also, they served us very nice dinners, like freshly-caught fish from the lake right next to the estancia. The lake was one of the causes of the mosquitoes, which there were swarms of.

The next day, in the morning, I did horseback riding. I was having fun walking around and learning the horse commands. But then we went on a path into the forest, and there I started getting super allergic to the horse. I was having trouble breathing, I had hives, and to top it all off, I had mosquito bites. At the end, I ended up having to take two adult benadryl pills (and I didn't even fall asleep).

Then I tried to go fishing from a canoe, but I was completely unsuccessful. I also took another few swims in the pool, which had been cleaned out, so it had a few huge bugs but otherwise it was fine. The meals were of pasta with a really nice pink sauce.

On the long bus home, we could see a few gauchos (Argentine cowboys) and a lot of cows, but mostly grass. Then the bus had to stop to get gas, and we went into the little store to go to the bathroom. I think it was right next to a non-moving pool of water, because covering the walls and inside of the bathrooms were mosquitoes everywhere. I went to the bathroom for one minute, and I came out with 3 mosquito bites, and I killed around 10.

So that is our final vacation in Argentina, that wasn't somewhere in Buenos Aires. We are leaving in 5 days, and my birthday is tomorrow so I am excited. I am turning 11. I am having a party on Saturday, that is half birthday party and half going-away party. So this is probably one of the last posts I will be doing on this blog before I am going back to the United States. I'm sort of sad and super happy about going back to America.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry there were so many mosquitos on the vacation in La Pampa, but it sounds interesting anyway. Always fun to ride on horses and see cowboys out in their "natural habitat."

    Today is your birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Now you can always remember that you turned 11 in Buenos Aires. I hope that you will have lot of good memories from the past six months. When you have your party on Saturday, you should be sure to get everyone's addresses so that you can write them letters and maybe come back and visit them someday. I have loved reading your blog posts and I hope that you'll save them as a good remembrance of your stay. I will look forward to seeing you soon in Amherst!
    Con mucho amor,
    Tio Elliot.

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  2. We can hardly believe that you're 11! Those years went fast for us, but maybe not for you. We can hardly believe that your "Argentina vacation" is almost over! Did that go fast for you? Your family was so excellent to let us come and stay with you in Buenos Aires, so we could find out how it was for all 5 of you to live in that faraway land. We'll remember it forever. So now, we are looking forward to seeing you in Amherst, Massachusetts, in the USA (OK, dicimos (or is it decimos) en los Estados Unidos de Norte America (or is it America del Norte?) Well, you know we want to see you soon! Buen viaje. Bubby

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