Buenos Aires, Argentina Day Dos

Hola once again!! On day two in Buenos Aires, we went on a bus tour of the city. We were picked up from our hotel and went around to pick up other peeps from other hotels. There were people from Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and the USA so it was a melting pot of sorts. The tour guide did an impressive job and spoke Spanish, Portuguese, and English interchangeably. I'm pretty good at saying hi interchangeably in all three of those languages...so...yeah, not quite as impressive. Anyhoo, we drove around to several places in the city seeing the sights and hearing history - most of which I have already forgotten. We saw Casa Rosada (the pink house, which is a famous governmental building), the obelisk (a monument that looks like the Washington Monument in DC), the widest street in the world (16 lanes!!!), and we drove through some several interesting neighborhoods. One of these neighborhoods was Caminito, which was pretty colorful and fun. We got to see the influence of tango dancing on the culture. We saw some more sights and then got off the bus in San Telmo where there was a flea market (the female half of this marriage is truly all about flea markets). Shortly after we got off the bus, we remembered we were in Buenos Aires and had no clue where we were or how to get back to our hotel. We also realized we were at a flea market with no Argentinian Pesos. So basically, tensions rose a little bit. After we figured out where we were we got over it and had fun. We had to walk forever to get back home, but we made it, seeing a lot of fun stuff on the way. We rested our footsies for about 5 minutes and headed out again, this time to go to the Recoletta neighborhood, to find Evita's grave (who I personally know nothing about, but Marla is a fan). We kind of got lost on the way there too, which was a blast, but ended up making it. Recoletta cemetary is really interesting. The gravesites/masoleums are enormous and really elaborate.
In the evening, we were picked up to attend a dinner/tango show at the Carlos Gardel Theater. I was actually quite surprised at how much I liked the dancing, it was pretty cool. The best part was the live band with two accordians. The worst part was all the "older" people who just talked about how awesome they were and all the awesome trips they've been on and then got drunk and acted even dumber. Overall it was fun though, and very unique to Argentina!! After that we slept like rocks after all the walking we did. Another great day in the books!

Buenos Aires, Argentina Day 1

Buenos Aires has been bueno. First we went to this awesome place called Tierra Santa, recommended by my dear cousin Becky Johnson who got to spend a whole semester in Buenos Aires in college (Lucky!) Some of the locals here haven't even been to Tierra Santa. When we asked for information about it they all kind of looked at us like, "really? You want to go there?" Probably because Tierra Santa is a...get ready...a religious theme park!!! Ha ha. And who ever said being a Christian couldn't be fun?! Right when we arrived we knew this place was going to be sweet. Every one is dressed up in time period clothing (much like North Heights' Easter production if you're an NHLC goer who knows what I mean.) You basically walk around the massive park and take a look at different scenes from the Bible. You are allowed to take pictures of them, and with them, and so of course we did. We will definitely have to post some of those eventually. We also saw four shows: The Creation, The Nativity, The Last Supper, and yes, the Resurrection. They shows are anamatronic and only in Spanish, so good thing we know our Bible stories. The Resurrection was definitely the best. There are no words to describe it, so I'll have to see if I can post the video so you can see it for yourselves. Even though it was pretty cheesy, I found myself getting a little emotional just thinking about how much that means for our lives that Christ died for us to take the punishment for our sin so that we can receive His gift of forgiveness and go to heaven. And He really did conquer death and rise from the dead. I mean, it is pretty cool. Then Tim starting singing along with Hallelujah from Handel's Messiah. Also, it started pouring while we were there and I'm pretty sure we were the only people still running around trying to follow the Bible story and see all the scenes. We are hard core Jesus followers.

Iguassu Falls

Okay, so we didn't have any internet access in Iguassu Falls, so we didn't get a chance to write anything. But suffice it to say that it was AMAZING!!!! We went to both the Brazil and Argentina sides of the falls and the jury is still out as to which side is more totally awesome. We will have to post pictures. Niagara Falls is like (insert small thing here that I can't think of because I'm too tired) compared to Iguassu. There are so many falls. It is really cool. Man, this blog is lame. I'm sorry. We'll try to update this when we get home and have a chance to sleep more than 5 hours a night.

Christ the Redeemer

It has been a bit cloudy here, but yesterday as we were driving into Rio we saw Christ the Redeemer clearly in the sky. We decided to take advantage of the clear weather and head up to see him! We drove up the mountain as far as we could and then stood in a very long line. But it was great that so many people wanted to see Christ! Then we took a van up to the top and just when we got there, Christ was in a cloud. So I guess it was symbolic of God of the Old Testament at that point. After sulking a bit (Israelite style) we positioned ourselves in a good vantage point (according to Cedric) and waited. It was kind of funny because there were tons of people there waiting just like we were. Everytime the sky would clear just a little and we'd get a view of the Christ, everyone would get really excited and yell "now! Get a picture!" and whatnot in different languages. It would be silent and then all the sudden everyone would be in an uproar. Including us. We did manage to get some good pictures and we will post them. It was really an awesome sight and He really did look magnificent. We also got some great views of Rio below us. Our adventure there was a little dissapointing at first, but then was redeemed.

Rio de Janeiro!!

Oi!! Marla and I have successfully made it to South America!! All our flights went well, and we landed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil late yesterday morning. We are blessed to be able to stay with some friends of mine from previous trips to Brazil. We are staying with Cedric and Katia, and their super cute daughter, Louisa! Right away yesterday we went into Rio de Janeiro and travelled to Sugar Loaf mountain, by way of a suspended cable car. On top, there were beautiful views of the city - we will try to upload pictures when we get a chance. We were able to catch up on some sleep last night which was nice after an overnight flight followed by a day sightseeing. We are now trying to coordinate our sightseeing with the weather to make the most of our time. Cedric and Katia are preparing a delicious lunch of fish and shrimp and then we will head out on the town once again!!

South America, here we come!

We are less than two weeks away from our departure date and we are getting really excited! We will be in South America from November 11th through November 28th. We created this blog so that we can write about our trip. We hope you enjoy reading!