Santiago to Buenos Aires, Argentina

Tuesday August 10th was our last day in Santiago. We'd arrived at the W on the evening of the 9th to find that we'd erroneously been booked on a smoking floor. They didn't have the room we wanted available, so instead they upgraded us to their "Wow" Suite, aptly named. Here is a picture of just the living area:



We were sad we only had two nights to hang out in it! That afternoon we went to a craft market Annette had recommended to us, Pueblito de los Domenicos. It was a fun place to explore and do a little shopping.









Here is a picture of Carter in his "pooping" position. He always gets in this position to poop. He'll just drop to the ground, wherever he is, and he'll stay in that position until he's done. He's not a hider.



That night Doug and I went to dinner at an old favorite restaurant called Ox. I posted this picture on Facebook a few days ago -- my filet was almost a pound!



It was good too! I could only eat half of it, but I enjoyed it. They brought us a huge plate of cotton candy afterwards:



I love whimsical touches like that in restaurants! The next morning Doug and I bought some wine at El Mundo del Vino (a fantastic wine shop) to have shipped home. We haven't shipped it before, so it'll be interesting to see how that works. I also had a little time to wander around the area near our hotel, get a cup of coffee, and generally say goodbye to this wonderful city.

That afternoon we headed to the airport for our flight to Buenos Aires. We were sad to leave Santiago, but it was a chilly and rainy day. Somehow it's easier to leave a place when the weather isn't good, you know? Here is Carter hanging out in the Lan Chile lounge.



Doug timed the flight hoping he'd take a nap, but Carter was so excited for a travel day that he didn't sleep at all, even though he was tired. This made it a long flight for me.



This was one of the rare quiet moments during the flight!



We landed and he wanted to pull a piece of luggage up the jetbridge, but didn't understand that we had to stop and wait for the stroller. This frustration combined with tiredness led to a massive meltdown on the jetbridge. Every person getting off of that plane was treated to the sights and sounds of a shrieking, flailing, very unhappy Carter. Jetbridges are narrow, so I couldn't let him just flop around like I would otherwise. We had to contain him, and that only made him madder. Oy.

As soon as we got the stroller and could proceed he calmed down, and we went through passport control and customs. He fell asleep in the taxi on the way to the hotel, and pretty much slept for three solid hours. He even slept in the stroller while we checked into the hotel:



Doug and I went out to dinner and of course Carter was wide awake when we got back. It was well past midnight before he went to sleep. But hey, as they say, when in Rome... Kids in Latin America keep very different schedules than those in the US.

Thursday was my birthday, and I snapped a picture of the clock at the moment the date changed.



It's been a while since I've been here, and it's reminding me sharply of Chicago this time. The buildings, the layout of the city, the water -- it's really reminiscent of cities like Chicago, Paris, or Milan. When you're in Santiago, you really know you're in Latin America, but in Buenos Aires, it's easy to imagine you could be anywhere in the world. The Spanish they speak here sounds almost Italian, and the rhythm of it is a lot easier for me to understand than the Chilean accent. It's sort of shocking to understand so much that's said, after really having to struggle to understand for the last week or so.

On Thursday we decided to do a little sightseeing. We went to the famous Recoletta Cemetery.







The cemetery is famously populated by cats.



Carter was tolerant, if not thrilled by this part of the outing.



And if course, we had to pay our respects to Eva Peron.





Michelle and I had fun talking to this tango singer in the park.



When she told him it was my birthday, he made up a song on the spot for me! He said, "Cual es tu nombre?" and I said, "Jennifer", and he said, "No, tu nombre." Apparently "Jennifer" doesn't sound like it should be a name in Spanish! So I said, "Zhe-nee-fehr" and that was acceptable!



Carter spent about an hour running around the park just outside the cemetery.



He climbed around on this 200 year old tree's branches.



He had a blast!



But what he loved most was chasing pigeons.



That night we were going to a dinner and tango show to celebrate my birthday.



Unfortunately, Carter started throwing up back at the hotel, and about 10 minutes into the show, Michelle texted us that she thought we should probably come back to the hotel. We grabbed a taxi home, and found a thoroughly miserable little boy waiting for us. He was exhausted and didn't want to go to sleep until we got there. He threw up a few more times, and then had diarrhea overnight (I changed his diaper about every hour, it seemed), but never had a fever. Today he seems fine, and even ate a good breakfast. It really seemed like food poisoning, but he's been eating the same things as us, so we're not quite sure what triggered it.

So we're taking it easy today! Hopefully I'll have some more pictures to post in a couple of days.