home again

and quickly back into the swing of things.  sometimes it seems that the minute vacation is over it feels like you never had it in the first place.  luckily we have lots of photos to remember it by so it wasn't all a dream like in Total Recall- a super movie if you haven't seen it...

so just a few pictures that haven't made it yet into the blog and some captions to help remember days months or years later -

here are some photos of our tour of La Boca

a bum sleeping in pretty fancy digs  

 school kids on field trip - it was nearing the summer vacation

wall art from the quarter 

fake drinks to show what is on offer at the cafe

from the San Telmo area- a few mouth watering shots from a pasta shop

house made corkscrew pasta - foot long! 

empanadas

from Recoleta a photo from a mausoleum - their limit for above ground coffins is two but the guide said some have put more in their above ground part - here the glass door gave proof to the rule following of one family

after the cemetery tour we had a fabulous lunch at an outdoor cafe and here were two of the starters

 caprese salad

tuna tartare with mango

and from our day in Colonia del Sacramento two photos from El Drugstore (an eatery in town across form the church)

diners enjoying the afternoon 

the "dining car" for special occasions

so now it is time to go back to work and move on from the vacation mentality-

new territory

yesterday we took the fast ferry to a new country for all of us- Uruguay!  the check in process was quite streamlined and we did the passport control and immigration for both countries before you get on the boat and then when you disembark you just leave the boat.  after we arrived we rented a golf cart to get around the area of Colonia del Sacramento.  it is a UNESCO world heritage site and only an hour across the Rio Plato from BA.

we first drove to the end of the area along the beaches and stopped at a Sheraton to ask for a recommendation for a lunch place along the beach.  while there we saw another holiday card opportunity for CBGB (Chuck & Georgia) so we took a few photos

then we stopped at an abandoned and crumbling bull ring which was once part of a vast resort entertainment complex with a casino.

on to lunch!  where we all tried chivitos the national dish of Uruguay.which we enjoyed with some white wine from Uruguay.

then we headed into the old town (centro historico) to see the sites

amazingly beautiful jacarandas are in bloom right now and also the bougainvillea.

we saw lots of old cars which have become a sort of symbol for the town.   we toured the town, stopped for a drink in the shade to relax and found a bar with some Beatles memorabilia on the wall inside.

after that - more touring until we decided to dine very leisurely and then head back to the ferry a bit early. 

it was a long day and CBGB took the opportunity to nap on the hour long trip back to BA

we all agreed we were happy to have done the trip but none of us thought we would ever make it back to Uruguay again.