Final Post: Buenos Aires

The timing of our Buenos Aires stay failed to account for Labor Day (May 1st). Apparently, it’s second only to Christmas in that all stores, movie theaters and museums are closed. Monday is also a dark day for the majority of museums and other places you’d want to visit with kids. So with only 4 days left, we’ve found ourselves trying to squeeze a whole lot of activity into pretty small window.

Friday we decided on the children’s museum. It’s located in a ornate building covering an entire city block. It reminded me of a train station, but I later learned that it was a produce market recently converted into a shopping mall. The children’s museum occupies 2 floors on one side of the mall and a small amusement park / arcade 2 floors on the opposite side. The rest of the tenants are typical.  We arrived at 11 only to discover that the museum didn’t open for another 2 hours. (Many guidebooks list summer hours of operation and disclose that winter hours vary. I have only 2 words of advice: take heed!). The museum has many pretend play centers focused on various aspects of aspects of daily life: fast food restaurant, grocery store, construction site, gas station, TV and radio stations and of course a soccer stadium. It was all very fun for the kids. It was also blatantly commercial as every sector was sponsored by a different corporation. The funniest part was the fast food restaurant (sponsored by none other than McDonalds). Our kids had absolutely no idea how to use the equipment. Having been a huge McDonalds fan as a child (yes I admit when I was 10 it was my restaurant of choice) I guess I witnessed the workflow so often that I just took it for granted that they would know what to do.

My attempt to gradually transition the kids a little closer to Tahoe time has been a complete failure. The first couple nights in Buenos Aires I let them stay up until 9:30. But they were still up at 7:00/  7:30. Arrgh!  Of course, I was attempting the same myself staying up a hour or 2 later than usual so the net result is they’re tired, bickering and tearful, while I have little ability cope since I am so tired myself!  Last night I put them to bed at 8:30 and went to bed shortly thereafter myself. Today was much better for us all.

Sunday
Early into our trip we decided that the key to our sanity while shopping was to give the kids a lump sum of money for souvenirs. They could spend it however they pleased, but it was all they would get for the entire trip. This has worked really well (math in practice) and it keeps me from passing any kind of judgment on the value of their purchases. It’s particularly fun because for 5 pesos ($1.25) you can really find some cute things.  However, one downside is JT now has little interest in shopping since he spent all of his money in Bariloche. Zoë has been much more prudent in her choices and had half her money left to spend in Buenos Aires. So today she and Tom headed for San Telmo, which has an antique and craft fair and I took JT to the zoo.

Zoo pricing is so different from the US.  A basic ticket is $14 (U$D3.50), a premium ticket is $22 (U$S5.50). The premium tickets give you access to the reptile house, the sea lion pavilion, the rainforest, a boat ride and an IMAX film. Children under 12 are free. As you can imagine with this pricing structure the place was quite literally a zoo.  The freakiest part was they had little nutria running freely around the park. They look like a large guinea pig with a rat tail and they swim. People were having a lot of fun feeding them. The zoo was the perfect size for a six year old and we managed to see everything.

Tomorrow night we catch a redeye back to the US. This has been an awesome experience due to a lot of planning, a little luck, and the great attitiudes of our children. We look forward to connecting with you stateside!