Yes, it's 2009 and I continue to have more to share about Argentina. How did we do so much in two weeks? Two overnight bus trips certainly maximized our travel time. Part of the fun of writing about Argentina is uploading a few of the many pictures I shot yet there are so many more. El Argentino(the newspaper of Gualeguaychu, provincia of Entre Rios) wrote about our visit in their November 13 edition.
Our evening with the local asociacion included conversation, music and barocks. The president of the asociacion was Juan Hermann and I sat at a table with his father Juan. Juan's family immigrated to Argentina from the wiesenseite of the Volga but did not know the specific village. He recited his family tree through his grandparents. Since my grandmother was a Herrmann from Marienthal I wanted to find a connection. I have yet to locate the piece of paper we used to write down with his grandparent's names and hope to find it soon.
Before our visit to the asociation, we toured a yerba matte store. The idea was to buy a yerba matte gourd and sample some of Argentina's best fare. I saw gourds made of every size and color and even some created from the hooves of cattle.
When Judy sampled some of what Tim purchased, she said it tasted like dirt. I hadn't planned to sample the mate but when I did, I thought it was much better than dirt. I love herbal teas and will have to buy some instant yerba mate to see if I can acquire the taste.
Of course, I didn't have to work hard to acquire a taste for Malbec. For more information on malbec, visit any of the following sites:
http://www.wineweekly.com/wine-basics/wine-grapes/wine-grape-malbec/
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art34670.asp
http://www.easy-wine.net/malbec-wine.htm
Thanks to Edith for the lovely picture of the group enjoying Malbec on the balcony of the Aguay Hotel (http://www.hotelaguay.com.ar/en/aguay-inicio.htmover)looking the river in Gualeguaychu.
I continue to listen to my DVDs and CDs to master the Spanish language. In the meantime, I added the Google Translate option directly to my blog. There is much more to come on Argentina especially as I pull information together for the Journal publication. Tomorrow, focus on our bus experience.
We traveled on a double decker bus from the time we left Buenos Aires until we arrived back at the airport. Our drivers, Eduardo and Carlos, were crucial to our safe and successful trip. The first picture below shows Eduardo next to Tim and Carlos is in the second picture. 
There was definitely a great deal of time on the bus. We used this time to talk, laugh, plan and compare notes on our ancestry. Tim, aka Mr. Congeniality, led many of our conversations as he spoke German. He initiated numerous sing-alongs as demonstrated in some of the vidoe I took. We found a common theme in song. Unfortunately, the best video is over 333MB so I cannot upload it to this blog. I will gladly provide a CD of the song segment to anyone who is interested.
I learned how to sleep on the bus during two overnight rides. But, how can one sleep with the views like the one below? 
