Endless Summer

We really have been lucky weather-wise. We enjoyed a nice summer stateside before moving down here, where, in August we hit the tail-end of the southern hemisphere's Winter and sailed right into another Spring and Summer season. Endlessly nice weather.

Because Carnaval is considered a National Holiday in Argentina, shops and schools are closed this Monday and Tuesday. Awesome. It's like having a four-day holiday for Halloween, but with more bling and more cleavage.

The city folk used this weekend as the last mass-exodus to the beach, so we decided to avoid the holiday traffic jams and burning tire road blocks and instead check out some places within the city.

The Feria de Mataderos wasn't in full swing (because of the holiday), but we did catch a Peruvian-style Carnaval parade, complete with confetti and silly string, and enjoyed oogling all of the crafts and goodies. Our favorite item at any of the ferias we visit is always the mate (tea) cup made out of a cow hoof. Classy and oh so useful. I'll take 6.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the fantastic weather and riding a very old bicycle for 3 around the park...well, we peddled and Teague kept us in line from the front seat. Mush! Mush!



Gaucho (cowboy) items for sale. Mate cups fill the left side of the table.


Traditional costumes and parade gear. The men clearly drew the short end of the stick.





Making him work for an ice cream cone! He had been asking for 3 days to go to the park with the bikes.


A little tree climbing. If you ever read The Berenstein Bears "Spooky Old Tree", this is exactly how I imagined it.


Working on his fitness.