Yesterday we went out with our new friends from the hostel. They are two students from the States who are studying Spanish at a school in Uruguay and they are here in Buenos Aires for the weekend. They took us to many of the same places we had already been but they could actually explain the significance of why we were going there.
There is an important part of Argentine history that you have to know to understand many of the important sites. In the 50's-80's their were many people, especially young college-aged students who were starting to form groups and wanted changes from the government. These students started dissappearing throughout this time. It was later discovered that over 40,000 people were kidnapped tortured and their bodies hidden all over the place. For example we went to one site where they had began digging to create a building and uncovered hundreds of bodies. The mothers of these people are now old but they are still alive and trying to inform the people of what happened. Some of the lost people also had children who are now older. These kids were taken by the government and raised but they were never told who they were. Lately there has been DNA testing available and people can get tested to find out if they are a child of a murdered person. Every few weeks there is an article in the paper that another `child of the taken` has been found. It`s a really sad story and some of the people who did the torturing and killing have come forward and told their story that their lives had been threatened if they did not do as they were told. It is a very sad story. There are many memorials set up for them and the mothers still sit in front of the `Pink House` which is the government buidling and provide information to the public.
We retunred to the Pink House yesterday with our friends and had a tour of the inside of the building. It was very nice, the president works here Monday to Friday 9-5 but they have free tours on the weekends. We even got to go to the balcony where Evita Perron made her famous speach. Unfortunately we forgot to charge our camera and we do not have many pictures of this day.
Afterwards we went to San Telmo and saw the skinniest house in the world according to the Guiness Book of World Records. A man freed his slave and built him this home where the slave lived next to his previous master for the remainder of his life. We also saw the biggest match cup in the world. A matcha is a very popular drink here that is made in a special cup and drank out of a special straw with a strainer on the end. It is extremely caffinated and tastes nothing like i can describe accurately. Perhaps it is most similar to tea.
We also went to an art market where all items sold must be handmade by the seller. There was a man who had no arms and painted beautiful pictures using a paint brush in his mouth. There were also many tango dancers. There were also a couple of boys who had come to Argentina two years ago and noticed there are no spices here, so they created a hot sauce and have been selling it at this market until now. Apparently they do very well and love living here.
For dinner, we bought five pieces of pizza which was not enough to fill out gigantic stomachs so Tyson had to run out and buy four more. Then I had to run out to buy chips and several chocolate bars. Calories do not count on vacation. We also bought what we thought were a bag of chips that were actually croutons.
Today we slept through breakfast because we got confused with the time change in Canada (I`m not sure why). We walked back to the bank where they were supposed to have Tyson`s new bank card but of course it still was not there. Then we went to buy our bus tickets to Iguzzu falls but we couldn`t bring ourselves to do it because they are so expensive. So we still have to do that tomorrow morning.
The whole time I have been writing this blog, I have been getting my hair dreaded. I started getting it dreaded by a greasy sleaseball off the street last night and paid him all my money. When I woke up this morning it looked like there were spider webs all over my head. It was an absolute disaster to the point that everyone was staring at me on the streets. To make it worse. it hurt like hell and he had not even finished! He asked us to come back the next day to get the other half done. When we went to find him today he was not there. So I returned to the hostel where a guy who had pretty rad looking hair offered to do it again. So I repaid for my hair and I`m sitting here all day getting it done. Tomorrow morning I will sit here again because it takes about 12 hours to do. Yes it hurts more than a tatoo, no it is not worth it but here we are anyway.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
There is an important part of Argentine history that you have to know to understand many of the important sites. In the 50's-80's their were many people, especially young college-aged students who were starting to form groups and wanted changes from the government. These students started dissappearing throughout this time. It was later discovered that over 40,000 people were kidnapped tortured and their bodies hidden all over the place. For example we went to one site where they had began digging to create a building and uncovered hundreds of bodies. The mothers of these people are now old but they are still alive and trying to inform the people of what happened. Some of the lost people also had children who are now older. These kids were taken by the government and raised but they were never told who they were. Lately there has been DNA testing available and people can get tested to find out if they are a child of a murdered person. Every few weeks there is an article in the paper that another `child of the taken` has been found. It`s a really sad story and some of the people who did the torturing and killing have come forward and told their story that their lives had been threatened if they did not do as they were told. It is a very sad story. There are many memorials set up for them and the mothers still sit in front of the `Pink House` which is the government buidling and provide information to the public.
We retunred to the Pink House yesterday with our friends and had a tour of the inside of the building. It was very nice, the president works here Monday to Friday 9-5 but they have free tours on the weekends. We even got to go to the balcony where Evita Perron made her famous speach. Unfortunately we forgot to charge our camera and we do not have many pictures of this day.
Afterwards we went to San Telmo and saw the skinniest house in the world according to the Guiness Book of World Records. A man freed his slave and built him this home where the slave lived next to his previous master for the remainder of his life. We also saw the biggest match cup in the world. A matcha is a very popular drink here that is made in a special cup and drank out of a special straw with a strainer on the end. It is extremely caffinated and tastes nothing like i can describe accurately. Perhaps it is most similar to tea.
We also went to an art market where all items sold must be handmade by the seller. There was a man who had no arms and painted beautiful pictures using a paint brush in his mouth. There were also many tango dancers. There were also a couple of boys who had come to Argentina two years ago and noticed there are no spices here, so they created a hot sauce and have been selling it at this market until now. Apparently they do very well and love living here.
For dinner, we bought five pieces of pizza which was not enough to fill out gigantic stomachs so Tyson had to run out and buy four more. Then I had to run out to buy chips and several chocolate bars. Calories do not count on vacation. We also bought what we thought were a bag of chips that were actually croutons.
Today we slept through breakfast because we got confused with the time change in Canada (I`m not sure why). We walked back to the bank where they were supposed to have Tyson`s new bank card but of course it still was not there. Then we went to buy our bus tickets to Iguzzu falls but we couldn`t bring ourselves to do it because they are so expensive. So we still have to do that tomorrow morning.
The whole time I have been writing this blog, I have been getting my hair dreaded. I started getting it dreaded by a greasy sleaseball off the street last night and paid him all my money. When I woke up this morning it looked like there were spider webs all over my head. It was an absolute disaster to the point that everyone was staring at me on the streets. To make it worse. it hurt like hell and he had not even finished! He asked us to come back the next day to get the other half done. When we went to find him today he was not there. So I returned to the hostel where a guy who had pretty rad looking hair offered to do it again. So I repaid for my hair and I`m sitting here all day getting it done. Tomorrow morning I will sit here again because it takes about 12 hours to do. Yes it hurts more than a tatoo, no it is not worth it but here we are anyway.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
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