October

Note: i wrote this post a month and a half ago and our computer is finally up and running correctly so I can get back to blogging.  So here is our October in a glance. Dec.29.

 

October! 

We had a band concert to attend.  With a little trumpet solo too.


We attended the school Halloween festival, which was very small, but the kids enjoyed hanging out with their friends.  I think because Halloween is relatively new around here and the majority of students are from places that do not do it, it just isn´t that big of a deal.  However the kids were glad they at least have a little of it here.

Don't you love black lollipops.

The annual pumpkin carving was also smaller...pumpkins are expensive here.  And hard to find, we found some on sale, see that not overly large pumpkin, originally $14, but we got it for $8.  So we carved one.  Each kid picked a feature to shape and carve.  Easton helped pull out it´s guts. 

We celebrated Halloween night at the Cub Scout pack meeting and trunk-or-treat.  It was a good night and the kids got to do some real trunk-or-treating which was great.  Mason helped Easton while I manned the trunk.  It was fun to decorate the trunk and participate in traditions of home.

 

 

 

Easton did have a costume, but after the awards at the scout meeting and before this, he was done with it. 



 

 

Dallin and Drew spent 4-5 days putting together a haunted house in their room and bathroom.  It was so fun to watch their creativity and all the effort they put into it.  I wish I had taken pictures of all the decorations they had hanging from the ceiling and the spider webs in the corners.  They recruited Mason to help as well.  I even made cookies with them, for a treat given by the fortune teller. 

It was dark, but my flash made it look light.

So then, I did it without the flash and then it looked funky...I am still trying to figure out our new camera, and I have so much to learn.  The soccer ball is a crystal ball and they built a lego base.

Getting the treats ready.

Nov.1 and 2 were a holiday so we decided to camp on Nov.1, but so did all of Santiago.  There was no room in the inn, so we BBQéd in the picnic area and then headed home and camped in the backyard.  It was fun and the boys slept in the tent the following two nights as well.  On Nov.3 we spent the day on the beach in Cachaqua, a little less than 2 hours NW from here.  It was a beautiful beach and a relaxing day.  The water was freezing because it is still spring, but we still put our feet in and on the beach it was a perfect day. 

 

 

 

 

I love being at the beach and the mountains are right behind you.

 

 

And a few nights late due to Mark working crazy hours and then our little camp out, we had our annual Halloween dinner.  It is always fun to make up the menu (even if it's just spaghetti).

 

 

Iguazu Day 3 (and a little extra)

The third day of Iguazu (Thursday) we spent in Brasil.  Though it is all the falls, you get a much different perspective from the other side.  The Argentina side is up close and you see only a bit at a time, however on the other side you get these great sweeping views of the falls as a whole.  The park is not nearly as big so we spent only a couple of hours at the park. 
We also had a little run in with a coati (those raccon like things).  They are more aggresive on the Brasil side.  Easton was hungry, so I gave him a little to-go box of cereal.  I had been carrying him, but put him down to get the snack out and then close it all up again.  We had moved away from people up a little ways from any place we had seen the coatis, so as to avoid them.  I was looking down, but looked up just in time to see this sneaky coati swipe that cereal box out of Easton's hands.  They have long, sharp claws, so there was a big moment of panic and all of us running to Easton.  Poor Easton, scarred him to death (and his mom too).  And once it was determined he was not hurt, we all calmed down.  Except Easton, he became upset - that coati stole his snack! 
After the park, we made our way across the street to a bird aviary that was spectacular!  It was one of the highlights for the kids.  We all throughly enjoyed it.  It was really an amazing place.  Once we left there we went to a big buffet in Brasil that was great.  We all ate and ate and ate.  I am not a buffet person normally, but these guys know how to cook their meat. 

 

 

This was taken in the maccaw area.  There were at least 50 of these big, beautiful, and very loud birds that you could just walk around with.

Friday, we were supposed to check out, grab a snack, and head over to the airport, except our flight was delayed a few hours.  So after we checked out, our cab driver took us to a park were you could see three countries at once (Argentina, Brasil, and Paraguay).  We spent some time there taking pictures and walking the little market.  Then we ate lunch and headed to the airport for some more delays.  We made it back home a little later than planned (1am), but happy and so glad to have made the trip.  This trip also gave us the opportunity to have some true cultural experiences.  We loved this trip and are so grateful to have had this opportunity.  Our world is an amazing place. 

 "Touching all three countries at once".  Argentina on the left, Brasil on the right and Paraguay behind.

 Paraguay on the left, Brasil on the right, and of course sitting in Argentina.

 

 

 Each country has a pillar like this one that you can see from this park. 

The very last photo taken on our trip. 

Iguazu Day 2

So on the second day we made our way into Brasil to take a tour of the dam that is above the falls. The dam is shared by Brasil and Paraguay, so we even went into Paraguay. So it was only for 3 minutes, but we were there, right? This dam, though not the biggest in size, produces the most energy of any dam in the world. They said it produces 90% of Paraguay's energy and 17% of Brasil's. It was a whole lot of concrete.

The first day we were there it was 98 degrees and super humid, but then it rained all night, and Wednesday was cool.  Cloudy and probably 60 degrees and no humidity.  However by the afternoon the sun came out and it probably got into the low 70's - it was perfect for us. 

On a completely different note, after all the effort and money that went into getting visas for Brasil, they did not look at them.  At least on the first day.  We did not see one person as we drove through the border.  The second day we did however, because we stopped, parked, went into a building, and hunted down a person who could stamp the visas.  If we were going to pay over a $1000 bucks, then we were getting our stamps!  We had to do the same thing when we exited. 

After our tour of the dam (on a double decker bus which the kids loved), we headed back to the park on the Argentina side to finish up a few things we missed the first day. We started with lunch at an asado (a BBQ of sorts with buffet for the sides and a big BBQ place to get all the meat you could want). Then we went on a little walk on catwalks above the part of the falls we had previously been under the day before on the motorboat. And we also had one of the highlights of the whole trip for the boys at the end of this second day...

 

 

 Hello vulture.

 

 A little bug watching.  At this crossing we were watching some huge ants with gigantic pincers. 

This one was actually about 2 and 1/2 inches long. 

An agouti.  They remind me a bit of rabbits, in that they just chomp on the grass and sniff and then if you get too close they hop/run back into the long grasses.

 

And to cap off a wonderful day we had one of the highlights for the boys at the end of this day. 

 A ten minute watch of a group of brown capuchin monkeys.  It was pretty amazing.  We started off spotting one and within a few minutes there were 7-8 of them and we just watched and walked along the path as they jumped from tree to tree.  I have to admit, the kids weren't the only ones who really enjoyed it.