summer fun!

Andrew came to town in December! we spent the weekdays exploring Buenos Aires and making fun stuff at the studio, and we squeezed in two little out-of-town trips on the weekends. First weekend, we packed up our tent and bathing suits and headed out to Tigre bright and early on Saturday morning. I love packing for camping, I always forget something important but I love the process, making a little list and packing it all neatly in bags.

Here was our camping list:
tent
sleeping bags
bathing suits
towels (we ended up only bringing one tiny hand-towel to share between the three of us. oops)
deck of cards
flask of whiskey
books to read (Eliza: A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin; Andrew: Dwelling Portably, 1980-1989; Mike: Blood Meridian
candles
matches
chocolate bar
bananas
tin foil
apples
tomatoes
onions
sweet potatoes
cheese
dried pasta
butter
bread
peanut butter
chips
water
beer
cook-pot
forks
sharp knife
plastic bowls and cups
bug spray
sunscreen
shorts
sweater

We took the commuter train up to Tigre and caught a ferry out of Tigre, up the river about an hour into the leafy delta, and got off at an island with a humble little boy-scout-camp type place called IMOS. I believe it’s a municipal campground. As soon as we got our tent up, we put on our swimsuits and jumped in the river!!!!! Sweet sweet cool summer river water. Splashing and paddling and somersaults ensued, followed by lazing in the sunshine and beer and card games in the shade. We found sticks and Andrew made a magnificent campfire, I jumped in the river one more time, and we feasted on smoky roasted potatoes and onions and pasta. Went up to the camp building and played a round of pool. Fell asleep to the sound of mosquitoes and cumbia dancing. In the morning it was rainy, we stayed pretty dry in our tent but we didn’t stick around to frolic in the river as I had hoped. To get home, you have to go sit at the end of the dock and wait for a ferry-boat to go past, and wave it down. There didn’t seem to be any schedule, we just had to go sit out there for what turned out to be a few hours before catching the boat back home.

The following weekend, we took a 1 am bus out of the city, headed for Mar Azul, a tiny little town on the Atlantic coast south of Buenos Aires. We fell asleep and woke up in the small beach city of Villa Gessell at 7 am. Caught a local bus and rode down a dirt road through a string of little beach towns, Mar de las Pampas, Las Gaviotas, and Mar Azul. Last year we’d spent christmas in the same area, in Mar de las Pampas, but we headed for Mar Azul this time because it seemed like a tinier, quieter, more relaxed spot. We had backpacks and sleeping bags but no tent and no idea where we’d be sleeping at night. We took a walk around the campground, then wandered down the main drag checking out the jumble of beach houses. We caught sight of the cutest little tiny A-frame cabins near the beach and we were in luck, the owners happened to be right there and were happy to rent us a cabin for the weekend.

So, we spent christmas sitting on the sand, jumping in the waves, strolling down the beach, dutifully applying and re-applying sunscreen.

This year there were more people on the beach, but it was still far from crowded. The sun was hot and the water was suprisingly warm. There was a strong wind and lots of big big waves and a strong current. And moments of total summer fun and contentment, sitting on the beach and playing in the waves with two of my favorite people in the world. On the last day, we saw two or three orca playing in the waves just a hundred yards out from the beach! We could see their black and white markings as they jumped in and out of the waves.
I really wish we could get back to Mar Azul (or any kind of summer swimming spot) again this summer but it’s pretty hard to get around with two dogs and no car…

yaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyeeee visitors!

we’ve had so many visitors come stay with us here in Buenos Aires and it’s always totally fun and awesome and right now i am REALLY excited and happy because in the coming months TWO of my favorite most beloved people in the whole world are coming to visit, back to back! what a sooper duper fun pile-up of visits. HOORAY for Amy in November and Andrew in December! YES! awesome. i am drafting lists of fun, cheap, awesome things to do with guests in buenos aires.

Troy, New York

Next stop on our journey was Troy, New York. we got a cheap flight from Detroit to Albany (via DC… changing my tally to 7 airports, 5 flights, and 2 train stations inside of 5 days!) we stayed with Andrew and Vickie at their famous house on 9th street in Troy. The house was large and exciting, as promised. It was totally a fixer-upper and Andrew and Vickie have been lovingly renovating it over the past year.

I have much nostalgia for the days when Andrew was my roommate in Brooklyn so it was great to be back in AndrewSpace, a mental and physical place filled with lots of bike parts and lots of action and fun and colors and ideas and good food. For instance, when we arrived, Andrew was putting the finishing touches on a back-yard shed which he had conceived and constructed entirely from scrap wood in the course of two days! without measuring anything. I helped out painting its doors bright red.

Then we made a bonfire in the fire-pit and roasted some vegetables and a lot of people came over for dinner in the Yarden, it was lots of fun!

We also went to visit The Sanctuary for Independent Media, an amazing media venue inside of an old church, a beautiful and inspiring space. And we met Andrew’s friend Branda and her daughter Masha and their tiny amazing dog Rosefang and went out for a canoe trip on the Hudson River and Erie Canal and took a bike ride in the rain.
While in troy, we also ran into Jason Steven Murphy, a friend from high school who happens to be getting married this weekend! (congratulations!), and visited Cat Mazza and Jim Finn, who we’d met in Buenos Aires when Jim had a retrospective of his film work showing at the BAFICI Film Festival. Cat showed us her amazing knitting studio, filled with knitting projects by herself and other artists, a collection of knitting patterns and literature and a Brother bulky knitting machine, among other interesting objects. Cat told us about one of her current projects, Stitch for Senate, and gave us each a ball of yarn and a set of needles to participate in the project by knitting our very own helmet-liner for a US senator.
Also, on our second day in Troy, fellow former 708 Greene roommateAngie appeared just in time for the cook-out! It was just like old times. Angie is amazing.
It was sad to say good-bye to everyone and everything in Troy, but we had to head to Maine on Friday morning. We’d planned to take the greyhound bus but we were incredibly fortunate to get a ride to Boston with Cat and Jim, and another ride from Boston to Maine with Andrew and Vickie’s roommate Sarah and her friend Brendan. Sarah is a musician and author who was really nice and interesting and great company for the ride. We stopped in Ipswitch for fried clams along the way.

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special mint chocolate chip ice cream cake
Originally uploaded by elizajanecurtis.

it was andrew’s birthday!