Dia de Madre October 17, 2010

Mother´s Day is definitely a spring holiday therefore it is very fitting that here in Argentina it is celebrated in October. On this particular sunny day we decided it would be best to celebrate at the weekend house in Tigre, this is the house that is most commonly referred to by the Beraza family as the Quincho. We all piled into cars and headed out. Naturally, I was in the car with Juan who is to date, the scariest driver I have ever been in the car with. I know many of you may be saying to yourselves, wait, she is the daughter of Bob Conlon, a man known for what he calls his ¨offencive¨ driving skills. It has become a habit of mine to pray for protection from Juan´s driving every time I enter a vehicle... sad, I know. But in his defence, it isn´t all him. There is absolutely no observance of standard rules of the road in this portion of the continent. So his ¨style¨of driving fits in just fine alongside the rest of Argentina´s finest.
As always, the holiday was celebrated with a fine feast! Today, we were graced with the flesh of several octopi. Yum... No really though, I tried, I really tired to like it. I covered the rubbery stuff in as many different, fancy sauces I could find but only managed to get down five or six bites. Thank goodness for Juan! He came to my rescue and ate the remainder of the bouncy flesh that sat, covered in sauce on my plate.
Earlier in the week, my Spanish teacher, Maria, and I had gone on a field trip of BA. Somewhere along this adventure we stopped in a shop that sold what Maria said were known as the best chocolates in Buenos Aires. I figured fancy-pants chocolates were a gift I would gladly receive any day of the year so I bought Ruth some as a Mother´s Day gift.
The remainder of the day was spent eating various cakes, the chocolates, locally made ice cream and a mojito cook-off... I am sure that isn´t what you call it but both Juan and Carly were determined that their recipe was the best so we needed to put it to the test. In the end Carly won with her odd but seemingly effective mint-slapping technique!