Christmas in Black River

That is, Rio Negro. Eva had invited me several times to her humble abode in Lamarque, but I only just now had the opportunity to come. I also didn't stay for too long, in effort to not impede on her time with her family.

It was a quiet vacation. We did the usual home visits with mate drinking. The walk to the river and to the local plaza. The eating of asado and chivo..

Of course, it was also Christmas time, as previously mentioned, and most likely deduced for the time of publication. My mom had ordered one thing--to shoot off fireworks in her honor. You see, she's a pyro. I like them myself, but I'm not as crazy about shooting them off.

But I obeyed, and bought 42 pesos, just around 10 dollars of fireworks for all three of us (Eva, Adam and myself) to enjoy. Granted, it was more fun watching the neighbors go crazy with theirs, but I enjoyed my run of the mill Roman Candle and a couple cone shaped cohetes that shot off a wide array of colors.

And there was the 100 Fuegos, which was the grand finale of our fun. Talk about going out with a bang.

We had a day to visit the beach, an area called Las Grutas. Surprisingly, I later found out that it's very close to Puerto Madryn, where my parents and I had visited last year.

As it was getting hotter each day in Lamarque, I prayed for cloudy weather. Adam joked and prayed for sun. I then interrupted his prayer and said that God should listen to me. We had a good laugh.

When we arrived it was.. cloudy! And windy. And cold. Not ideal for the beach, but I was determined to make the most of it. We had a couple hours on the playa, where we made a snow/sand-man, ran around and drew in the sand.

We then waited for an earlier bus to take us back (the original plan was to stay all day), playing Chinchon and Skip-Bo in the terminal.