Vacation with folks

These pictures are from my parents' visit down here, and the week we spent in Buenos Aires. I'll post more text later.
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UPDATE

My parents came to visit Paraguay in early February. They spent a couple of days in Asuncion (making the obligatory trips to the few museums we could find that were open) before heading to Potrero Pucu with me.

They spent the week in the campo with me, eating tallarín, drinking maté and terere, and getting to know the tranquilo lifestyle of Paraguay.

That chair you see above was the "presidential throne" of Mariscal Francisco Solano Lopez, one of the most infamous presidents of Paraguay (and the one who was in power during La Guerra de la Triple Allianza" - the War of the Triple Alliance, in which 8 out of 10 of Paraguay's male population died in action.)

The Brutalist style cement building is the National Library in Buenos Aires. And the multicolored buildings in the last shot is el Caminito in a neighborhood of Buenos Aires called "la Boca."

Brazil and new years

I spent the new year in Brazil with my friends Rodrigo and Konstanze, who I used to work with at the Philadelphia Inquirer. We spent our time in southern Brazil, in Rio Grande del Sol, then in Santa Catarina, (which is a little bit north) in the town of Garopaba, and then in Florianopolis.

For the first few days of the trip we visited several waterfalls (see photos), and then in Florianopolis we spent most of our time on the beach. (I had to make a quick stop at a health post thanks to an infected cut on my foot). The two photos of the boats are from Florianopolis; we bought oysters from local oyster farmers (shuckers? cultivators?).

Brazil, or at least southeastern Brazil was amazing, a complete contrast to Paraguay. It was much more modern, much more developed. And it had beaches.

I will say that Paraguay's got them beat on the maté front though. Brazilian yuerba (yerva in portuguese) is green and extra fine, it clogged the bombilla, nor was it as tasty as Paraguayan yerba. Sorry Rodrigo!