Term started 2 full weeks ago, and we have settled into a new stride. We are staying in an AirBnB in Palermo Soho (Buenos Aires) which is a district so hipster there is even a vegan dog food store round the corner. It feels a bit like we never left Camden, except the local (human!) food options are a vast improvement and we don’t understand the profanities embedded in the street art.
A good weekday goes something like this: cuddles and cups of tea/hot chocolate in bed while I read aloud, followed by a healthy leisurely breakfast, and then the girls get dressed, tidy their room, make their beds, and get to their ‘desks’ by 9.
Lessons run from 9-1 with Robert, our amazing teacher. The girls are following the St Christophers curriculum / smushed with the national curriculum for maths / english / science, and are drawing on local inspiration for history / geography etc. We are ALL trying to learn Spanish using Duo Lingo and practicing on the taxi drivers mostly. I haven’t quite yet managed to weave in my favourite Duo phrase ‘the cat is in the fridge’, but bingo points please when I do!
Each week the girls spend the last hour of each school day working on a project which they present to us over G&Ts on Friday. Week 1 was focused on South America. The girls made a map ‘puzzle’, and we all did time-trials to see who could put it together quickest:
Next up: quizzes based from fact files on the countries that we have visited so far:
Then some artwork was presented, inspired by the sunsets at Jericoacoara:
Lastly a quiz about evolution (inspired by our trip to the Galapagos) which required Robert, James and I to pick animal ‘traits’ out of a hat, and then pitch for which of us would survive various ecological changes using Darwinian principles.
This weeks project took a completely different track. Dragons Den! Bella and Emily created a new household product based on local ingredients: MAS the More Avocado Spray that has magical cleaning properties. They put together a marketing plan, all the financials, made a TV advert, registered a trademark for their recipe, created packaging, mocked up posters (in English and Spanish), and then were ready to pitch to us for £10k of investment. James and I were reasonably tough on our negotiations, but the girls ultimately secured the financial commitment they needed for a full launch. Keep an eye on your local supermarket shelf!
The project bar has been set REALLY high (despite Roberts protestations that this really is child-led learning!), so we can’t wait for what next week brings, and are so grateful and happy to have Robert with us for all the skill, experience, creativity, enthusiasm, and laughter he brings to Monicofamilytravels!
During weekday afternoons, we either chill at ‘home’, messing with instruments, and running local errands,
cook together (chicken soup is the girls latest speciality),
or head out to explore some of the city:
Museum of Fine Arts with Robert’s fascinating potted history of art tour, and some drawing:
Museo de Fine Arts
Festival of emerging technology and arts:
Exploring La Boca, including a cheesy tango lunch:
Alexander Calder at the Proa Foundation:
Or enjoying whatever bonkers action is happening at the end of our street:
We round out the school weeks with BBQ and movie night on Fridays. Week one we watched Evita (the Madonna version) which was a comprehension challenge all round, yet evocative, and a great way to introduce some local politics! Last night we watched School of Rock which made me cry….
A bad day involves morning fights to get up/dressed/ready (if you are a parent, you know the ones I mean!), a steak hangover (if you’ve ever been to Argentina, you’ll know the ones I mean!), too much screen time for the kids (how can Matheletics be THAT fun?!?!), bickering, and too much screen time for James and I (its literally incredible how much time it takes us both to keep planning the next phases of our travels).
Next week is our last in the city, so we are looking to make the most of the culture, gastronomy and shops before we hit the sticks for another change of pace.
The lady was really nice, because whenever we by accident crashed off the track she would rush to help us. When we stopped to have a toilet break,when we came back she was holding out lollipops for us to take and suck. At the end she gave us a biscuit.
cunningly converted into steps by setting plastic drink-bottle crates deep into the mud, and splashing along tinkling streams. The vistas, were vast and ubiquitously spectacular. We discovered untold medicine trees, the Mashpi Magnolia (unique to this nature reserve), and so many fabulous birds. Butterflies abounded. While the rare Spectacled Bear managed cunningly to elude us, we did have a rather memorable encounter with some black howler monkeys. Bella and I were out for a sunset hike, and we spotted a troop in the trees directly above us and tried to track them as they leisurely swung from branch to branch towards their sleeping spot. It was a rare siting, and just as we were starting to feel rather smug, they weed on us. A LOT. Turns out monkey wee REALLY stinks! But the real question is, is it more lucky than bird poo?
not only looked the part, but was incredibly knowledgeable, and had a passion for tiny frogs that turned out to be rather infectious (the passion not the frogs!). He was locally born, and totally self-made (taught himself great English from scratch in 3 months using Duo Lingo which renders our reciprocal Spanish efforts using the same app rather pathetic). In one of his past lives he was a climbing guide hence ninja with ropes, which made for some fun tarzan swinging: 
a great view of the bay), took a gentle hike that afternoon to the local Mirador, then stopped on our way home to snorkel at a recommended spot. Despite double wetsuitage, entering the freezing water elicited much shrieking, only surpassed in decibels when a playful sea lion skimmed past and then stuck around to duck and dive all around us. Emily managed to get a great photo (whilst screaming!), and this might take centre stage for her next blog post.
We took a private fishing tour. None of us are remotely into fishing, but it turns out that it can be really quite exciting when both lines kept ‘catching’ simultaneously, and we got to ‘fight’ the fish from belt harnesses. We landed one pretty quickly – a spectacular yellowfin tuna (which we enjoyed for the next few dinners!), but all the others got away (because they were sooooo big that they broke the lines/swallowed the lures – most likely sharks – obvs!). And then the next unexpected treat – the sun came out (we haven’t seen it since Quito!), so we swam to a pristine white beach, and lounged around with the sea lions and built sandcastles.
hot chocolate and presents in bed. Our biggest hit was a blue candy ‘thumb’which came with a dipping pot full of mega-tangy sherbert. Who knew such gastronomic delights existed and could be savoured at such an uncivilised hour? The Safari Camp where we are staying served cupcakes for breakfast, and decorated both the table and us with various lurid masks, sprinkles and streamers. We headed out for a tour of Plazas Island 
where we got very close to various nesting birds, handled some gruesome skeletons, and a observed a colony of bachelor sea lions (they go here to hangout when they’ve been ostracised, or when they are building strength to win the hearts of sea-lionesses!). The boat crew had been duly tipped off, and served cake number 2 at lunch. It’s an Ecuadorian tradition to make your birthday wish as you (literally) take a bite of cake, and Bella dived in without hesitation! 
and ended up in a lagoon where lots of black tipped sharks were taking their afternoon snoozes under some rocks round the edge. During the snorkelling trip Emily lost a tooth! There was a dramatic amount of blood, so Em got out of the water to avoid attracting even more sharks. 
