Beautiful few days for a bike ride....

Sunday afternoon Otto and Andy went out for their first official bike ride since we've been here. Yesterday the weather was even nicer so Sam, Andy, and I went for our first bike ride together. There is a very nice bicycle path that runs the length of the beach in Santos, and several that are popping up in other areas of the city.  (Av. Ana Costa has one for anyone familiar with Santos.)

Sam had all-day school today, so Andy and I went for a ride just by ourselves this morning. I didn't take the camera along, as one of the things we learned yesterday is that the official bike path is not necessarily for lollygaggers. People are using it as a serious means of transportation, so get on, get to it, and stop looking around!!  At times this was difficult with the 7-year-old. We decided after yesterday that getting  on the surrounding concreted areas may be better, then at times hop onto the bike path only when we couldn't continue on any other way. This morning Andy and I were on the path quite a bit, but it was easier with just me and the older kid, and it wasn't as busy today. 

We live about in the center of the beach (a few blocks away), near Canal 3, so yesterday the three of us rode west to the Emissario (near Canal 1), and today Andy and I traveled east towards the aquarium and Ponte da Praia (near Canal 6).  Neither day did I take my camera because I wanted to ride, not stop and take pictures.  But I got to personally see a couple of statues that I had seen on the internet, but didn't quite know where they were.  Here are two, both images are from this webpage.

I really like this statue of a surfer with the water spraying on him like he's really surfing!

 

 

I also like this one very much, which is near the one above, of Osmar Gonçalves who was apparently a pioneer of surfing here in Brazil. Imagine, if you will, me riding around and around and around and around this statue. After a while the boys got tired of going around, but I continued a bit longer, mainly because I didn't have to worry about hitting anyone (there were lots of people out, as is the norm on a pretty afternoon) and the view was nice. :o)

And please visit the link above to see lots of other neat statues along the beach and around town. The credits below each of the photos seem to be different, so thanks to all the people that took the images, whoever they are!

San Martin de los Andes

Our first stop in Argentina was San Martin de los Andes.  Otto has really been missing the skiing since moving from Canada, so we had to find a ski hill ASAP!!  :o)  The resort closest to us was Chapelco. The view was beautiful, but unfortunately the snow wasn't very good.  So we only got a wee taste of skiing/snowboarding; not what we were hoping for. Oh well, sometimes you get a lot of powder, and sometimes you don't. :/

Still, the town itself was very nice!  Many delicious restaurants to try and tea/coffee/chocolate shops in which to indulge in something sweet. On this evening we went to a fondue restaurant. The boys really liked it. Otto's eyes are closed in this shot, but it was the only one I had with Andy.

You can see the owners in the background reading the paper, waiting for more patrons to arrive. We ate on the early side each night, arriving at restaurants around 7:30pm, but generally people ate around 8:30 or 9pm.

This morning was took a stroll by Lago Lacar. 

Walking around town, we saw this unusual tree several times. 

One day we took a boat ride to Quila Quina.

Nice countryside to hike around, complete with seemingly wild horses roaming about.

We found a very pretty waterfall.

Mist rising up from the falls.

Another spot for another nice photo.

The walk back.

One day we checked out the playground in the town center.

They LOVED this wheel-chair accessible swing!

I took this photo shortly after take-off from San Martin on the way to Buenos Aires.  I was sitting on the other side of the plane, but the people across the row had their window open and the zoom lens on my little pocket camera is powerful! I'm not sure about the name of this peak.

More to come....

Ping Pong

So we still have the ballroom in our apartment. Not a huge room in which one waltzes, but an empty bedroom with several soft, springy balls where Andy and Sam can kick them at the walls, or more commonly, at each other.


We were walking around a different part of the city yesterday after their allergist appointment and passed by a small store that piqued our interest. As we browsed we came upon individually packaged ping pong paddles, each with a ball. They didn't have a price, but based on what I paid for everything, I think they were about $1.25 US each.


The "net" is comprised of three decks of cards, and four boxes of printer ink.


It's a bit more difficult on this smaller table, but still fun. We have grand plans for when our huge rectangular table actually makes it way down here.