Happy...

Apparently they do celebrate Valentine's Day in Argentina. Who knew?

Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Birthday to the Great Emancipator and Happy Birthday to the oh-so-great-giver-of-light, my mother, Greta Reynolds (yeah, that's right, her last name isn't Dickers either). Today is her Birthday and seeing as I can't be there to help her ring in the most important day (of my life), I was hoping that you all could give me a hand with that (as long as it is February 16th, any day after that and I cannot guarantee your protection, she is a gun touting citizen). As she has no idea this blog exist, I'm asking that anyone who has the time, desire or creative gumption to please write up a happy birthday email and send it to her. Her email address is as follows: greta@cybertime.net. Mama Dickers is pretty mellow, but leave her in her ignorance of this blog and try not to piss her off.

As far as what we've been up to, after the falls we've been taking it easy, mainly because it's been raining here off and on ever since our torrential rain experience. We've been spending a lot of time with her family and getting around town whenever the weather permits. Here's a bit of the local scenery we've been experiencing:

Beth and Me, after three weeks, as good as locals. Here we are on a Catamaran meandering through the Rio Parana, while a group of two-bit hustlers (hustlers being 8 and 15 year old Guarani kids) try to sell us their goods (In reality the hustlers are the boat people who have a thirty minute spiegl about how our ticket price goes to the education and health of the natives; meanwhile the kids have no shoes, no shirts, but matching shorts, clearly supplied by our benevolent boat gods--very generous indeed.). In other news, apparently the Parana River is the 7th largest in the world and opens up into the widest river in the world, the name of which I've forgotten, but the location of which is the delta right outside of Buenos Aires. You'll have to do your own leg work, or go on the Donate-To-Paraguan-Children boat tour.

A Tres Frontera sunset on the Rio Iguazu (which runs into the Rio Parana and flows from Iguazu Falls). Straight back is Paraguay, to the left is Argentina, to the right is Brazil and dead center, Romance.

Pizza de Bife, or beef topped with pizza sauce, basil, thick slices of mozzarella and some parm. Admittedly, I too experienced the gamut of emotions when hearing about this obvious bastardization of food. First, shock (Does such a thing exist? Or are they just toying with the American?). Then excitement (It worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell, Macdonald's and Chevron, even Kmart and evil-incarnate herself, Martha Stewart. Why not apply synergy to pizza and beef?). Then apprehension (What if it is disgusting, what then? I haven't been this excited since I heard hover boards were real and look how that turned out.). Finally to jealousy (Does Argentina really trump U.S. in meaticulousness--meat ridiculousness?) And lastly, happiness (Thank god we have minds in this world that can create brilliant ideas such as meat pizza.).

Note: The name of the meat used here is motumba, which apparently is the portion of a cow between the skin and the ribs. It is supposed to be very tender, but it ended up being a bit chewy. For anyone equally as intrigued as myself, I'm guessing this could be amazing with a nice thin flank steak.

Yes, this is Beth's 7 year old 2nd cousin carrying beer home from the store. I participated only in an observatory role in the excursion to the corner store, as he was sent by his mother to go get beer. Because I thought the event needed to be documented I volunteered to accompany him. I tried to get a picture of him handing money to the cashier and receiving the beer (thus cutting out the homeless middleman of yesteryear--or when I was in high school) but was nervous of the potential shotgun hidden behind the register, aka I didn't want to offend the poor old lady handing him the beer while his lazy, and much bigger, companion sat with a stupid goofy grin and a camera in hand.

Thus ends the days following our trip to the falls and begins our last few days in Iguazu. Today is Monday...or Tuesday, I'm not exactly sure, and we are planning on leaving Iguazu on Friday to head down to Ushuaia. Purportedly the southernmost city in the world, it is probably going to take us about 4-5 days by bus, continuously, and then I get to frolick with Penguins, in nature (my real goal is to eat one, but don't tell any one). Needless to say, I'm excited.

Sweat Meter: As a result of extended periods of rain, the sweat meter is on hiatus and will be replaced by a guest appearance of The Meat Meter. Today's meat meter is surprisingly high, mostly due to increased exposure. New additions include: The aformentioned Pizza de Bife. The similiar, but arguably more tasty, Pizza de Pescado (I know nothing about fish, but this thing was a big river fish called a Boga and it basically looked like a giant Little Nemo, but even more appetizing), which included a tasty mixture of olive oil, oregano, lemon and some special Argentine fish seasoning, or Pesto Pescado as I've dubbed it. And lastly, but perhaps most urine-like, beef kidney. It's a good mixture of Goodyear and Portipotty; perhaps it would be best with lots of ketchup as opposed to salt, lemon and "natural" flavors. Future Forecast: Like the rain, a continuous flow of meat, meat and more meat with predicted difficulties getting out of bed, at least without my morning cup of meat.