Its been a busy time…

…but we still find time to relax with family back home…

…hard to imagine this was once a giant lake…

It has been 728 days since we first landed in Argentina, visas in hand and minds open. Today we leave, a with only a few empty pages left in the passport and hearts full. Over time, the granularity of all we have seen and done will fade into a few photos, full of warm colours, highlights and shadows, stark black and whites. As my mind slowly lets go of the details, I hope photos will remind me of smells, sounds and sights of another life we lived.

This place will always be with us, Andes to Atlantic, Antarctic to Amazon. In the middle of it all a city, so vast and vibrant; never has the word bustling been better put to use. At first impression you might imagine how anything really works in such chaos. But then you start to notice the little things, the order in the chaos. Some days you will hate it, some days love it. But the one constant is change.

The unexpected, even when it’s scary or frustrating, is the part of life that often brings the richest experiences. Like an impromptu movie set during an afternoon walk, a city bus grazing your shoulder, a high-wire act in the park, a meeting of Citroen drivers going around the world, crossing 16 lanes of traffic, fellow Canadians celebrating a Gold Medal on the streets, the list goes on…

And when you leave the city to see the rest of Argentina, the experience just keeps getting better.

Is this the end of our travels? No, but the end of a chapter in it, yes. And we are going to miss living in this place.

While life keeps moving at a pace we can’t control, some things, places move at a different pace. While we struggle to know what tomorrow brings, yesterday sits watching us and remembering when it was today.

Cross the walls of the Cemetary and you will feel it, the prescence of what once was, mixing with what is to be. During the process you might learn some history, imagine events and stories of the past, and reflect on ones you have lost.

It started off with ‘minutas’ and cerveza, argentine fast food and beer. It ended with exhaustion, a permahangover, minutas and cerveza. In between, many Malbecs, Torrentes, Tannat and Syrah gave us mystical powers, allowing us to just keep moving, from restauraunt to taxi to market to beach to boat to car to bus, all the while enjoying the ride. In between bouts of meat-sweats and sunburn, we found ourselves just enjoying spending time laughing and observing the controlled chaos that is Argentina.

Looking back its hard to pick a definitive favourite moment, or meal, or event. When friends come to visit, you get to see your world from their eyes, but there’s always something new to experience together. So off we went to Uruguay, to show off our amazing suficient tourguide skills and our dedication adequacy in spanish.

Punta del Diablo, i’d imagine 15 years ago this would have been a little-known fishing town, close to the Brazilian border. Not to say that it is not a fishing village near the Brazilian border (it’s no South Beach obviously). But now it has seen a healthy infusion of ‘granola tourism’ (trademark), in other words a hearty blend of clearly tourists (us) and lifestylers that call this place home.

What a cool place. Matter of fact, you can apply that characteristic to all of Uruguay.