Every Thursday for 30 years a group of grandmothers holds a protest in May Day Park, asking for an investigation into the "Desaparecedos" -- their children who disappeared under the dictatorship and are presumed dead -- and of the grandchildren, many of whom were adopted by others in secrecy. It is very moving. 

Marina and Donna participating in the march. 

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Marina and Donna mimicking the "Woman's Bridge", so called because it supposed to look like a woman dancing the Tango. It's a pedestrian crossing. 

Stanley on an unauthorized climb of the Woman's Bridge. 

All around Buenos Aires you see couples necking in the parks. Disgusting. 

Lenny looking into the detailed engineering aspects of an old colonial cannon on the wonderfully renovated port docks, now home to many trendy restaurants. 

Yesterday, we finally got to meet our long lost relatives. We had to record them for our Grandma, Bubbie. Bubbie has never gotten to meet her long lost relatives… yet! There was this one woman who really liked to talk about all the things that my mom asked about her grandfather and what happened to him in his life. Mom was franticly trying to write all the notes that she could get out of the conversation, and Beatriz was franticly trying to tell all of the details that she could tell. There were another man and a woman. They didn’t do a whole lot of talking. Maybe, they didn’t know as much as Beatriz did. I wasn’t talk at all because I was hopeless, and I didn’t know what was happening most of the time.

--- MARINA

The Central Synagogue in Buenos Aires -- unfortunately closed today, but we might try again tomorrow. 

Flat Stanley paying his respects at the mausoleum of Eva Duarte Peron -- "Evita". 

Donna and Marina in the "City of the Dead" -- the Ricoleta Cemetery. 

Marina climbing one of the multi-hundred year old ficus trees in the park in the toney Ricoleta district. 

Buenos Aires

Yesterday morning we took a city tour to get oriented. It was raining, so a good day to be in the mini-bus rather than walking around. Buenos Aires is very pretty – full of wide boulevards (including one that seems to be twenty lanes across), grand buildings, and parks. We enjoyed learning a bit about Argentinian history as well.

In the afternoon, we went shopping on Florida Street, where we ordered a leather coat for me and a leather mini-skirt (in light blue) for Marina. These shops are also factories, and they custom make leather goods in one day, so we will pick it up later today. Thankfully Jessica had already done this a few weeks earlier, so we just went to the place where she got hers.

Late afternoon we had our meeting with “the relatives”. We had hired a translator, who was terrific (conversation would have been impossible without her!). Visiting us was Roberto and his wife Haydee, and Beatriz. Roberto and Beatriz are both first cousins of my mother. Beatriz was quite animated, and it turns out she had lived with her grandparents (my great grandparents) for years, and knew them very well. She even had their original Polish passports, which we photocopied. Probably the funniest moment was that when she arrived, she plopped down a photo we have on our wall at home of my mother with her family and declared, “This is my family”!

To top it off, we went out in the evening to a nice dinner and a tango show, where we met up with our Explora friends, Mandy, David and Daniel. We had front row seats. The dancers were marvelous, as was a Peruvian-like band. However, there were two singers who were very kitsch – seeming more like Las Vegas has-been crooners than contemporary Latin entertainers!

-- Donna

At last night's tango show, which went past midnight. Everything happens late in this city! 

Marina and Donna at "La Caminita", an ourdoor museum and art gallery.