LeaKy LarRy: Christmas in Mar Del Plata

I spend Christmas and News Years in the beach town Mar Del Plata. It is the most popular vacation destination for Argentines, especially at this time of the year. As far as beach towns go, it is pretty run down. I probably would have cut my trip short and spent News Years in another town, had I not met a lot of friends to make my stay enjoyable.

For Christmas, a girl named Rocio, who I met at church, invited me to spend Christmas Eve with her family. In Argentina, Christmas Eve is their Christmas. They celebrated it very similar to us in the States. We had diner, read the Christmas story, and then opened gifts. The family was so nice and it felt at least a little like Christmas, even though I didn’t understand 50 percent of the things being said. Christmas Day on the other hand felt nothing like Christmas. I spend most of the day watching football on my Slingbox in an internet café and of course the Laker/Heat game. .

For New Years, I went to another girls house, named Silvina, to celebrate with her family. We started eating around 10:30, which is the custom here. As an appetizer they fed me cow tongue. I actually thought it was pretty tasty until they revealed what it was. As midnight approached, I kept thinking we would be leaving soon to celebrate New Years in a public place like we do in the U.S. Is didn’t happen. It was just me and the family, including the 85 year grandma who didn’t go to bed until 130. At midnight, all around the city, everyone sets off tons of, what we would consider, illegal fireworks. It was actually really cool to watch. We didn’t end up going out until 3 or so in the morning to an area in the city called Alem.

Christmas day with the Hortal(I might be way off on that one) Family