Eastern Argentina

Now we are 2/3 down the eastern coast of Argentina in a small town called Gaiman, but first let me tell you about our past few days . . . we journeyed south from Buenos Aires to a group of beach towns called Pinamar, Ostende, Valeria and Carilo. We stayed at the Old Hotel in Ostende, built in 1914. Nothing fancy, but I loved seeing old photographs of guests from the earliest years, in all their fancy clothes in the dining room and bathing costumes in the dressing tents at the beach. We, too, had an assigned tent and from my shady place I watched the kids spend hours body surfing and laughing. People sat around in groups of family or friends, shared their mate (mah-te), and surrounded me with the sing-song sounds of the Argentine dialect. Mate is an interesting custom. A bitter herb concoction in a shell cup often trimmed in silver, they pass it around while they chat, each sipping from the same silver, filtered spoon straw. Everyone has a thermos of hot water from which they continue to add to the cup all afternoon.
After dinner, the five of us returned to a moonlit beach and saw the southern hemisphere’s version of a starry night. No Big Dipper! And Orion’s Belt is upside down! Chase and I have also been thrilled to see a whole variety of new birds down here. Green parakeets fly around as commonly as blue jays in California. We haven’t identified any, of course (no room in the suitcase for the Audubon book), but we get a new surprise every day.
Our trip to Trelew, named for Welsh founder & pioneer Lewis Jones, was by BUS. Picture the bus depot in Oakland or Sacramento or Tijuana and you’ll have some idea. But inside the coach was very comfortable and relatively clean. It was an 18 hour journey and we were glad to sleep away most of the “scenery” en route. AG missionaries Charlotte and Martin Jacobsen, Eddie and Diana Echevarria are our very kind hosts and they picked us up in a big van to take us to our lodging at the Instituto Biblico Patagonico. They warned us, but I’m here to tell you, it is WINDY in the Patagonia! The picturesque mountains, lakes or glaciers that typify other parts of the region are not near here. We are in a small town in the dessert, I mean desert. We got to take showers and settle in before going to the Jacobsen’s home for dinner. The Echevarrias have a daughter, 14, and a son, 11, who are wonderful and we all attended their local church for a Saturday evening service. Today we had lunch with the Jacobsens and discussed our upcoming days -- I'm bubbling with ministry opportunity excitement. More to come . . .