ARGENTINA By, Ben R Have you ever been to Argentina? There is one word that comes to mind for me and that word is “Great ”! It is full of fun new places and great people. I have been there twice, once for sailing and another time to visit my brother. The first time I was there was when I went with my family to Mar del Plata to sail in a regatta. On the drive from the airport to Buenos Aires, I saw so many things that were different from what I am used to. “Mom why are all those people protesting” I asked. Our cab driver said, “Oh, the people here protest whenever they are unhappy about something. They might even protest if they didn’t like the weather.” The closer we got to the city, the nicer the buildings got. The buildings went from broken rundown structures, partly made of metal boards and other scraps that they might have found. We even saw one building that had a broken wall and looked as if it might fall over any second. As we drove from the outskirts of the city to the center, we went from very very poor to really really nice. The architecture completely changed. It started to look like giant glass and stone skyscrapers and French palaces. The palaces had huge gardens and the falls had leaves and statues built in. one house we saw into and the entire roof was plated gold on the inside. I said “I’m going to have a house like that one day and when you guys are in between
jail sentences you can live with me.” To my siblings. My mom said, “ Shut up ben think about how stupid you sound.” In annoyed tone. Finally, we arrived to our destination. Buenos Aires has lots of “squares” and “plazas” with beautiful fountains that sound like water falls and lots of people are playing nearby the fountains. While the traffic is in full motions with “honk” “beep” and “fkh@#$”. We had planned on meeting our coach near a famous square in the heart of Buenos Aires . We sat outside a café waiting to meet our coach. While we waited we heard a person yell “someone, stop that man. He stole my purse!” The guy ran by us like he was well experienced in this trade. When the owner of the internet café heard all the noise, he ran out and started speaking in Spanish to us. We were like, “slow down what are you saying”. Finally, after a while the guy told us we in pretty poor English come wait in my café It is dangerous out here. So naturally we took this strangers word and went in his café. The guy was dressed in cargo shorts and a shirt with flowers he smelled like Mate( one of the most popular drinks there.). I got tired of sharing the computer to use the Internet. so after a while of fighting with my brother Seth over the computer. “Ben get off me before I hurt you” shut up Seth I’m using it” “no I am and if you don’t get off me you wont be using it for long” so finally we both with the help of my mom decided to wait in the front. The sidewalk looked pretty dirty and there was a stand nearby selling magazines and other things. After about 4 minutes of waiting in the front our coach finally got to the café. Our coach’s car pulled up We new it was he because there was a power boat on the
trailer of his car. At first we were confused because the car was so tiny and Jake, Gab, Seth, mom, and I were supposed to fit in the car with him. But when we finally realized that this was our coach we rushed out side to meet him. His name was Sappo but even funnier than his name was how he looked he had his hair in dread locks like bob Marley. He was wearing a long orange and blue flannel shirt and cargo shorts he had really tan skin to but what stuck out the most was his mustache it was like a mini handle bar mustache it was hilarious. After we all got to know each other we all piled up into Sappo’s super small car. We were off on our way to Mar del Plata to go sailing. After about 10 minutes Seth and me started to complain. “It’s been hours how much longer” gab said “6 hours of nothing but driving though green” because we had to drive though the pampas which is like the great plains except as far as you can see grass and cows. After 3 hours we started to talk about our regatta diet. Our coach said once we get to Mar Del Plata we are only eating healthy food. I said “what do you mean only healthy food” he said no junk food” I said “noooooooooo”.