As I mentioned in my last post, Andrew arrived to join us for our final month in South America. Before his arrival, I spent many hours attempting to solve our transportation problem. It's one thing to fit seven people into a small car, but cramming six people in a backseat designed to barely fit three just wasn't going to work. Besides, we wanted to be able to see more of South America. Fortunately, right before Andrew's arrival one of our local friends, upon hearing of my car woes, helped me to locate a larger car that we could afford. It wasn't big enough to fit us and all of our stuff, but it did seat seven, a big improvement! This would work for our remaining time in the Cordoba area. But since our goal was to travel to the Bariloche area of Argentina, we needed to figure out the best way to travel there with our family and all of our luggage. Having already experienced the "joys" of traveling on the rural highways of Argentina, we decided that we would rather travel into Chile and go down the nice four lane Panamerican highway instead. That way we could see Chile on our way before crossing over the Andes again into Argentina through Chile's lake district. After countless hours on the phone and online. we were finally able to locate a van large enough fit us, but it was in Santiago, Chile. We just needed to get ourselves and all of our stuff from Alta Gracia, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. Flying was out of the question due to the cost, so we opted to take a bus over the Andes.
Genevieve had found an opportunity to volunteer at an orphanage (a dream of hers since the age of 14) and decided to stay behind. Before we left, we decided to visit her at the orphanage and say our final goodbyes. We also wanted to visit some friends of a former neighbor of ours in Garden Farms. She had grown up in Argentina and had many fond memories. It was our first chance to visit the area north of Cordoba. We headed north and spent a lovely hour or so with our former neighbor's childhood friends. They showed us typical Argentine hospitality and baked a cake in anticipation of our visit.
Our former neighbor's childhood friends
We then headed even farther north to a small town where the orphanage was located. It is run by some nuns and provides a home to girls who have lost their parents or who have parents that are no longer able to care for them. It was a sweet visit as the girls prepared homemade pizza and threw a party for us. Some of them performed traditional folk dances for us and we took turns singing for each other. Fiona had a chance to play the piano for the first time in three months (although some of the keys didn't work anymore), and we stuffed ourselves on pizza. It was a lovely afternoon, but the inevitable moment came when we had to say goodbye to Genevieve, not knowing for sure when we would see her again. In addition to the job at this orphanage, she had found an additional job at another orphanage with infants where she planned to work at least until January. We all hugged and kissed goodbye, and headed back to our cabaña. The next day we would begin our journey to Chile
The three sisters that run the orphanage for girls
At last a piano to play! Fiona entertains the girls
The sisters, their helpers, and some of the girls with our family
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