Sunday, November 17, 2024
After the oppressive heat that we endured yesterday, today we awakened to a rainy, cold, blustery morning.
We only had two things on the agenda for the day.
First, we needed to start packing for our flight from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, Argentina which departs early Monday morning. The attraction is Mendoza's much ballyhooed wine culture and its six-team American football tournament featuring clubs from Argentina, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Peru and two from Chile.
The second, and far more important, event was meeting up with my three Argentine via Cuba cousins for what turned out to be an absolutely fantastic six hour dining experience featuring a variety of typical, delicious Argentine grilled meats.
Our reunion was held in the suburban home of our cousin Ernesto and his wonderful wife Alicia.
A bottle of single malt whisky,
Laurie and Ernesto
A lethal combination to say the least.
Brian, my cousin Lileana and Laurie
Our conversations covered family history to world politics to Evita Perón and any and everything else in between.
I had not seen my cousin Evangelina
since 1961, and we had a LOT
of catching up to do!
Evangelina is the family's historian. She shared many new and interesting family stories about our paternal grandparents and great-grandparents that I, for one, had never heard before.
We all urged her to at least orally record some of her family knowledge for posterity.
I really hope she does, as the things she shared with us tonight were absolutely fascinating.
The Contreras Clan's 2024 Reunion
in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Left to Right we have:
Top Row: Nacho Fernandez (our Grill Master today) with his significant other Josefina (Joji) Contreras (Ernesto and Alicia's daughter)
Middle Row: Federico Callegari (María Eugenia significant other), George Contreras and Ernesto Contreras
Bottom Row: Alicia Contreras, María Eugenia Contreras (Ernesto and Alicia's daughter), Sylvia Contreras (Cousin Mauricio's widow), Laurie Contreras, Lileana Contreras and Evangelina Contreras
Of course, Koreen and Brian FitzGerald were with us as neutral United Nations observers.
The Contreras Cousins
Lileana, George, Ernesto and Evangelina
Unfortunately, we were missing their brother Mauricio who was such a sweet man.
He lost his battle with cancer a few years ago but his widow Sylvia did join us. Such a nice lady.
Between the rain and a six hour lunch,
it was hard to get the desired number
of steps in today
The Adventure continues with that flight to Mendoza tomorrow.
Stay tuned . . .
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