Hot dogs and dinosaurs

We were very fortunate to be able to borrow a car from a friend during this 6-week summer break. After living car-free for the last 2 and a half years it has made a nice break from walking to the grocery store and riding bikes everywhere. Next week we'll be back to biking to school, but we took advantage of the car for some huge grocery store trips and a few day-trips out of the city.

Last week we drove 2 hours to this great hot dog stand in La Plata, a city south of Buenos Aires.

Super pancho con papas fritas

The hot dogs just happened to be outside of the Museo de La Plata, the Museum of the Natural Sciences Department of the University of La Plata. Okay, we didn't really go for the hot dogs - we went to see dinosaurs!

This isn't even one of the Argentine dinosaurs - it's a replica of a Diplodocus that was found in Wyoming

There were also these awesome Glyptodonts, giant prehistoric armadillos that ruled in South America!

 

Milan is sad because they are not dinosaurs

Whole rooms full of skeletons!

A cross-section of a paper wasp nest!

Giant models of mosquitoes!

 

...and mosquito larvae!

Awww cute little Ades larvae

There was more upstairs but Milan was D.O.N.E. with the museum as soon as we finished the dinosaur sections, so we had our gormet pancho lunch and headed next door to the Jardin Zoologico y Botanico. This makes our third zoo since Thanksgiving and we have now covered every zoo within a 100 km radius of Buenos Aires. This one made us understand the reason for the animal rights spray paint graffiti outside. Let's just say that the highlight was this palm tree with a strangler fig growing around it.

Come on, admit it, that is cool!

La Plata has such a different feel from Buenos Aires or the suburbs where we live. Smaller, more provincial, and less expensive. Even the hot dogs were cheaper! And in between La Plata and Buenos Aires the pampas grasslands are flat and rolling and beautiful.