2/18 The local parade last night was so fun. We were a little worried when the 1st two groups were in their late 70s and pretty slow... but they were so cute doing their samba dances. The rest of the parade lived up to our expectations.  Their samba schools are like our cheerleaders and football players.  The girls are dressed in skimpy outfits, dancing and the boys are playing drums in a marching band format. Super cool because when they walk they all sway to the left and then to the right in time to the drum beats.  Both the boys and girls vary in age from about 4 to high school age.  The moves those girls can do...shaking and gyrating all sorts of body parts while wearing thongs and bikini tops.  Certainly a cultural thing, because I think we would call it exploiting kids.
Just took a half hour yoga break. Guess you could call it heat yoga.
So, back to the parade. So much energy here too. These Argentnians love their music. One tradition of this parade is cans of what looks like shaving cream, but is not sticky and easy to wipe off. Terry thinks more like some kind of sprayable foam. At first we thought it was just the kids, not true. It is completely acceptable to spray anyone as they walk by the stands. Oh, speaking of the stands, nothing more than a metal frame with roughcut lumber boards laid across to sit on. 5 rows high. All in all this mini samba dome held several thousand people. Anyway, there was this little boy sitting behind Bob. I caught the kids attention and shook my head yes. He was chomping on the bit to spray Bob. When he did, he wae so cute. He was probably about 6 or 7 and reminded me of cub. He would have loved doing that at that age. What am I talking about at that age, Terry went half way through the parqde to buy some for himself. At one point the announcer said something and all of a sudden everyone held their cans up and sprayed. We all got covered. So fun. We are on an entirely different continent, thousands of miles away and some things are the same.
Another cultural thing...the woman in front of us just started nursing her baby. Yup, no blanket, nothing and no one seemed surprised.
During intermission there were awesome fireworks. We only stayed until midnight, so I have no idea what they do for the finale. Walking  home, we were surprised at how many peolpe were out partyimg with their little kids. I wonder if the heat plays a roll, in that during the day it is well over 100 degrees, so they come alive at night.
This was a great little town and we will miss it. I feel like we actually live here. The butcher, bread counter lady and checkout girl at the grocery store know us and make great conversation. I have even gotten pretty good at lettimg them know what we want in spanish.
I JUST LOVE THIS !