Not Your Average Photo Tour

Look up Villa Crespo on Google.  You’ll find a lot of websites with a lot of lists of things to do: where to eat, where to shop, where to go out to have drinks, coffee, find that next closed door restaurant. But what do you do when you have kids? It’s something I have been discovering for the last year. My twins are just over a year old (hence the pause in writing on this blog) and before, when I was looking to discover Buenos Aires, I was always thinking, “Where can I find the next coolest thing for me?” I wanted to see new artists, find great food and dine out all the time, I wanted to see the hippest bars and try cucumber-sake martinis and go to the best parties with DJs and take photos that looked like polaroids from the 70s (aka instagram without the instagram). I liked to sit and nerd out on my computer from a cozy cafe or sip on a cappucino and read a book and stare off into space, watching people.  I could go to whatever neighborhood I wanted, cause all I had to do was hop in the subte or in a taxi and go.

A lot has changed. My boys have been walking for three months now. They no longer tolerate being in a stroller if I stop to have a coffee. And forget about people watching – now people just watch me. If I go somewhere now, it’s within walking distance of my house. You see, I don’t have a car. I have a double stroller (read: taxis don’t stop for me) and twins who I care for around 12 hours per day.  I love being with them and I’m never tired of them, so I’m not looking for someone to take care of them or anything – I just need to be able to do things with them.

Books? I only get to read them after the boys have gone to bed and after the dinner has been made, the dishes have been washed, and before someone wakes up with a cough or a sneeze. That gives me about 45 minutes a day to read a book, write on my blogs, check out facebook or crochet.

And right now, we’re in winter holidays. Oh yes, the last two weeks of July here is winter break. All of the kiddies and their families are running around Buenos Aires, looking for things to do. Or alternatively, they’ve already left Buenos Aires for warmer or snowier weather. I thought that I would find a ton of things to do that would be entertaining for kids, and when I saw the pamphlet given out by the Buenos Aires city government, I thought that I would have a great choice of cool and entertaining things to do with my boys. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Perhaps if they were a little older, I’d take them to go see a puppet show, but right now, my cat has a longer attention span than they do. The list in this book was kind of pathetic, like it was made up by a couple of 20 year olds imagining what they would do on vacation if they had families – with a two hour deadline.  Soooooooo, I tossed the book and decided that over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be showing the other side of Buenos Aires, the “family friendly Buenos Aires..” and we’ll be talking about accessibility, friendliness of staff (because sometimes people love having children in their places and sometimes, not so much, right?) – all within the walking distance of my house in Villa Crespo.