We have been in the country a week now and have settled into a nice routine. I thought it would be nice to give you an idea of what our daily routine is looking like, on our leisurely vacation. (all times are approximate, true to this vacation style, we don’t stick to a strict schedule)

9:00 AM – We have a late wake up here in Buenos Aires. Due to the late night culture (we joke that Argentina wants to be in the Central Timezone) and the wonder of wood dark out shades in the bedroom (I realy have to figure out how to get them installed at home), we can easily sleep until 9 AM without our early bird telling us “the sun is up, lets go play!”. He is still the first to wake up, but 9 AM is so much more reasonable

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM – We have a slow start in the mornings. Usually a Thomas video for my son as my husband and I get a few more minutes of sleep, some coffee and plan out the day. We may have some yogurt or cereal or both for a light breakfast. We may have an errand to do like run to Carrefour for groceries, or the laundromat to drop off (or pick up) our clothes. We wake up sleeping beauty about 1/2 an hour before we are ready to leave, and that’s went we start getting everyone dressed to get out the door. My daughter usually eats a banana on the go because she’s not too hungry when she wakes up.

We get our train-play-time in the mornings

11:00 AM – 1:00 PM – Our usual plan is to travel to our destination, then eat near-by. However, the travel never turns out as easy as we expect it to be. The bus system is crazy here (in a good way, there are a lot of routes). Either the bus stop is not where we expect it, the subway stop is shut down (apparently randomly), or the next train is not for another 30 minutes. Nothing goes as plan, so it always takes us longer to get to our destination.

Waiting for the train...longer than expected...again

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM – Lunch. My husband and I are trying to be good and have a salad at this meal. However, it’s usually accomapined by an empanada, and sometimes outrightly replaced with a nice sandwich. Kids usually have something like an omelette, fruit salad, or pizza. And of course a ton of the bread that the restaurant provides at each meal.

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM – Here is where we fit in our kid friendly activity. Playground, play area, zoo, cemetery, etc. Whatever allows them to run around and burn off some of that energy.

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM – Here is where we fit in our adult friendly activity. Usually, after lunch and running around, the kids are ready for a nap. We stick both of them in the stroller and walk until they fall asleep. Now we can do something like the Fine Arts museum, shopping, or sit down and have a beer and some empanadas (noticing a trend?). This is our quiet time for the day.

How we fit in adult activities

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM – This time can be a bit of a mixed bag. If the kids didn’t sleep enough, it’s usually spent walking around so they rest more in the stroller. If they slept well, we need to take them somewhere to run off energey. Sometimes we all have beer and snack. (well, the adults have beer). Usually it’s spent burning time until dinner.

This is a very popular time at the playground

8:00 PM – 10:00 PM – We are the early dinner crowd. Yes, you heard that right. Argentinians are night owls, and we are usually one of the first to sit down to dinner at 8 PM. It’s not unusual to see parents come in with thier children at 10 PM at night as we are leaving. School must start late for them. We sometimes seek out a resturant we read about, sometimes just pick the first one we find. We usually go to a parrilla and get ridiculously good and large cuts of steaks with potatoes. The steaks are usually great, the potatoes (except in a few restaurants) we have found to be substandard. We always order a wine to go with it. I love the wine so much, I sacrificed my favorite yellow dress to a full glass. The kids get a simple pasta or pizza again. If we are lucky, or in the tourist district, there is a music and sample tango show at dinner. My daughter loved the music and really wanted to dance with the dancers.

Enamored with the music*

9:30 PM – 11:00 PM – This time is spent trying to get home (again, always more complicated then expected. We have more than once given up and taken a taxi). There is a great ice cream shop on the corner. They now know us by name because we go in every night at the same time and order three small cups (which are by no way small). One for the kids to share and one for my husband and and one for me. My husband does not like chocolate which just makes it impossible to share as I am a chocoholic. Today we smartened up, and ordered a big container and brought it home. We each had a lot less, and put the rest in the freezer for tomorrow.

Ice cream at 11pm - a true delight!

11:00 PM – 12:00 AM – Yes, we are putting our kids to bed at midnight. We try to keep the routine as normal as possible, with a bath and stories before bed.

12:00 AM – 2:00 AM – This is our quiet time at night. We loosely plan the next day, upload our photos of the day, write our blog posts, etc. I try to get to bed by 1 AM but it rarely happens.

Such is the life in Buenos Aires on vacation. I could get used to this…

* Starred photo taken by Atma Photography