200 Years of Friendship

Tuesday. Weather was cold but fortunately sun was shining, so, perfect day to visit the Ecological Reserve!

The Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve is the biggest and most biodiverse green space in the city of Buenos Aires which covers 350 hectares. Despite its proximity to the busy downtown area, with the skyscrapers of Puerto Madero in plain sight, it's the entrance to a complete different world where modernity and industrial life has not yet arrived. The reserve is the unplanned result of an abandoned project to built a new adminstrative centre for the city by reclaiming land from the river. While the project was dropped, happily the city was left with a unique space that was taken over by nature and was declared a natural reserve in 1986. 

We wandered around, taking pictures, striking poses and experiencing the different types of trees, birds, turtles and lagoons. It was pretty amazing to have a break from the busy city life to inmerse ourselves in wildlife and just have long walks with no destination.

And on Wednesday, for our peer to peer activity we had a unique and very special proposal: the ambassador himself invited us to his residency! 

Mark Stanley and his wife were really welcoming. They live in a palace, literally. So, it was amazing just to be there, where they received us with homemade cookies, juice and cofee. 

Later, Mark introduced himself and asks students where they came from. Everybody got the chance to talk about their cities and we could see how many people from different places where there, just sharing their lifes and interests. Mark told us that this year we are celebrating the 200 years of friendship between USA and Argentina and that we can learn a lot from each other. 

Later, young USA interns that worked at the embassy came to talk to the students. They were just some years older than the students so it was really interesting to hear them talk about how they got there, their interests, even their college grades and how can you cope personal life and the work at an embassy altogether! We really learned a lot and it was one of the most interesting and unique peer to peer experiences that we had and we left, full of gratitude for this 200 years of friendship between USA and Argentina.