The Barretos

We have arrived, settled in, and are finally at the last stages of feeling at home.  After five weeks in temp housing, school closing for three weeks and kids having to be online students without an internet connection at home, our two sets of household goods arriving, and both of us working, it's been a busy two months.  However, we are very happy here.  Our apartment is lovely, comfortable, and now that the paintings are going up, feeling so much like a home.  The kids are settling into a routine, after three weeks of no school.  Andoni is doing spring board diving and soccer, and Renato is working out in the gym once in a while and waiting for basketball season to start.  Guillermo is working, and soon will be working full time.  My job is going well, and so we are all happy.

Photos from our summer and our time in Cairo will follow soon.

Facebook seems to have replaced our Barreto family blog on blogspot, but just in case anyone is still following us...we are still in Cairo, having extended for a fourth year.  That was done before we realized that there was going to be a revolution that was going to be violent enough that many of us had to leave Cairo and be away for three months!  In any case, evacuation happened and we lived in DC for three months.  Well, I lived in DC for three months, husband and youngest Andoni lived in DC for six months to finish the 7th grade.

All our photos are now posted on FB, so I guess this can now be the blog that I originally intended it to be, a story.  Somehow it came to be a story told by photos, and the words died away...a picture tells a thousand words?

We are bidding for next year's change...Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, San Jose, Guatemala or Brasilia.  We hopefully will be going to one of those places!  That's what is so exciting about this life.  We don't know where we will end up next, and then spend the next three years learning to love that country.  So far we haven't had a bad time...even Buenos Aires, my post from hell, was good for the family.  What's good for the family is good for me...mostly.  What doesn't kill one makes one stronger!  I am stronger and more mature after Buenos Aires.  Cairo has been relatively easy, both living and work, even with the revolution and the pollution and the traffic and the noise and the masses.  I have turned into a homebody but I have a lovely home.  I do, however, look forward to the next country!

It’s been two years, and what a two years.  School closing the first year for a total of three weeks, due to H1N1.  The entire Embassy community evacuated for three months in our second year, because of the revolution and ensuing violence that swept the country.  Here we are starting year three, hoping for a quiet year, but who knows!

The Barretos are in Washington DC for two weeks, return briefly to NYC to packout, and then head off to Cairo for three years. Three years in Argentina went by so fast. Photos will be posted once we get our internet connection in Cairo. There are three years of Argentina, Ecuador and US photos to place...I have been negligent with photos for quite some time...work kept getting in the way.

We just got word...we are going to Cairo. We will be leaving Buenos Aires in June and arriving in Cairo in August. We are very excited.

Jean, Mark, Corey and Tom

Guillermo and I spent our 18th anniversary in lovely marshes 800 km north of Buenos Aires. We saw many animals such as caprybara, birds of all sorts, black alligators, howler monkeys, etc. We went horse back riding, on a hike, and for a boat ride to see the floating islands where these animals hide out.

Renato and Monica after kayaking

Christine and Manny


















Guillermo and I






















Roger and Rosemary

The Barretos hosted the teens for the main course portion of the Progressive Dinner for Alloy. The noise level was incredible, the food disappeared to the last noodle, and then it was quiet again!

Elizabeth is a member of our church, and is also Renato's piano teacher.

Andoni clowning around with the camera on the Mac I bought this summer.

When they aren't fighting, they do love each other!

Rosa, our neighbor and friend, with her niece, at the Christmas concert.

A small intimate dinner for six, with lively conversation!

Joe, in disguise, at Andoni's birthday dinner.

We stayed at a wonderful hotel in La Falda called Las Ardillas. They have cabins in the mountain overlooking the town of La Falda, Cordoba. It was inexpensive, $50 for the night for four, including a wonderful breakfast.

On vacation in La Falda, Cordoba, the boys played an emotional game of marbles.

We had a fun dinner with friends over Thanksgiving

We went for a ride for two hours, and Andoni was very disappointed that he didn't get to gallop. We had a great time.

Andoni, clowning around in an outfit he put together for Christmas Evening celebrations.

This is about 2 blocks from our house. You can travel up and down the river a bit on bike, on a touristic train, or on foot.

More flowers at our neighbor's house. Tegucigalpa is a city of eternal spring, and there are always flowers every where. This is a neighbor's house covered in flowers.

Some of the beautiful abundant flowers around Tegucigalpa after Semana Santa. This is around the corner from our house.

A map I downloaded and modified from Google earth. What a cool program! The map of Tegucigalpa is a bit out of date, but what fun to identify places in this crazy maze of a city.

Cheryl, Corey and Monica on the dive boat just off Utila.

The entire hiking group of ten adults and children took off into this cave up in La Tigra National Park. I like the way the light glowed eerily behind us.

Our favorite B&B in Honduras, in El Rosario, near La Tigra National Park. It is owned by Germans, and very well run.

For a history of El Rosario mine and the area, check out
http://www.nps.gov/centralamerica/honduras/park-history.shtml

Paul and I at a reception to honor the elections volunteers. We had to wear our elections vests one more time. Guillermo and I were paired as monitors in San Pedro Sula in the recent presidential elections in Honduras.

This was one of the many voting places Guillermo and I visited as OAS observers of the last presidential election in Honduras, where Mel Zelaya won. We went to San Pedro Sula for the elections, and it was a fascinating process. We saw no irregularities in the entire day.