Pato? I thought that meant duck!

After a long night and morning of sleeping I was able to motivate Brent to get off the sofa (in his defense he is reading a really good book) and go on an adventure. We rented bicycles without any ID in the park near our place and headed off to the nature preserve, Reserva Ecologica Costanera Sur. Now on the map, this place looks fairly close by, but in reality, which included about 3 stops along the way for Brent to explain to me that we were going the wrong way, it took about 45 minutes to get there. It was well worth the trip! The reserve is beautiful, with birds and marsh and beautiful views of the river. There is a loop trail that you can walk or ride that is lined with benches and great places to lay down a blanket for the day. To add to the excitement, we saw someone feed a 2 foot long lizard a hamburger! The only drawback was the fact that while I did remember spanish flash cards, somehow sunscreen slipped my mind. I am a wee bit crispy.
After turning in our bikes we walked thru the polo fields for a short cut home and discovered Argentina's national sport- Pato! I know you thought it was soccer, but we learned differently today. Pato is like a cross between basketball, polo,and soccer, all played on horseback. We stumbled into their semi finals and let me tell you, these fans are as rowdy as any Boca Jr fans! In fact, after a questionable call that resulted in a player falling off, a 60 year old lady leapt out of the stands and ran onto the field to express her displeasure to the ref. It took 3 people to get her off so play could continue! The finals are tommarow- I wouldn't miss it for the world!