Earlier this year, my dad called me up one afternoon asking me if I can help him look for flights to Argentina. I haven’t visited my hometown of Argentina since I was about 10 years old so I jumped at the opportunity and decided to go there with him! Just to give you a little bit of background, both my parents were born in Mar Del Plata, Argentina which is a city about a four hour drive away from the capital of Buenos Aires. They then moved to Australia, where my sister and I were born. We’ve only been back to visit once as part of a TV show called Sorpresa y Media where they reunite families who haven’t seen each other in years.
The main reason they were never able to go back and visit was because when they moved to Australia they started their lives from scratch again with absolutely nothing in their pockets, as well as due to flights being a very expensive affair back in the day AND we were a family of 4. We were so lucky to have that opportunity to visit my family in Argentina. My grandparents all met me and my sister for the first time and it was all very emotional. My mum still has the episode somewhere on VHS that we used to watch every now and again when we missed them!
Even though I was really young, I remember so many snippets from that trip and I was so excited to finally go back to my parent’s home to be able to connect all the dots and remember everything now that I’m older.
I had a short 2 days back at home after being in Hawaii, before I met up with my dad at the airport and we made our way to Chile, then Argentina. We landed in Buenos Aires and my dad’s childhood friend was there waiting for us at the airport. We spent our first afternoon in the car making the very long four hour drive to Mar Del Plata.
Over the next 2 weeks, we spent every morning and afternoon visiting my grandma before heading out to visit all the sights of Mar Del Plata. It is such a beautiful city by the sea. We met so much family and so many friends, I worked on my rusty Spanish speaking skills (I can understand it with ease, but speaking it is a little hard for me!), ate so much amazing food and just really enjoyed spending our time there. I vlogged every single day I was in Argentina and you can watch all those videos on my YouTube Channel!
After Mar Del Plata, we spent some time in Buenos Aires as well as Mendoza - those blog posts are coming in the following weeks!
This trip to Argentina was honestly life changing. I felt so happy getting to see and talk to my grandma (I was so emotional the first time I saw her I cried so much!) and just getting to know the beautiful place where my parents grew up. My dad and I went on this trip to reunite with my grandma, but seeing Argentina for myself makes me want to come back and explore more of this country. I am definitely planning a trip to see more of South America soon!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy all the photos and the vlogs! More coming soon!
All photos edited with my Gdansk Lightroom Preset!
