Wine, Beer and Beauty

 

Greetings from PATAGONIA! No longer just an overpriced line of outdoor clothing to me ... Patagonia is now on the top of my list of the most beautiful places I have ever been! We started our time in northern Patagonia in Bariloche-- a gorgeous ski town that looks a lot like Switzerland mixed with some Aspen flare: log cabins, Bavarian style restaurants, chocolate galore and giant St. Bernard dogs with small kegs hanging from their necks... not too sure what exactly that is all about, but I dig it! We spent our time in Bariloche hiking (we did an amazing full day hike to Refugio Frey), walking around the charming town, drinking (finally!) good beer and relaxing in the hostel jacuzzi... Yes!... I said hostel jacuzzi! Our hostel in Bariloche (Tango Inn Downtown) was awesome! Conveniently our dorm room reservation (the cheapest room one can book at the hostel) got messed up, so when we arrived the only room available for us was the hostel equivalent of a pent-house suite with lake views, nice linens, a queen sized bed, a private bathroom and free jacuzzi access! We were in heaven! Unfortunately, 2 beds in the dorm room opened the next night-- but we still got to enjoy the jacuzzi the 2nd night as well! After months of dorm room living, we were happy to take even just 1 night in the posh room!

Earlier today we took a short 2 hour bus ride from Bariloche, south to El Bolson-- a charming hippie town surrounding by gorgeous and jagged mountains peaks. On Thursday El Bolson has an awesome artisans market in the park with fresh local foods and tons of artists selling everything from mate gourds and jewelry to hippie style aladdin pants and of course candles a plenty. I managed to not buy anything (which was a miracle)-- but did enjoy 2 different local dark beers and a delicious sandwich which turned out to be cow tongue-- I did not realize that when I ordered it! Tomorrow we will enjoy another awesome hike in the mountains and explore more of El Bolson.

I wouldn`t properly be capturing the glory of our past week without writing a little something about MENDOZA! Where to begin?... Our first night in Mendoza our hostel (Mendoza Backpackers) was offering in honor of the full moon, a late night rafting trip followed by a bonfire fiesta in the mountains... Count us in! The night was nothing short of amazing and ended around 6 am when we finally made our way back to our hostel from the fiesta! By day when we weren`t occupied by dancing around a giant bonfire in the mountains, we spent time exploring Mendoza, a great city to walk around and enjoy: clean, spacious and lots of green parks and plazas to relax in. Bonus-- Mendoza has lots of Subway restaurants, which allowed us to eat fresh even while traveling! Of course, we also spent a lovely day in Mendoza biking from winery to winery (and a beer garden too) enjoying the delicious wines of the area. My personal favorite was the winery Tempus Alba which not only had gorgeous grounds and delicious wines-- but they also had a phenomenal menu-- so clearly I treated myself to a succulent medium rare steak for lunch, accompanied with seasonal veggies and potatoes! Even our 18 hour bus ride from Mendoza to Bariloche was incredible... comfy seats, decent food served, 3 great movies played (including The Proposal-- who doesn`t adore Betty White?) and even a game of Bingo was played (with wine as a prize) to keep us entertained. I was highly impressed with our longest bus trip yet!

Argentina has treated us extremely well so far. Although I have spent more money (pesos to be exact) in my 2.5 weeks here than I did for all my time in Bolivia-- the splurge is well worth it to spend time in perhaps one of the most beautiful and delicious countries in the world!

Adapting to the Argentine Lifestyle... One gourd of mate at a time!

It has certainly been an action packed first week in Argentina! We began in Salta and continued south to Cafayate (wine country) and arrived this morning to Cordoba where we will be spending a few days in and around the city.

Argentina is absolutely gorgeous, the food superb and the people who call Argentina home are beautiful, interesting and somehow have the ability to stay up all night-- dancing, eating and drinking into the early morning hours! Dinner in Argentina usually starts around 10:00 pm and you would be hard pressed to find a restaurant even open prior to 9:00 pm. Bars and clubs get busy around 1:00 am (around when bars and clubs back home start to close their doors) and every city we have been to so far takes a few hour siesta around 3:00 pm-- when stores, restaurants, etc. close for a few hours. It takes some getting used to-- but it certainly is a fun structure to the day.

Our time in Salta was great-- a pretty city with amazing food and fun streets and parks to explore. It was a bit of a culture shock coming from Peru and Bolivia, but we have managed to adapt just fine... starting by taking showers more often! We spent an afternoon hiking in a nature reserve in San Lorenzo (just outside of Salta) and took a gondola to the top of a small mountain where we had amazing 360 degree views of Salta and surrounding areas. We even took in our first peña show (folk music, dancing and general entertainment-- usually combined with dinner and drinks) and we got more than we could have ever bargained for... In addition to the usual peña line-up we also got a Michael Jackson music video, a creepy ventriloquist act and a power outage at 1 am which caused the show to end abruptly an hour early. At the market in Salta, Beth and I also bought mate gourds and have taken up the fine art of sipping on mate throughout the day-- it is an acquired taste, but I have grown to enjoy the taste and process very much! Also important to note that I had the best steak of my life in Salta at a parilla called Viejo Jack´s. Yum.

Cafayate was charming and a wonderful place to spend a few days sipping on wine and soaking in the gorgeous scenery. Over our 3 days in Cafayate we visited 5 wineries (our favorite was Bodega Etchart), experienced the thrill of ATVing for the first time (I think I may have a new hobby-- both dangerous and expensive), went on a hike to a waterfall (which we actually could not find due to poorly marked trails-- a lovely hike and picnic in any case), spent an afternoon at the chaotic and gigantic community pool (until a child vomited next to me and then we left), we visited a goat farm and rented bikes to get around town to go wine tasting. Cafayate was lovely-- it`s as simple as that. Cafayate has the best empanadas I have ever had made with love by Norma and Eduardo who own the Casa De Empanada. Again, yum. I higly suggest any of the empanadas with blue cheese.

And now Cordoba, where our first day has been great, just walking around the city and getting a feel for everything. I was shocked today when I spotted a synagogue in town-- the first Jewish institution I have spotted this entire trip! Unfortunately the synagogue was closed (Jews take siesta too), but hopefully I can make it back over the next few days-- after visiting likely well over 100 churches so far on my journey it would be great to visit a synagogue or 2 and get a feel for Latin American Jewry.

It is now 8:30 pm, which means it is almost dinner time. The day is still young here in Cordoba... And you never know what your night may hold in Argentina!

Ciao amigos!

Don`t Cry For Me Argentina

Top 5 Reasons We Know We Are Not In Bolivia Any More:

(or any other South American country we have visited for that matter)

1. We no longer can afford everything and anything our heart desires.

2. We can drink the tap water.

3. Alpaca and a pisco sour for dinner has been replaced with high quality steak and fine wine.

4. The bars open at midnight rather than close at that time.

5. We are now the least fashionable and least sophisticated people in town.

Here we are (after a 14 hour travel day including a 4 hour dusty and hot border crossing) in Salta, Argentina-the first city of our month long tour of Argentina. It has only been a day and already we are in love with the country. Let the abundance of red wine and red meat begin... Starting with dinner tonight!

Flamingos and Geysers and SALT... Oh my!

On January 1, 2011 we made our great escape from La Paz (almost as quickly as the transportation strike began-- it thankfully ended) and we headed south to Uyuni. We spent a relaxing day in Uyuni (much needed after the chaos of New Years combined with an overnight bus trip on an extremely bumpy road) and booked our Salar de Uyuni tour (salt desert) for the next day.

I do not even know how to begin to describe our salt desert experience... It was as if Utah, Southern California and the Moon had all combinned together to create the most beautiful scenery one could ever imagine. Our tour was 3 days and 2 nights and each day was jam packed from dawn until dusk with amazing sites to see and things to do. We got around in a giant Jeep loaded up with 8 people (Beth, myself and 4 friends we met in La Paz), our guide Maria and our driver Milton. We had great music blaring the entire trip and it turned out to be one epic road trip through the desert! I have always loved road trips, but this just went above and beyond any experience I had before... A personal driver, delicious meals cooked for you, a guide and honestly the most incredible and unique surroundings you could ever imagine!

Some Salar de Uyuni highlights include: an abundance of beautiful flamingos chilling in pristine lagoons, my first vicuña spotting (another member of the llama/alpaca family), staying at a hostel made out of salt, an early morning dip in a gorgeous natural hot spring, salt flats a plenty, getting up close and personal with geysers, visiting an island composed fully of blossoming cactus plants, a visit to the Salvador Dali desert and of course the general experience of road tripping from destination to destination across a salt desert... It was beyond amazing!

After our salt desert experience we spent another night in Uyuni and then continued on south to Tupiza-- a beautiful little town surrounded by red rock. It is a relaxed, gorgeous and extremely friendly town-- we are really enjoying ourselves here! Today we spent the entire day poolside and did pretty much the same yesterday-- it was heavenly! The weather here is mostly hot and sunny, which is exactly what we need after an insane amount of time at extremely high elevations which feature extreme weather. Tomorrow we will be partaking in the Tupiza Triathlon: biking, horseback riding and Jeeping our way through the red rock country that surrounds Tupiza... Should be amazing!

After Tupiza we are off to Salta, Argentina and the next chapter of our journey begins! Bolivia has been simply incredible and I am sad to leave. Hopefully I can make it back here within the next 5 years-- afterall they make US citizens pay for a 5 year visa-- I want to make the most out of my $135 entrance fee! That said, for now red wine and red meat are calling my name...