More Argentina!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Carrie and I are back in the US, enjoying the winter wonderland that is Massachusetts. We are in good health and arrived home safely, and enjoying things such as home cooked meals, speaking English, and having friends and family around. Now that we are back home, we can write more about what we did over the last month and a half.

Back in early November, after Uruguay, Carrie and I settled back in Buenos Aires. For a few days, we would work on logistical trip planning during the day, and doing fun activities at night. One night, we stumbled upon tickets to a dinner and tango show. The dinner, of course, consisted of a giant steak with potatoes, salad, and red wine. As an added bonus, we got to see a fun tango show:

From Buenos Aires ...

The show was a lot of fun, and we made friends with some Columbian ladies who were sharing our ride to and from the show.

The next night, we went to a soccer match at River Plate Stadium, between River Plate and Arsenal (the Argentine team). Of course, the game ended in a 0-0 tie before going to penalty kicks (reinforcing my idea that soccer is not a very exciting game). The crowd certainly was into it, singing throughout the game.

From Buenos Aires ...

I was amused when we decided to grab some food before halftime, and there was NOBODY at the concession stand, because everyone was too busy watching the game. The most amazing / interesting moment for me came at the end of the game, when Arsenal managed to win the game in penalty kicks. After they made the winning kick, the incredibly noisy crowd became dead quiet. The only sound I could hear was that of the players themselves celebrating, and the faint sound of the visiting fans celebrating in their own blocked off balcony section. For the home fans, to add to their pain, they actually had to wait in the stadium for the visiting fans to finish celebrating and leave the stadium before they could leave, because apparently in soccer the opposing fans cannot ever be in the same vicinity. Aside from the unfortunate outcome of the game, we had a good time and enjoyed seeing the soccer experience.

After that, our friend Joe arrived, and we saw more sights of Buenos Aires, witnessed the Gay Pride Parade, and traveled to Mendoza to enjoy the best of Argentine wines from their sources. Since Joe may be providing a guest post to the blog, I'll refrain from going into detail until after he's written his post.

After Joe left, it was Thanksgiving, and one of the toughest stretches of our trip. Missing Thanksgiving in the US was hard, especially hearing about how much fun our families were having and knowing we were by ourselves in a country that didn't care much about Thanksgiving. In addition, we had some difficulties making some of the travel arrangements, which were starting to wear us down. Luckily, we were able to find a restaurant in Buenos Aires that served us a traditional Thanksgiving dinner!

From Buenos Aires ...

The day after Thanksgiving, we packed up for our overnight bus trip that evening. During the day, we tried to view some downtown sights in Buenos Aires, but it seemed that every place we tried to visit was closed for renovations. Finally, we gave up and decided to have a steak lunch, which made things better for the time being (Argentine steak meals tend to do that). After that though, we went to the bus station, and had our bag stolen while waiting for our bus company's computers to come back online so they could print our tickets. After realizing that what they stole was not so bad, we began to feel better and boarded our bus.

Our bus was 19 hours, from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, in the Lake District of southern Argentina. We boarded a fancy "cama suite" bus with seats that reclined 180 degrees. It was extremely comfortable, and they even served hot meals, wine with dinner, and dessert with champagne and whisky! The only downsides were our seat location (in the back by the loud engine noise) and our window (covered by the bus exterior advertisements).

Barilcohe was incredibly beautiful. We stayed in a lovely hosteria called La Pastorella, owned by a friendly husband and wife. Our excursions consisted of white water rafting and bus rides providing beautiful views of lakes and mountains. The bus rides themselves became a bit boring due to the tour guide's rapid Spanish, but the scenery was nice. Here are some photos:

From Bariloche, Ar...

From Bariloche, Ar...

From Bariloche, Ar...

From Bariloche, Ar...

After Bariloche, we headed even farther south (50 degrees south latitude) to El Calafate, in Patagonia. It was here that we got to view some incredible Glaciers. We stayed at an incredibly charming place called "Las Cabanitas", and had our own A-Frame cabin:

From El Calafate, ...

From there we visited the Perito Moreno Glacier. I'll just show some pictures and a video here:

From El Calafate, ...

The most exciting part of the day might have been actually getting to hike on the glacier itself, using crampons on our boots, followed by a surprise whisky and candy snack at the end:

From El Calafate, ...

From El Calafate, ...

The next day, we visited an "Estancia", also known as a sheep ranch. We got to watch a sheep herding demonstration, a sheep shearing, and then eat a giant barbecue dinner:

From El Calafate, ...

From El Calafate, ...

For our last day in El Calafate, we took a boat cruise through Lago Argentina, visiting multiple glaciers in the area. This was very cold, but incredibly scenic!

From El Calafate, ...

From El Calafate, ...

El Calafate was one of my favorite places we visited on the trip. It was sunny until 10:45, not too cold away from the glaciers, and incredibly scenic. It was also very laid back and relaxing. On our flight back to Buenos Aires, the plane made a stop at Ushuaia, the very bottom of South America by Antartica. We had decided not to visit the town, and when we saw the view from the plane, we were happy with our decision:

From El Calafate, ...

After that, we headed north to Iguazu Falls and Brazil, which we will write about in future posts... Feel free to browse our pictures, as they are now all uploaded! Happy Holidays!

¡Argentina!

Top 10 things I learned while in Argentina:

10. Sheep are REALLY dumb


9. The buses in BsAs (Buenos Aires) make noises just like male blue footed boobies

From Buenos Aires ...

8. In BsAs, book your hotel in advance

From Joe Photos 10/21/2007

7. Why portion off a section of your bathroom for the shower stall when the entire bathroom can be your shower? You can wash your hair, brush your teeth, and do your business all at the same time!

From Joe Photos 10/17/2007

6. Mate is an acquired taste

From Buenos Aires ...

5. Fútbol games are a great place to increase your Spanish vocabulary


4. The BsAs gay pride parade shows much more skin than the Chicago version.

From Buenos Aires ...

3. Global warming? Global shwarming! The Perito Moreno glacier in El Calafate, Argentina is stable (it is constantly growing and receding, but over time it grows about the same amount that it recedes).

From El Calafate, ...

2. 18 hours really fly by when you're riding in a cama suite (tutto leto) bus

From Bariloche, Ar...

1. While at Retiro (the BsAs bus terminal), if you have a carry-on size bag, never let go of it for even a second.

Quick thoughts at the end of the trip

Hello everyone!

Carrie and I are now in our last hotel, in our last city, Rio de Janiero, Brazil. It´s finally setting in that a trip that began with trips through the frigid Andes is now concluding with beautiful Copacabana Beach and 90 degree sun. For the last week or so, Carrie and I have decided to stop being "tourists" and just enjoy being on vacation. Therefore, we probably won´t be doing anymore extended blog posts or photo uploads, etc, until we arrive back in the USA. I promise though, when we get back, we´ll tell you all about what we´ve done in Argentina and Brazil over the last month and a half, and give a final recap and summary of the trip as a whole. There´s lots to write, but after seeing all the snow in New England and Chicago, beaches and bossa nova are taking priority!

Happy holidays to all, and we´ll write more when we get back!

Oh, Argentina

My last post was fairly rushed (we were waiting to board our flight), so I wanted to write more about what it's been like traveling in Argentina and Uruguay, especially after spending so much time previously in Ecuador.

Argentines are certainly unique people, to say the least. I hate generalizing, but to give you a flavor, I'm going to do just that. The people here are sophisticated, smart, passionate, proud, and arrogant. They definitely love to talk and socialize!

Breakfasts consist of coffee and maybe some croissants, and could take place at one of the many cafes around town. Lunch could be just about anything, but ham and cheese sandwiches appear to be a staple, as well as steak sandwiches that include such toppings as ham, egg, and veggies. People can be seen in cafes eating lunch basically up until 5pm!

Dinner occurs anywhere from 9pm to midnight and beyond, with many restaurants not even opening until at least 8pm. Man oh man, do they do dinner here. The steaks are absolutely phenomenal, and the service you receive is truly top notch. At the older parillas (steak houses), the waiters are often older men who give the impression that they've served a lot of steak in their day. They are genuinely charming, not sticking to a corporate script or trying to "upsell" you anything, simply asking you what meat and wine you want (these are a given), if you want a salad and/or potatoes, and if you want your water with our without gas. Carrie and I are amused that most restaurants (especially in Buenos Aires) do not have tables for 2, because Argentines love to talk so much that they almost always dine in groups.

You can watch tango dancers in the streets, couples unabashedly kissing in parks, or kids playing soccer just about anywhere. There is an ice cream store every couple blocks, and they are all amazing. Outside of the city, the country has incredibly beautiful scenery in the Lake District, Patagonia, Mendoza, and Iguazu Falls, and thats just what Carrie and I saw. In Mendoza, you can ride bikes between wineries, tasting wine all along the way. Buses have seats that recline 180 degrees, serve hot meals, and even give you champagne or whiskey before bed, making long distance travel exceedingly comfortable.

So, what's not to love about Argentina? For one, Buenos Aires is a very busy and crowded city, bringing New York to my mind in terms of an American comparison. People do not really respect personal space all that much, frequently bumping you on the street or in lines. Very few places have small change, making buying things like subway tickets a nuisance at times. It seems like every museum or tourist attraction we try to attend is under construction. And since people love to travel here, all of the hotels get booked in advance, making reservations a necessity. However, most hotels don't take reservations over the internet, public phone calls are somewhat pricey, and travel agents aren't particularly helpful. The national airline, Aerolineas Argentinas, doesn't process payments on its website, making it necessary to call them (not free), or go to one of their offices, where you could wait up to an hour to speak to a person. And, it was the only country where we had something stolen from us (not once, but twice!)

Needless to say, Carrie and I have had a love / hate relationship with this country. What's hard is that we've lost the laid back feel we had in Ecuador, where we could make decisions spur of the moment and have things still work out. And the people's behavior and attitudes can get a bit frustrating after a while. But all in all, I think I'll walk away from Argentina with fond memories.

As for Uruguay, we basically found it to be like a bunch of suburbs of Buenos Aires. Colonia was a cute town, but nothing really happens there, so our 1 day was probably enough time. Montevideo is a pretty enough city with lots of tree lined streets, but again it seems that not much happens there (especially compared to other cities we have seen on this trip). Punta del Este would be a great beach town if the weather were nice. Lastly, everything was more expensive than Argentina, so it doesn´t have that going for it either. All in all, I would recommend staying in Argentina if you are in the area.

That´s all for now... Hopefully we can follow up with a more narrative post in the near future, as we have done a lot since the last post. We are spending the rest of our time in Brazil, soaking up as much warmth as possible before heading back to frigid New England in time for the holidays. Best wishes!