Buenos Aires, Round Dos

Our second tour of Buenos Aires has been on the ‘chill’ tip. Brianna and I quickly got back into our routine of staying up late, sleeping in, eating lunch, hitting the pool, running, eating dinner, going out, repeat.

We had a relative coup at the local Disco on Monday (this is one of the grocery chains here). We found great produce, healthy bread and get this…..PEANUT BUTTER (this is a tough find out of the states). This has enabled us to 1) get some fiber in our diet; 2) avoid eating beef and white bread for breakfast and 3) watch several episodes of Los Simpson dubbed in Spanish. We love the Disco!

Since we have not done much in the exploration department, I will report on the MANY restaurants we have tried in our second tour (all in Palermo Soho/Hollywood):

Green Bamboo – Who knew you could get good Vietnamese food in BA? Brianna had a chicken dish and I had fish and even the dessert was awesome. As a side note, the waitresses at this place are gorgeous.
Xalapa – Jonesing for Mexican food, we made a return to this spot. This time we sat inside and the experience was not nearly as rewarding as the first. The food was still good, but doesn’t hold a candle to the real deal.
Rave – We both had pasta in very heavy sauces. It’s more about sitting outside and checking out folks strolling by….. and seeing if the cop stationed at the corner is going to shoot anyone.
Casa Cruz - This is THE see and be seen place where the beautiful people dine. By far our fanciest and most expensive meal (still under USD$100 for 2). Nice space, tasty food.
Mark’s – Great lunch space with sandwiches and salads – very fresh ingredients. We sat next to a bonafide TV celebrity………….in Australia. Chris Taylor of the Daily Show-style Aussie comedy “The Chaser’s War on Everything” sat right next to us. You can take pictures of the hand I used to shake his when I get back!!!!! Actually, he was a really nice dude and had a beautiful girlfriend that looked like a young Naomi Watts.
Bar 6 – Although I had read mixed reviews, we really enjoyed our meal here. Not the best cut of meat, but the best preparation of steak I had in BA. Brianna had a wok chicken/vegetable combo that was delicious.
Cafe Tortoni - Ok, this is not a restaurant, but a cafe that has been around since 1858. Avoid at all costs - this is a tourist trap and there is absolutely nothing special about it.... there was very sleepy dog outside when we were there (see above).
Mott – Tries too hard, we were not blown away by anything we ordered here. Certainly nothing to write home about. Or if you did write home, it would go something like this:

Dear Mom and Dad,
Just wanted to let you know that I had a mediocre meal at this place called Mott. If you are ever in Buenos Aires, I would recommend that you eat dinner somewhere else. If you are forced to eat at Mott, maybe you should just go for the apple crumble, which ironically (for a place called Mott… you know, the applesauce?), is pretty good.

Your loving son,
Michael

After 16 days spent in BA, we are definitely ready for Peru. The Lonely Planet book does a wonderful job of getting one excited about the country. A few snippets:
“While you are unlikely to be physically hurt, travelers do regularly have their belongings stolen and muggings can happen”
“Taxis don’t have meters. You will need to negotiate the fare with them….foreigners will pay more”
“You will likely obtain an infections disease while in Peru. This is normal and you should see symptoms dissipate after 6-9 months”

Awesome. Looking forward to that. Stay sexy.

Yeah, we're moving on up.... to the East Siiiiiiide

Wow, what a different experience the last couple of days have been.

We woke up on our last day in El Calafate and had one of those, 'our flight leaves at 8pm tonight and we have nothing to do for the next 10 hours in this crap town' kind of moments. Luckily (or maybe it was fate? or maybe divine intervention? or maybe the work of Al Qaeda?), we stumbled upon an absolute oasis - the Humus Spa (part of the Hotel Posada Los Alamos). After a long hike and 3 nights of restless sleep we decided we should treat ourselves. Although the massages were not that wonderful (downright mediocre), it didn't matter. We had a great day - got our work out on, got our pool and hot tub on (yeah - nice!). Awesome.

The day just kept getting better. We got to fly FIRST CLASS back to BA. No WONDER the flight was so expensive! This was a first for both Brianna and myself and I can safely say that it is going to be hard to go back to peasant class. The meal we had was actually decent and we got to use real silverware?! Although we didn't get to our hotel until 1am, we were EXTREMELY pleased when we got to our room.

This place is awesome!!! Our room is HUGE and we have a view of the Obelisk and the famous Teatro Colon, which are right across the street - we're staying on '9 de Julio', which is the largest street in all of Argentina - 14+ lanes! The cherry on the top is the pool and gym on the 23rd floor. The views are pretty wonderful.

On our second tour of BA, we have eaten sushi at SushiClub (yum - NO BEEF for a whole day!), had dinner with our friend Gloria at a trendy bar/restaurant called Gran Bar Danzon (food was ok, but the dulce de leche souffle and ice cream were incredible), had drinks at this really cool bar called Milion which is situated in a refurbished 3 story colonial home, AND planned the logistics for the rest of the trip (this took the better part of yesterday)

We are headed to Rio tomorrow for 6 days and then on to Peru/Machu Picchu for the last week of our trip. As we bid Argentina adieu, I present to you the 5 worse smells we encountered:
1) Our room at the Hostel del Glaciar in El Calafate
2) The water surrounding BA (Puerto Madero, La Boca)
3) The dead llama smell at the restaurant/stop between El Calafate and El Chalten (a dog was gnawing on an uncooked leg portion)
4) The Zoo (we ran by here everyday when staying in Palermo)
5) Our bathroom every morning..... remember the commercials, 'beef does a body good'? I am going to have to disagree with that.

Also, 5 random/quirky things about Argentina
a) When you want a drink, you have to first go to the cashier and THEN stand in line and hand your ticket to a bartender (this happens at ice cream places too) - think Soviet Union circa 1985
b) Then when you order a drink, lets say vodka and red bull, you get a glass with vodka in it and a whole can of red bull (unmixed)
c) Everything is in what they call the 'metric' system. I have never heard of this, but it seems very confusing.
d) This is more of a BA thing, but the double l is pronounced 'zh' instead of 'yuh'. We confused more than one cab driver with our pronunciation of 'Callao'.
e) All of the above

The answer is e). Overall, we had a great time. The people have been extremely friendly and tolerant of 2 English-only speaking gringos. Adios to the land of Evita...

Bariloche es muy bueno y mumblio enchiladas....

So much for the posts every couple of days - it has been a busy week! I'm going to try to be a little more diligent in the future.

Brianna and I left the sweltering heat of BA (95 degrees when we left and a heat index of like 350 degrees) and arrived in a small Swiss influenced mountain village called Bariloche. The 'get out in nature and bike/hike/kayak/river raft' portion of our trip was officially underway.

The area surrounding the town is INCREDIBLY beautiful - surrounded by lakes and totally green (pictures to be uploaded at future date - current connection horrible!).

Even though I was pretty sure that I was too old to stay in a hostel, my friend Miriam, Brianna and I decided to book a room at the luxurious MarcoPolo Inn. I haven't really talked about it too much, but everything is dirt cheap down here. It is amazing. Our hostel is not an exception. It's actually pretty nice/clean/free of rats/fun and is $15 per person per night with free breakfast AND dinner. We decided to hit up the free dinner the first night - here is a summary of the contents:
1) One scoop of gruel - I think it was a rice and potato dish? The sauce was kind of a reddish/gray color
2) White bread, one pad of butter
3) Tap water
I had better meals when I was in prison. Needless to say, we ate out most nights in Bariloche.

On Wednesday, we woke up at 7:30am (this is the time that we had been going to SLEEP the previous 7 days) and embarked on our first outdoor/get active activity. Unfortunately for us the weather was extremely sucky. Rainy, cold, it even snowed for about 30 seconds in the morning. YEAH! Totally unprepared for that, as it is SUPPOSED to be in the 70s this time of year. All that said, the hike that we did (ok, it was more of a bus tour) was amazing. We saw the Tronador glaciar (surrounded by no less than 50 waterfalls! FIFTY!) and a couple of other waterfalls up close. Truly incredible. Brianna was mistaken for a movie star for the third time on the trip - one of the Argentinian girls on the trip thought he looked like Tom Green. SWEDISH.

At dinner that evening with our friends Marcel and Lindsey, Miriam was serenaded by a cheesy Argentinian lounge singer. Think Engelbert Humperdink meets Los Lobos. This guy quickly became my hero and my second favorite lounge singer of all time (behind the venerable Michael Parrish, of course).

The next day we rented mountain bikes and rode the Circuito Chico (about 35 kms total). If you are ever in Bariloche, I would highly recommend doing this – get your bikes at Hostel Campanillo. The people are SO nice/cool and after your ride you can warm up by the fireplace, eat delicious snacks and even play the guitar/ping pong/pin the tail on the donkey. The ride had several ridiculous views of the many lakes that surround the area and the Llao Llao golf resort is also on the path. We froze our ass*s off at times, but only got rained on for about 15 minutes. Again, where is the summer weather?!?!? We also spied lots of younger children on the trip and have now determined that if you are male and want to be cool, there are some age group differences:

Ages 7-12: Must wear a beret
Ages 13-45: Must have a mullet

On Friday, we were going to either kayak or do white water rafting, but it was still too cold. Instead, we decided to hike Cerro Catedral…….which we found out is essentially a ski resort…. um, yeah…… so we pretty much walked up a black diamond trail the whole way to the top (1000 meters of climbing). Kind of a crazy (ie stupido) thing to do, but the feeling of accomplishment and the vistas at the top were ‘breathtaking’ and/or ‘much better than CATS’. Even better was the chocolate cake we had at the lodge!

That night (and the night before) we had Italian food/pizza at Ristorante Brava – yum!

Speaking of food, here are some observations on our trip thus far:

• Nearly every restaurant has the same items on their menu
• Beef
• Pasta
• Empanadas
• Ham sandwiches
• Ethnic food is relatively non-existant – although B&I did have one ‘Mexican’ meal in BA that was really delicious (Xalapa)
• Healthy eating not necessarily a concept that has made it to Argentina. Fibrous foods would be great right about…… NOW.
• American brands have weird flavors in Argentina. Examples:
• Gatorade - Green apple protein
• Lays Potato Chips – Ham flavored
• Certs Breath Mints - Chorizo flavored (ok, maybe not)
• Standout items thus far: Steak (of course), gnocchi (which Miriam consumed at nearly every meal), and dulce de leche in MANY different forms
• Quilmes beer is EVERYWHERE (think Budweiser with a different label)

Brianna and I are now sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to El Calafate where we will see huge glaciers and more natural beauty and stuff. We are sad as we just had to bid adieu to the third point of the ‘triangle’ the past few days, Miriam. We will miss her energy, humor, spirit and…………. her ability to speak Spanish! Back to being treated like gringos everywhere we go!!! Ciao for now.

Mullets galore

Yes, BA is sophisticated for South America and yes, it is kind of like Paris..... a very DIRTY Paris (see above). This is the scene at a port right next to a relatively tourist area. And the smoke that the buses emit is unbelievable - I think I might now have the black lung. It's disgusting enough to drive a hybrid owner to say "F*ck it, if this is how the environment is being treated outside the US, I'm getting an SUV".

But more importantly friends, the mullet has made a return.... to the land down under.... where they no speaky American. Oh my gosh, there are a lot of chicas and chicos with mullets here in BA. We've seen the minitruck mullet, the femmemullet, several meximullets and even a rastamullet today. These kids would fit in well in Missouri.

Today we made plans for our Patagonia trip. There are only a few local airlines that fly within the country, so we booked tickets with Aerolinas Argentinas. They have a real convenient system where you book your ticket online and then have to go to their sales office downtown and wait for an hour before getting to pay someone (that also takes nearly an hour). The Swiss could learn from this extreme efficiency.

Brianna and I have learned very little Spanish, but we do at least know what Lil Jon would say if he were here:
"Queeeeeee"
"Esta bieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen"
"Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii"
"Como"

Also, we learned that the Spanish word for diarreah is diarrea. Hasn't struck yet, but always good to know.

In tribute to all of the Argentinian teenagers out there. Ciao for now. Time for dinner (10:30).