Argentina

Fitzroy

Buenos Aires

Argentina is a country of many landscapes. From the lively city of Buenos Aires, the desert beauty of Patagonia, and the wine country of Mendoza, Argentina truly can satisfy all of you senses. Jason put in a last minute bid for an upgrade to business class on Air New Zealand and was quickly informed his offer was rejected. Just before checking in he received a text stating his bid was approved! I didn't know this, of course, and thought nothing of our premium boarding and thought it strange that we turned left instead of right when we entered the plane. I thought, there must be a mix up, we are kinda dirtbags. I looked at Jay and he was smiling. He loves extra leg room. This was luxury. Before sitting we had to move aside our full-sized pillow, blanket and welcome gift bag with socks, lip gloss, tooth brush, tooth paste, ear plugs and eye mask. Overstuffed, wide leather seats with adjustable foot and leg rests were so inviting and made sleeping gloriously comfortable. As soon as we were in the air, the first of many beverage services were offered. We of course chose sparkling New Zealand wine, to be followed by two glasses of New Zealand's best sauvignon blanc with our three course meal. It was one of the best meals we've had on this trip. Breakfast was also served in courses and very filling. The fee to upgrade was nominal and totally worth it, but even without an upgrade we were so impressed with Air New Zealand and highly recommend them.

It's a 12 hour flight from Auckland but the time difference is challenging, basically gaining an entire day. This kicked our butts and we slept for nearly a full day before having energy enough to tour the city. Buenos Aires is about architecture, tango, steak and malbec. Our apartment was centrally located and we enjoyed the free and inexpensive things the city has to offer, touring the MALBA and other, smaller museums. We frequented the San Telmo market and were stunned to see that on Sunday's the market leaks out onto the streets, in a "t" formation, taking up over a mile of the city. This was good fun and we ended up with one purchase, a 35mm camera from the 1970's. We have yet to discover if it works.

Buenos Aires is a huge city with an antiquated metro system, but the bus system is efficient and affordable. The city is divided into sections, all home to unique histories, art, sculpture, dance and architecture. We stayed in the San Telmo area, the oldest neighborhood in the city, defined by the tango, architecture, antique shops and night life. You can find a number of affordable things to do all throughout Buenos Aires including free tango classes, and if you are willing to stand in line for a couple of hours, free opera, orchestra or whatever play is on at the Teatro Colon. We planned to attend one of the free tango classes on Saturday night, in our neighborhood, but then we discovered that it is carnival and one of the numerous parades, taking place throughout the city, would be just down the street. We opted for the parade and hope to learn the tango next time...or at a shady bar in Reno.

We wandered through the artist and immigrant filled area of La Boca and although true to what we had read, it is colorful, but it feels a bit like a tourist trap. All the restaurants offer a tango dancing couple to gawk at, with routines lasting just about as long as it takes you to get the bill and pull out your money. We didn't stay here long, bought an overpriced Sprite and headed back to San Telmo.

La Boca

We did enjoy, however, the La Recoleta Cemetery, the final resting place of Eva Peron (played by Madonna in the movie "Evita'', you know, the one with the eyebrows) and a bunch of other famous people. The cemetery is impressively large, pristinely maintained and sits on prime real estate in the heart of this part of the city. The structures in this cemetery vary from concrete to imported marble. Some have glass doors, a cozy entrance and tightly wound staircases that lead below ground to the layers of coffins. Like a coffin mansion. It's a bit eerie, a bit awesome and totally worth a visit.

La Recoleta Cemetery

When you hear about eating and drinking in Argentina, it's all about beef and Malbec. We were determined to squeeze these palate pleasing treats into our budget and splurged on a $65 meal, which included: a plate full of sausages, a salad, roasted potatoes, a huge rib eye steak and a bottle of Malbec. The portions were ridiculous and we even had leftovers. Everything was fantastic, but this meal was truly about the steak. It's true, Argentina has the best beef in the world. We honestly didn't need a knife to cut it or teeth to chew it. It honestly melted in our mouths. I (Jason) did not want this meal to end and enjoyed sips of Malbec throughout. It wasn't in our budget to replicate this meal, but you best believe that upon our return to Argentina we'll be eating more steak and drinking more Malbec. Our friends from Chile, who we meet in Mendoza, said the beef is so delicious and tender here because they only allow their cows to graze on flat lands. No hills, no ditches, not even a bump. For this reason, the cows stay fat and their meat becomes more tender and oh so tasty.

Buenos Aires has a European feel, including dog poo on the side walks. It's a bit too large for us though and we were excited to get to the mountains. Patagonia was calling!

Patagonia: El Calafate & El Chalten

This is where we belong, in the mountains. Regardless of, or maybe because of, the 120mph winds, rapidly changing weather and desert floor, it's magnificent. We flew into El Calafate, arriving at a small yet state of the art airport, and nothing else. I lied, there's a huge lake, Lago Argentino. There is literally nothing else out here and town is about 9km's away. We jumped in a van and were delivered to the front door of our hostel. Town was just a 5 minute walk from here, as was the lake. Town is cute, similar to Truckee, but larger, with more diverse, less expensive shops, but still quite expensive for our budget. The town reeks of money as evidenced by the pristine public facilities including a beautiful outdoor events arena, several brick roads, landscaping and public toilets. There is one large grocery store and several small ones and most of what you need can be found at the large one, except peanut butter, this does not seem to exist in Argentina. We recommend stocking up on instant coffee, nuts and other hiking foods before heading out to El Chalten where the food choices are extremely limited and more costly.

El Calafate is a beautiful, quaint town (about double the size of Truckee) and is experiencing a boom in construction of homes and hotels. Looking out across the lake you are awed by stunning, drastic snow capped mountains and in your minds eye you may find that you are searching for the famous Perito Moreno glacier (it's worth a Google image search).

View from bus outside El Calafate

There are a number of tour companies offering different ways to experience the glaciers, including hiking on them, crampons included. We planned to take a bus out to the Perito Moreno glacier viewpoint when we returned from El Chalten but the weather did not permit this. We would absolutely recommend checking this out if you find yourself in this part of the world.

From El Calafate you have several choices as to bus companies and times to get to El Chalten, all take about 4 hours. About 3 hours in to the otherwise rather flat, dry and weed covered landscape you see them, the jagged, sharp mountains that Patagonia is famous for. It's breathtaking. Passengers are being shaken awake by their travel partners to get a glimpse and take pictures from the window. Having blue skies is rare, being able to see the mountains from this distance is an honor. Instinctually we say, "thank you, more please."

El Chalten is unique in that it is a town within a national park, Los Glaciares National Park to be exact, therefore entrance to the park is free. This was a huge selling point for us as we weighed our options of coming here versus the more famous Torres del Paine in Chile, which has a daily entrance fee of just under $32, per person. The best way to experience Torre del Paine is by hiking the multi-day "O", "Q" or "W" routes, all required advanced reservations and gear we just didn't have. You can do Torre del Paine via day hikes, but this would require multi-day entry into the park, an expense we simply could not afford. El Chalten is nestled along one side of the Rio de las Vueltas, the other side of the river is home to beautiful, multi-pitch granite, primed for climbing. In the walkable distance behind town are the breathtaking mountains we saw from the bus, Mt Fitzroy and Mt Torre.

El Chalten (view from start of the Mt Fitzroy hike)

You come to El Chalten to hike, or rock climb, or kayak, or all three. We came to hike. The forecast called for rain later in the week so we decided to go big our first day out and headed up to Mt. Fitzroy via the Laguna de Los Tres hike. The hike itself is enjoyable and does not become strenuous until the final 1km, which can not be hiked in rain, snow or wind. We were incredibly lucky to have a beautiful, clear, warm day and went to the top...straight up the side of a mountain, on a trail that from below looks like a guanaca path (like a wild llama, that jumps like a deer).

The path

This is the view from the top...which was inaccessible for the remaining days we were there. Yes, we say "thank you, more please!"

The view

The hike, roundtrip, was about 22kms and took us about eight hours. There are two free camping areas between El Chalten and this view (the first camping area is at the lake pictured in the first photo). Had we packed camping gear and had warmer clothes we would have absolutely opted for this option rather than our shared dorm room. Although our hostel was super nice, with housekeeping, two kitchens and bathrooms that were cleaned several times throughout the night and day.

Laguna de los Tres hike

One of the perks of hiking in Patagonia is that the river and lake water is drinkable, glacier cold and is the most delicious tasting water we have ever drank.

Free refills!!

The next day was windy. As in walking with your body nearly parallel to the ground. As Jason rested his knees I went out for a 5k walk to a waterfall, keeping my mouth shut as to protect my teeth from getting chipped from flying debris, as in rocks. It was worth the risk. The third day it rained but that night, at the community center, we watched a free showing of Reel Rock 11 and I promptly texted my friend Bill, asking him to take me climbing again. It was inspiring and motivating to continue living life to the fullest and to always be challenging our minds and bodies. It was so inspiring I was very nearly able to block out the stench emanating from the oily feet of my neighbor.

The fourth day we hiked to Mt Torre via the Laguna Torre trail, a less dramatically scenic hike, with a more rolling landscape. Man, I made it sound ugly, it's not, it's beautiful, I just preferred the Fitzroy hike. It's about 20kms and took us about 4 hours, round trip. Again, we were blessed with incredibly clear, warm weather, even though we are pictured below in our down jackets.

Mt Torre

Our final day was overcast, with the forecast calling for a week of rain and wind. We hiked the small hill behind the visitors center and were gifted with the sighting of four condors! Even if we could have taken pictures of them, they simply would not have captured their size. These carcass eating scavengers are humongous. We aren't sure if seeing these mega vultures is good luck, but it felt like a good omen. We climbed on the bus feeling fulfilled and grateful and of course saying, "thank you, more please", as the skies darkened and the rain poured down.

Mendoza

Although we were informed by all English speaking personnel at the airport that there was no bus into town, we decided against waiting in the taxi line and instead stood at the vacant bus stop. Soon enough three others joined us at the bus depot, validating our stubbornness and informed us there is in fact a bus that will take us to city center, where our hostel was. The bus driver's do not take cash, they take pre paid bus cards, which are not sold at the airport. So he let us on for free and less than 5 minutes later we were off the bus, waiting for another bus, in a neighborhood without taxi's or information kiosks. So, the three we met at the airport gestured for us to follow them. While on the bus, one broke his shyness and spoke good English, informing us, as the day turned to night, to keep our belonings close and our wits about us. Two hours and 8 km's later we were walking, with our English speaking guide checking on us rigorously, we arrived to our hostel. They left us with the knowledge that this neighborhood isn't to safe at night. We were beyond grateful for them. We never did pay for a bus ride that night. We ate pre-made sandwiches from the gas station next door for dinner, not wanting to stray too far from the hostel.

Mendoza, according to Sheryl, is bland. There is nothing in this city that makes me want to return. I appreciated the fountains filled with red wine,

We fact checked, this is wine!

the mid-sized grocery stores, the guy at the cell phone repair shop telling me to wait until I got to Chile because it would be at least half price there, the proximity of our hostel to the main bus station and a/c in our room, but Mendoza is just dull. If we were to return to Mendoza I would stay out of the city, in the wine country, Maipu or one of the other three wine regions. But even Maipu is a bit of a disappointment to me. It's dirty. It smells in some parts. But it produces some delicious wines and does have pockets of beauty and some stunning wineries.

From the city center it takes about 1 1/2 hours, by local bus, to get to Maipu. We were greeted by an adorable 19-year-old who spoke impeccable English and after listening to his friendly and playful schpeel about his employer, Maipu Bikes, we learned that he had grown up in Los Angeles, California and had only been in Argentina for about six years. He misses California and I think California misses him, he's just got that Cali vibe. We were in agreement to use his services and followed him to the office, rented two bikes,

learned about all the wineries, distilleries, affordable places to eat, were given a map, two bottled waters (in recycled and reusable plastic bottles) and invited to join them between 5:00 and 6:00 for free appetizers and a taste of their own wine, which wasn't too bad. They also brewed their own beer.

We visited a total of three wineries and one distillery and had our best meal outside of Buenos Aires at the first winery, Tempus Alba. Their wine was okay, our favorite being their cabernet sauvignon, but their food was delightful.

Our favorite winery was Bodega Artesenal Vina el Cerno, a family owned and run organic winery. We enjoyed a tour and learning about their unique and inspiring approach to wine making. The most interesting part of the tour were their cellars.

The cellars' stained walls

Cement walls stained red with crystalized ceilings from years, decades of storing wine in the early 1900's (by the previous owner). We bought an incredibly delicious and shockingly affordable bottle of Malbec. Their wines were so delicious we tried to figure out how to carry a case with us, or ship it home. The cost for a case of wine would have been less than $75, shipping to the States would have been $275!

Do yourself a favor, if you ever see any of these wines, buy a bottle, or 12! We tasted 5, not all shown, which included: Wayna 2011 Malbec, Vina el Cerno Malbec and extra brut special edition (a sparkling chardonnay and pinot noir blend).

We veered off the beaten track and stopped in for a few sips of spirits at Tierra de Lobo and enjoyed three tasty, vastly different, bourbon and pisco's and delicious conversation with the Swiss owner.

He's telling me that bus drivers make more than most doctors.

Visiting the wineries and distillery in Maipu were the highlight of our time in Mendoza. I haven't spoken too highly of Mendoza as a whole, but that would not stop me from returning to get out into the wine country and indulge in the products of many talented vintners.

While in Mendoza our dulce de leche was stolen from the communal refrigerator. We overheard another couple talking with staff that some of their items had gone missing as well. While commiserating, staff found their items in a locked staff refrigerator and returned them to their rightful owners. Ours was never found, but this incident brought two amazingly kind, generous and intelligent people into our lives, who we meet up with in Santiago, their home town. Before they left to return home, they presented us with a wrapped gift...dulce de leche, in a glass jar even, a total upgrade from what we had been indulging in. Thank you, more please!