El Bolson, where we´re leaving from now, is a very lovable place. The mountains are beautiful, it´s extremely safe and the people are kind. Pciture a quaint, cozy little town, lots of hippies and families, flanked by mountains and rolling hills of farmland. There are lots of things I will miss about the farm, Reko, and El Bolson.
We´ve left the farm two weeks earlier than planned and are headed north to Cordoba where were applying to some more farms for more wwoofing work. We´re camping in the same campground as before and leave on a 26 hour bus ride tomorrow morning.
We are at peace with our decision not to go to southern Argentina to the really wild part of Patagonia. We just can´t afford the cost of getting there and doing stuff and to do so would make us risk coming home early. Recent acquaintances arriving from there confirm it´s expensive and still very cold down there, so we´ll just have to come back another time.
The community of El Bolson is in a terrible state of alarm. Less than 30km out of town, Cerro (Mt) Perito Moreno ski hill is on the cusp of major transformation. Currently it´s a modest little ski hill, nothing to it really, but massive development is imminent. Reko is down the hill from the ski hill, about an hour´s hike away. All their water comes from an underground spring on the mountain, as does the rest of the homes and farms in the immediate hamlets of Mallin Ahogado and Wharton. The plans are a massive golf course, and extensive gated community for the ultra-wealthy, complete with private helicopter pads. Projected water usage would be six times what the town of El Bolson uses, population 27k, for the golf course and gated community combined. Public opinion is that the development will impact the identity, spirit and atmosphere of El Bolson, and compromise the abundance and purity of its (delicious, prisitine) water. Of course the people in favor are using the tired refrain that "the hippies don´t want progress".
There have been numerous demonstrations against it and today the town council has begun the voting process to be concluded at the end of the week. We swung by the demonstration at the town hall today. There is an occupation in place, with several tents and a bunch of tethered sheep and about a hundred people. It broke my heart, I teared up with empathy for the people around me. As we were leaving to come use this internet cafe pesos were being gathered by someone towards the preparation of food for the occupants.
A fervent discussion was volleying around the crowd, but peaceful. Beautiful raven haired men and women, with the lined and healthy faces of people who spend lots of time outside. Plenty of dreadlocks, tattoos and drums, children and pets. The omnipresent yerba mate being consumed all around, thermoses of hot water and mate gourds in people hands. It is evident that in addition to being consumed throughout the day as is tea and coffee, it´s soothing. To quote my new from Kierian, a wwoofer at the farm, Mate isn´t a beverage, it´s a lifestyle.
I will be checking back to find out what the outcome will be, to build or not to build, because I´ve become very attached to the area.
As for Reko, after my grumpy blog entry last week...Our experience improved a lot. I´m finally healthy, after three weeks of a nasty cold. I´m sure it impacted my experience at the farm, as my favorite days there were the last few that we were there. Reko is a massive property, there´s lots to do, but not enough organization and structure to how and when it´s getting done, and we both craved order to the madness. Initially they were going to buy a few acres but it was so cheap that they bought 250. Lots of houses in various states of construction to work on, and the garden are the main tasks at hand.
Things I will miss, in no particular order.
Our fellow WWOOF volunteers, we all became good friends. Kierian, Alex, Miriam, Emma and Karin. The girls came into town to eat last night so we got have some pitchers of local artisanal beer (not bad, but nowhere near as good as our Canadian craft beers) and some nice food with them.
The magnificent garden that needs a lot of attention at this stage...I have reaffirmed for myself that I love to tend a garden and have no trouble weeding, organizing and maintaining for days on end.
The lovely dogs, Princessa, Chiquita and Benga. They reminded me of Meadow, for those of you who knew her. Princessa the mom, Chiquita and Benga from the same litter. Mostly a lab-shepherd mix of mutt, I believe. Super affectionate, smart and disciplined, they were only outdoor dogs and it broke our heart that we couldn´t bring them in to sleep on our bed!
Paula´s incandescent smile.
The view of the mountains and the delicious water.
The velvety raw organic milk we´d obtain from a tiny German dairy farm 2km away on Tuesdays.
I admit I continued to have a lot of trouble with those children. 1.5 year old Rio biting my legs under the table when I´m eating, giving hard pinches at random moments because he´s just learned that he can. He is quite sick with a perpetually runny nose of green slime and terrible cough and moderately infected eyes, and is usually covered in dirt from playing outside, and has realized that an efficient means of cleaning his face is to walk up to people and smear his face all over your pants leaving a revolting scab of slime and dirt all over your shin. He can be sweet at times, but he´s usually rather gross, and no one seems to mind that he´s quite ill.
The middle son, Lao is a little tyrant and can be hysterical to watch. He usually is out of his clothes within a few hours. He´s fearless anf funny and vicious to his brothers. Aside from snooping in other people´s stuff he´s not so bad. The eldest, Apolo, is awesome whenever he´s not around his brothers. Inquisitive and nice, he transforms into a horrendous heartless bully around his brothers, and beats the crap out of both of them. He also undergoes quite the Jeckyll and Hyde transformation when his parents are not around. When the three of them are together there is a constant soundtrack of howling and crying that got to be really tedious. They all have really scary sounding coughs.
Our laundry is done, our bus is booked. WWOOF emails sent to a few farms in Northern Argentina. We´re both mostly healthy, Nate´s minor version of my cold is mostly gone, too. We´re going to get some tasty chorizo sausages and barbecue them at our campsite later, and pack a bunch of food for our big bus ride. Our bus is at 11am tomorrow.
It´s Eryn´s birthday! Call her and give her the love!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Reko
Settled in at the farm!
At the moment we´re in El Bolson for our weekend and quick reunion in a campground with Jon, Lis, Sarah and now Angus McPhail, too. I love that we all managed to reconnect again.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and we walked the 4km to where the local rural transport bus (el Colectivo) picked us up and brought us to town. We tracked everyone down at the campground and cooked dinner and hung out around our fire and had a fantastic time. It´s great to see everyone again. Today is windy and cold and we´ll head back to the farm this evening sometime.
The farm is crazy. We´re living in a house with a bunch of WWOOFers and getting into some sort of rhythm. There is not a lot of structure to our days and there is a fair bit of chaos as part of the house is under renovation, the shower room. The people running the farm are Paula and Gerard, wild happy hippies with three out-of-control boys Apollo (age 10, Lao (age 4) and Rio (age 1.5) Gerard´s two brothers are in Italy and Leo should arrive sometime this week and Gabriel near the end of our stay.
We have a nice eclectic group of people living with us. Kierian and Alex are fresh out of high school, small town Colorado boys and are hilarious and hardworking and fun. Miriam is from Bologna, Italy, and Karen and Emma are from Stockholm, Sweden. More people are arriving continuously. This isn´t a farm that brings anything to market, just a collective of people living as sustainably as possible and bringing in volunteers for the last few years to help develop the 250 acre property. We do things like cut down brush and trees, work on the buildings, weed the massive vegetable garden, and naturally Nate and I have been relegated to much kitchen duty to feed the crowd.
Our kitchen is cozy and cluttered, with no refrigeration and our only oven is a beautiful brick wood fired oven outside, which we are learning to use. What a learning curve! It´s so hard to read its temperature. We have a living roof on the building, solar panels, and straw and mud insulated walls and it´s cozy warm inside. Outhouse and to shower we heat water with a fire under a water tank.
My lack of spanish is a handicap, I really wish I was further along... the others have fairly workable spanish and Nate´s is significantly better than mine but Paula´s english is limited and we struggle to understand each other.
So far my impression of the farm is so-so...and I´m trying to give it a proper chance. It´s a beautiful place, and there´s lots of nice people, but we wish there was a little more structure and clarity about what needs doing. After Sarah Delong´s glowing stories of her 10 days on another farm nearby, one where they do not ask for any financial contribution (we´re paying 80 pesos a week, the equivalent of about $20 dollars, towards food) I´m feeling kind of lukewarm. A factor is the kids, who I feel need some disciplining and limits and maybe some chores, they drive me pretty crazy. They´re underfoot a lot and seem to use tormenting the volunteers as a primary source of entertainment. I´m sure my health is a factor in my general experience there, but if I don´t like it more after another week I´m temped to bail early.
I went to the doctor here in El Bolson yesterday to address the gross cold I´ve had for 10 days that won´t leave. My cough just doesn´t seem to be changing. My experience in emergency at this tiny hospital was excellent and I was astonished it was free, I didn´t need to file an insurance claim. Anyway, she was confident that it´s still just a bad viral cold, that it hasn´t progressed to bronchitis and that it´s nearing its end. I´m just to take medicine for my symptoms and be patient but that if I develop a fever to come back.
Hopefully when I´m healthier my patience will improve and I´ll like the experience on the farm more... it´s hard to explain what doesn´t feel right, Nate is more enthusiastic but also not totally happy. It has nothing to do with living conditions, I can deal with roughing it just fine, but the chaos and confusion are tedious. I think the kids driving me nuts.
We are concerned we can´t afford to go to the deep south of Patagonia. It´s well documented that the prices just increase the further south we go, and we´ve already pretty much blown our budget for Argentina already. This is not due to extravagance at all, quite the contrary -we buy nothing but necessities, stay in the cheapest hostels we can find and do most of our own cooking. Backpackers around us are in the same boat, overwhelmed by the costs of being here. I´m told it´s comparable to Europe. This seems to be recent, Argentina has had 30% inflation in the last year. Prices are much, much higher than our guidebooks, and although we are both disappointed at the prospect of skipping the south it might be the most realistic choice. It will always be there and we´ll just have to come back another time, with more money. There are lots of good times to be had in Peru, Bolivia and maybe Colombia where our daily costs will be less than half of what they are here. So a tentative plan is to head north to Bolivia as soon as we´re done at the farm.
OH I´m seconds from being out of time on this computer. I´ll write again when I can. No time to proofread, hope it´s not a mess!
At the moment we´re in El Bolson for our weekend and quick reunion in a campground with Jon, Lis, Sarah and now Angus McPhail, too. I love that we all managed to reconnect again.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and we walked the 4km to where the local rural transport bus (el Colectivo) picked us up and brought us to town. We tracked everyone down at the campground and cooked dinner and hung out around our fire and had a fantastic time. It´s great to see everyone again. Today is windy and cold and we´ll head back to the farm this evening sometime.
The farm is crazy. We´re living in a house with a bunch of WWOOFers and getting into some sort of rhythm. There is not a lot of structure to our days and there is a fair bit of chaos as part of the house is under renovation, the shower room. The people running the farm are Paula and Gerard, wild happy hippies with three out-of-control boys Apollo (age 10, Lao (age 4) and Rio (age 1.5) Gerard´s two brothers are in Italy and Leo should arrive sometime this week and Gabriel near the end of our stay.
We have a nice eclectic group of people living with us. Kierian and Alex are fresh out of high school, small town Colorado boys and are hilarious and hardworking and fun. Miriam is from Bologna, Italy, and Karen and Emma are from Stockholm, Sweden. More people are arriving continuously. This isn´t a farm that brings anything to market, just a collective of people living as sustainably as possible and bringing in volunteers for the last few years to help develop the 250 acre property. We do things like cut down brush and trees, work on the buildings, weed the massive vegetable garden, and naturally Nate and I have been relegated to much kitchen duty to feed the crowd.
Our kitchen is cozy and cluttered, with no refrigeration and our only oven is a beautiful brick wood fired oven outside, which we are learning to use. What a learning curve! It´s so hard to read its temperature. We have a living roof on the building, solar panels, and straw and mud insulated walls and it´s cozy warm inside. Outhouse and to shower we heat water with a fire under a water tank.
My lack of spanish is a handicap, I really wish I was further along... the others have fairly workable spanish and Nate´s is significantly better than mine but Paula´s english is limited and we struggle to understand each other.
So far my impression of the farm is so-so...and I´m trying to give it a proper chance. It´s a beautiful place, and there´s lots of nice people, but we wish there was a little more structure and clarity about what needs doing. After Sarah Delong´s glowing stories of her 10 days on another farm nearby, one where they do not ask for any financial contribution (we´re paying 80 pesos a week, the equivalent of about $20 dollars, towards food) I´m feeling kind of lukewarm. A factor is the kids, who I feel need some disciplining and limits and maybe some chores, they drive me pretty crazy. They´re underfoot a lot and seem to use tormenting the volunteers as a primary source of entertainment. I´m sure my health is a factor in my general experience there, but if I don´t like it more after another week I´m temped to bail early.
I went to the doctor here in El Bolson yesterday to address the gross cold I´ve had for 10 days that won´t leave. My cough just doesn´t seem to be changing. My experience in emergency at this tiny hospital was excellent and I was astonished it was free, I didn´t need to file an insurance claim. Anyway, she was confident that it´s still just a bad viral cold, that it hasn´t progressed to bronchitis and that it´s nearing its end. I´m just to take medicine for my symptoms and be patient but that if I develop a fever to come back.
Hopefully when I´m healthier my patience will improve and I´ll like the experience on the farm more... it´s hard to explain what doesn´t feel right, Nate is more enthusiastic but also not totally happy. It has nothing to do with living conditions, I can deal with roughing it just fine, but the chaos and confusion are tedious. I think the kids driving me nuts.
We are concerned we can´t afford to go to the deep south of Patagonia. It´s well documented that the prices just increase the further south we go, and we´ve already pretty much blown our budget for Argentina already. This is not due to extravagance at all, quite the contrary -we buy nothing but necessities, stay in the cheapest hostels we can find and do most of our own cooking. Backpackers around us are in the same boat, overwhelmed by the costs of being here. I´m told it´s comparable to Europe. This seems to be recent, Argentina has had 30% inflation in the last year. Prices are much, much higher than our guidebooks, and although we are both disappointed at the prospect of skipping the south it might be the most realistic choice. It will always be there and we´ll just have to come back another time, with more money. There are lots of good times to be had in Peru, Bolivia and maybe Colombia where our daily costs will be less than half of what they are here. So a tentative plan is to head north to Bolivia as soon as we´re done at the farm.
OH I´m seconds from being out of time on this computer. I´ll write again when I can. No time to proofread, hope it´s not a mess!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
El Bolson
My first impressions of El Bolson are very favourable.
Using Canadian cities as examples, it´s perhaps how I imagine Canmore, Alberta was 75 years ago, fused with Saltspring Island, BC. Nestled between two bands of mountains in a wide valley, there are peaks on all sides. Outside of the mellow town, winding country roads are peppered with adorable family farms, little hippy hobby farms, no big industrial production farms at all. Plenty of gates made from foraged treefall, cluttered gardens with random rocking chairs in the middle of them, dogs everywhere. The town has lots of artisanal breweries and incredible ice cream. Nate´s ice cream cone yesterday was cinnamon ice cream with a ribbon of crushed raspberries that had been macerated in malbec wine. I chose passionfruit and raspberry.
We were just wandering the weekly craft fair and it was the spitting image of the Ganges Saturday market. Lots of hippy jewelry, pottery, soaps, jam, knitted stuff, wooden crafts, food. We bought a jar of delicious pine mushroom compote from mushrooms foraged nearby. Instead of chopping the onions and mushrooms finely there´s tasty ribbons of caramelized onions and big chunks of mushrooms. I also ate the best empanadas I´ve had so far on this trip.
The last few days the air and sky have been dazzling crystal clear, but today the wind has shifted and there is a thick haze of particulate. We´ve just been told that this is a common occurence lately due to remaining airborne ash from the volcanic eruption at Mount Hudson in Chile on October 28th.
Yesterday Nate and I went on a hike up one of the mountains to see a waterfall, which turned out to be spectacular. Our hike was just shy of 20km and we had a great day together. Our trail came out on a boring gravel road and we were still a solid four or five kilometers from town so we hitchhiked and a lovely woman picked us up in her battered farmtruck. Plump and glowing with a deep leathery tan and a wide smile, I´d say she looked about sixty. She spoke no English and our Spanish is minimal but we chatted and she took us to the edge of town. The back of her truck was full of wooden trays of honeycomb evidently being taken somewhere for processing.
For the moment we are hanging out at our hostel, Refugio Patagonico, waiting to hear back from our farm with the directions to get there...they are expecting us today or tomorrow. If ever we don´t make it to the farm today we´ll camp another night. The climate is ideal for me - the days are hot and sunny, in the upper 20 degrees, and the nights cool, around 4-6 degrees. I felt a huge wave of relief to be out of big cities, it´s so nice here. We´re both really excited to meet the Barrio family. We´ll be living with three brothers, one of whom is married to a woman named Paula, their two children, four dogs and four cats. We´ll be living with up to four other WWOOF volunteers in an adobe house.
And contact has just been made! A taxi to the farm will cost us less than $10, so off we go.
Using Canadian cities as examples, it´s perhaps how I imagine Canmore, Alberta was 75 years ago, fused with Saltspring Island, BC. Nestled between two bands of mountains in a wide valley, there are peaks on all sides. Outside of the mellow town, winding country roads are peppered with adorable family farms, little hippy hobby farms, no big industrial production farms at all. Plenty of gates made from foraged treefall, cluttered gardens with random rocking chairs in the middle of them, dogs everywhere. The town has lots of artisanal breweries and incredible ice cream. Nate´s ice cream cone yesterday was cinnamon ice cream with a ribbon of crushed raspberries that had been macerated in malbec wine. I chose passionfruit and raspberry.
We were just wandering the weekly craft fair and it was the spitting image of the Ganges Saturday market. Lots of hippy jewelry, pottery, soaps, jam, knitted stuff, wooden crafts, food. We bought a jar of delicious pine mushroom compote from mushrooms foraged nearby. Instead of chopping the onions and mushrooms finely there´s tasty ribbons of caramelized onions and big chunks of mushrooms. I also ate the best empanadas I´ve had so far on this trip.
The last few days the air and sky have been dazzling crystal clear, but today the wind has shifted and there is a thick haze of particulate. We´ve just been told that this is a common occurence lately due to remaining airborne ash from the volcanic eruption at Mount Hudson in Chile on October 28th.
Yesterday Nate and I went on a hike up one of the mountains to see a waterfall, which turned out to be spectacular. Our hike was just shy of 20km and we had a great day together. Our trail came out on a boring gravel road and we were still a solid four or five kilometers from town so we hitchhiked and a lovely woman picked us up in her battered farmtruck. Plump and glowing with a deep leathery tan and a wide smile, I´d say she looked about sixty. She spoke no English and our Spanish is minimal but we chatted and she took us to the edge of town. The back of her truck was full of wooden trays of honeycomb evidently being taken somewhere for processing.
For the moment we are hanging out at our hostel, Refugio Patagonico, waiting to hear back from our farm with the directions to get there...they are expecting us today or tomorrow. If ever we don´t make it to the farm today we´ll camp another night. The climate is ideal for me - the days are hot and sunny, in the upper 20 degrees, and the nights cool, around 4-6 degrees. I felt a huge wave of relief to be out of big cities, it´s so nice here. We´re both really excited to meet the Barrio family. We´ll be living with three brothers, one of whom is married to a woman named Paula, their two children, four dogs and four cats. We´ll be living with up to four other WWOOF volunteers in an adobe house.
And contact has just been made! A taxi to the farm will cost us less than $10, so off we go.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Mendoza done, heading down south!
Why, hello!
So after a few days of exploring Buenos Aires we boarded a 16 hour night bus to the city of Mendoza. We´ve spent four nights in Mendoza and today we´re killing time to catch another night bus tonight. This 20 hour ride down south will take us into Patagonia, Rio Negro province. Jon is headed to Bariloche, and Nate and I are going a few hours further south to El Bolson. El Bolson is the city nearest to the farm where we´ll be living for the next month. We´re expected at the farm on the 15th or 16th so we´ll go explore the area for a couple days before we settle in at the farm.
To recap the last few days...
Mendoza province produces 70% of Argentina´s wine and is known for its olives and honey. Our main objectives here were exploring wineries, drinking wine and visiting Aconcagua Provincial Park to hike in the vicinity of Aconcagua, the tallest peak in the world outside the Himalayas at topping out at 6962m.
Our bus ride to Mendoza from BA was totally comfortable - bus travel is the main mode of intercity travel in South America so the quality is generally excellent. We only paid about an extra $15 to get executive class...we were on the top level of a two-tier bus in the front row, and the view was fantastic. Two meals were served, wine, a nice liqueur and a movie. The seats recline to nearly flat, and you get a pillow and a blanket and we slept well.
Our hostel is comfy and it was a really nice place to stay for the 4 nights we were in Mendoza. It has a wine theme, and in addition to a free glass of malbec every day there´s been free activities we´ve enjoyed, inlcuding a proper initiation to Yerba Mate. How it´s prepared, the social customs surrounding it, the different styles. Mate is all around us, and it´s to understand it now.
Despite the fact that it´s very hot here, and it feels like summer to us, it gets much, much hotter in January and February. It´s actually only early spring. Despite knowing this we were disappointed to learn that Aconcagua park isn´t open at all until mid-December. Completely closed. So we did not get to see this famous mountain. Guided expeditions are easily hired to climb it, it´s considered a very approachable non-technical climb that usually takes 15-18 days, to the tune of $2500 or so, but people don´t go near it for a while yet. We had hoped to go on a day hike in the park to get a glimpse. This was disappointing, but we just had to roll with it and there wasn´t too much pouting because we know there will be lots of really exciting mountain fun in the months to come.
We took a trip to the township of Maipu about 45 minutes out of town to explore wineries on bikes. There´s lots of bike rental companies and it´s the best way to visit wineries and all the wineries are set up for informal tastings throughout the day. We drank a lot of nice wine that day, but the most memorable wine for me of the day was a malbec rose from Tempus Alba. Don´t get me wrong, there are countless excellent malbecs, syrahs and cab sauvs around here, but that rose just blew me away.
The city of Mendoza is really mellow for a city of 2.5 million. As with Buenos Aires it´s very green and completely walkable and we´ve spent days just meandering, eating food, reading books, visiting markets and drinking wine. To keep costs under control as best we can we´ve been cooking most meals in our hostel, which has a very pleasant airy kitchen to cook in. While transportation is not cheap, groceries aren´t bad at all and you can get a perfectly respectable bottle of wine for under $5. We also haven´t had a whole lot of time to cook for enjoyment alone in the last little while and it´s been really nice to shop in the local market and cook in the hostel.
We did splurge on a traditional Argentinean asado (BBQ). Roberto the asado chef comes to this hostel twice a week and does a huge spread of beef and chorizo sausage on a massive charcoal asado grill and we loved it. Everything is served family style. He served really simple accompaniments - empanadas to start, and potatoes, salad, chimichurri sauce (his has tomato added) and plenty of wine. I haven´t been eating a lot of red meat in the last couple years, but Argentinean grass-fed beef is delicious and it´s hard to avoid in this highly carnivourous country.
When we were in Buenos Aires we went to a traditional family parilla restaurant when we were still with Sarah and Lis. These are quintessential to eating out in this country, and we had to experience a good one together. El Desnivel was recommended by our hostel and it was everything I hoped for - bright and jolly and loud, with lots of big tables and cheerful service. We really didn´t know what to order, it was kind of baffling, but when the (completely patient) server explained that a whole beef tenderloin can be ordered for a group with salad and potatoes we had to do it. If I weren´t writing from such a painfully slow connection I would upload some photos, including this magnificent giant steak. It came to 320 pesos, so close to $80. Served uncarved on a giant platter surrounded by simple potatoes, roasted peppers and onions, and a big mess of salad. (lettuce, beets and carrots). Without question the best steak-eating experience of my life.
We´ve had our fill of Mendoza and are excited to see the mountains. El Bolson is known as the hippie enclave of Argentina, surrounded by the mountains and known for beautiful fruit and vegetable farms, trout and good local beer. The farm is 24 km from town so we´ll camp in town, get a sense of the area and then head to the farm!
So after a few days of exploring Buenos Aires we boarded a 16 hour night bus to the city of Mendoza. We´ve spent four nights in Mendoza and today we´re killing time to catch another night bus tonight. This 20 hour ride down south will take us into Patagonia, Rio Negro province. Jon is headed to Bariloche, and Nate and I are going a few hours further south to El Bolson. El Bolson is the city nearest to the farm where we´ll be living for the next month. We´re expected at the farm on the 15th or 16th so we´ll go explore the area for a couple days before we settle in at the farm.
To recap the last few days...
Mendoza province produces 70% of Argentina´s wine and is known for its olives and honey. Our main objectives here were exploring wineries, drinking wine and visiting Aconcagua Provincial Park to hike in the vicinity of Aconcagua, the tallest peak in the world outside the Himalayas at topping out at 6962m.
Our bus ride to Mendoza from BA was totally comfortable - bus travel is the main mode of intercity travel in South America so the quality is generally excellent. We only paid about an extra $15 to get executive class...we were on the top level of a two-tier bus in the front row, and the view was fantastic. Two meals were served, wine, a nice liqueur and a movie. The seats recline to nearly flat, and you get a pillow and a blanket and we slept well.
Our hostel is comfy and it was a really nice place to stay for the 4 nights we were in Mendoza. It has a wine theme, and in addition to a free glass of malbec every day there´s been free activities we´ve enjoyed, inlcuding a proper initiation to Yerba Mate. How it´s prepared, the social customs surrounding it, the different styles. Mate is all around us, and it´s to understand it now.
Despite the fact that it´s very hot here, and it feels like summer to us, it gets much, much hotter in January and February. It´s actually only early spring. Despite knowing this we were disappointed to learn that Aconcagua park isn´t open at all until mid-December. Completely closed. So we did not get to see this famous mountain. Guided expeditions are easily hired to climb it, it´s considered a very approachable non-technical climb that usually takes 15-18 days, to the tune of $2500 or so, but people don´t go near it for a while yet. We had hoped to go on a day hike in the park to get a glimpse. This was disappointing, but we just had to roll with it and there wasn´t too much pouting because we know there will be lots of really exciting mountain fun in the months to come.
We took a trip to the township of Maipu about 45 minutes out of town to explore wineries on bikes. There´s lots of bike rental companies and it´s the best way to visit wineries and all the wineries are set up for informal tastings throughout the day. We drank a lot of nice wine that day, but the most memorable wine for me of the day was a malbec rose from Tempus Alba. Don´t get me wrong, there are countless excellent malbecs, syrahs and cab sauvs around here, but that rose just blew me away.
The city of Mendoza is really mellow for a city of 2.5 million. As with Buenos Aires it´s very green and completely walkable and we´ve spent days just meandering, eating food, reading books, visiting markets and drinking wine. To keep costs under control as best we can we´ve been cooking most meals in our hostel, which has a very pleasant airy kitchen to cook in. While transportation is not cheap, groceries aren´t bad at all and you can get a perfectly respectable bottle of wine for under $5. We also haven´t had a whole lot of time to cook for enjoyment alone in the last little while and it´s been really nice to shop in the local market and cook in the hostel.
We did splurge on a traditional Argentinean asado (BBQ). Roberto the asado chef comes to this hostel twice a week and does a huge spread of beef and chorizo sausage on a massive charcoal asado grill and we loved it. Everything is served family style. He served really simple accompaniments - empanadas to start, and potatoes, salad, chimichurri sauce (his has tomato added) and plenty of wine. I haven´t been eating a lot of red meat in the last couple years, but Argentinean grass-fed beef is delicious and it´s hard to avoid in this highly carnivourous country.
When we were in Buenos Aires we went to a traditional family parilla restaurant when we were still with Sarah and Lis. These are quintessential to eating out in this country, and we had to experience a good one together. El Desnivel was recommended by our hostel and it was everything I hoped for - bright and jolly and loud, with lots of big tables and cheerful service. We really didn´t know what to order, it was kind of baffling, but when the (completely patient) server explained that a whole beef tenderloin can be ordered for a group with salad and potatoes we had to do it. If I weren´t writing from such a painfully slow connection I would upload some photos, including this magnificent giant steak. It came to 320 pesos, so close to $80. Served uncarved on a giant platter surrounded by simple potatoes, roasted peppers and onions, and a big mess of salad. (lettuce, beets and carrots). Without question the best steak-eating experience of my life.
We´ve had our fill of Mendoza and are excited to see the mountains. El Bolson is known as the hippie enclave of Argentina, surrounded by the mountains and known for beautiful fruit and vegetable farms, trout and good local beer. The farm is 24 km from town so we´ll camp in town, get a sense of the area and then head to the farm!
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Day 3 in Buenos Aires!
We are here, and we love it! We thought we were arriving in spring but we´re pleasantly surprised that it´s HOT! Our 3 flights to get here were unremarkable and we were surprisingly rested and ready to get out there when we arrived in the morning a on Thursday.
Buenos Aires is a seriously cool city, and so big. The streets are wide and leafy, and the architecture very beautiful. It´s surprisingly pleasant and walkable for a bustling city of 10 million people. Easy to navigate, clean and shady. It feels how I imagine Havana would be if it had never been left to decay, crossed with NYC. It also feels very safe- as with any big city there are neighbourhoods to avoid and our hostel staff explained where to avoid right when we arrived. So far we´ve really just been exploring and getting our bearings. We took a big touristy double decker bus tour which was actually really helpful to get a sense of geography here. It´s a 48 hour hop on/hop off-style ticket so today we´re going to get back on and visit the famous cemetery, and search out the big central city market for some culinary loveliness, and the five of us will make a big feast for dinner in our hostel kitchen.
Our hostel is an 1850s mansion opened and run by a collective of artists. It´s big and spacious and organized, clean and comfortable and every single wall is covered in paintings and murals. There´s a big comfortable rooftop terrace. They put out a really nice breakfast spread every morning that´s included in our stay.
www.artfactoryba.com.ar
The timing fell into place that Nate and I arrived here at the same time as our Lake O´hara friends Jon Brandt (with whom I went to Asia with last year), Lis Trotter and Sarah Delong. We´re all headed in different directions, various treks and different WWOOF farms in a few days, but it´s been really fun to arrive and explore BA together. We´re hoping to reconnect and cross paths again periodically.
Buenos Aires is a little expensive for our backpacker budgets, and as we all have long trips ahead of us we´re cooking at least one meal a day in the cute hostel kitchen. To put it in perspective you can still get a beautiful bottle of wine for under $5, and groceries are cheap, but eating out adds up quickly. The standard snack of an empanada is about a dollar. This is an AMAZING city to shop in, so it´s a good thing my backpack is too full to buy anything!!
We are NOT on the Buenos Aires schedule yet. Locals commonly eat dinner between 9 and 11pm, and going out to a concert, going dancing or seeing a tango show usually starts well after midnight. A really fantastic band played at our hostel last night and we´re going to their show at a jazz bar tonight, and as they are scheduled to play around 1am we´ll have a few cafe con leches before we go!
We plan to leave BA on Monday and our next destination is Mendoza, the main winery province where 70% of Argentinas wine is produced. Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas is also there. After a few days of winery tours and hiking we continue to the farm we will be living and working at for a month. The farm is 24km out of El Bolson, well into the region of Patagonia!
Buenos Aires is a seriously cool city, and so big. The streets are wide and leafy, and the architecture very beautiful. It´s surprisingly pleasant and walkable for a bustling city of 10 million people. Easy to navigate, clean and shady. It feels how I imagine Havana would be if it had never been left to decay, crossed with NYC. It also feels very safe- as with any big city there are neighbourhoods to avoid and our hostel staff explained where to avoid right when we arrived. So far we´ve really just been exploring and getting our bearings. We took a big touristy double decker bus tour which was actually really helpful to get a sense of geography here. It´s a 48 hour hop on/hop off-style ticket so today we´re going to get back on and visit the famous cemetery, and search out the big central city market for some culinary loveliness, and the five of us will make a big feast for dinner in our hostel kitchen.
Our hostel is an 1850s mansion opened and run by a collective of artists. It´s big and spacious and organized, clean and comfortable and every single wall is covered in paintings and murals. There´s a big comfortable rooftop terrace. They put out a really nice breakfast spread every morning that´s included in our stay.
www.artfactoryba.com.ar
The timing fell into place that Nate and I arrived here at the same time as our Lake O´hara friends Jon Brandt (with whom I went to Asia with last year), Lis Trotter and Sarah Delong. We´re all headed in different directions, various treks and different WWOOF farms in a few days, but it´s been really fun to arrive and explore BA together. We´re hoping to reconnect and cross paths again periodically.
Buenos Aires is a little expensive for our backpacker budgets, and as we all have long trips ahead of us we´re cooking at least one meal a day in the cute hostel kitchen. To put it in perspective you can still get a beautiful bottle of wine for under $5, and groceries are cheap, but eating out adds up quickly. The standard snack of an empanada is about a dollar. This is an AMAZING city to shop in, so it´s a good thing my backpack is too full to buy anything!!
We are NOT on the Buenos Aires schedule yet. Locals commonly eat dinner between 9 and 11pm, and going out to a concert, going dancing or seeing a tango show usually starts well after midnight. A really fantastic band played at our hostel last night and we´re going to their show at a jazz bar tonight, and as they are scheduled to play around 1am we´ll have a few cafe con leches before we go!
We plan to leave BA on Monday and our next destination is Mendoza, the main winery province where 70% of Argentinas wine is produced. Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas is also there. After a few days of winery tours and hiking we continue to the farm we will be living and working at for a month. The farm is 24km out of El Bolson, well into the region of Patagonia!
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